MBB: Commonwealth Conference

[Stretch4]

Curious ... does anyone have any insight on Eastern? They were pre-season choice to win the MAC Commonwealth, went 7-4 in non-conference including wins over Roanoke, Hopkins, and Salisbury, and all of their non-conference losses were against quality teams. They now sit dead last in the conference following eight straight losses. I watched them play Hopkins back in November and Eastern looked like a very good team. I don't believe they lost any of their main players to injury or other, yet their season just went completely south. Really puzzling.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Curious ... does anyone have any insight on Eastern? They were pre-season choice to win the MAC Commonwealth, went 7-4 in non-conference including wins over Roanoke, Hopkins, and Salisbury, and all of their non-conference losses were against quality teams. They now sit dead last in the conference following eight straight losses. I watched them play Hopkins back in November and Eastern looked like a very good team. I don't believe they lost any of their main players to injury or other, yet their season just went completely south. Really puzzling.

Talking to a few coaches, general opinion was the leadership lost to graduation was a lot more important to the team than perhaps the on-floor performance of those players.  Many of us believed they could replace the production, but that's not always everything you need to succeed.