Point guard Austin McBroom tweets he’s headed to Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington may have found another strong 3-point shooter and floor leader rolled into one.
It’s not official yet, but former Saint Louis point guard Austin McBroom announced Monday night via social media that he would play his final year of college basketball in Cheney.
“I am proud to announce that I will be playing for coach (Jim) Hayford and the Eastern Washington Eagles next season,” McBroom said on Twitter.
Last season, McBroom played 20 minutes a game while scoring 6.7 points and shooting 42.8 percent from 3-point range. He also averaged 1.6 assists.
On March 20, McBroom announced via Twitter that he was leaving Saint Louis and looking for another school. He gave no reason for leaving, though his playing time had diminished late in the season.
Two weeks later, Eastern Washington guard Tyler Harvey announced that he would give up his final year of eligibility and make himself available for the NBA draft.
McBroom, a 5-foot-9, 165-pounder from Los Angeles, played for Central Michigan in 2011-12, then redshirted at Saint Louis the following year. In 2013-14, he appeared in all 34 games, starting once and finishing fifth on the team in scoring with a 7.3 average. He also shot 90.3 percent (56 of 62) from the free-throw line, the second-best single-season effort in school history.
At Central Michigan, he averaged 10.9 points and a team-high 2.7 assists while starting 30 of 31 games. He was named to the Mid-American Conference All-Freshman team.
McBroom was a three-sport athlete at Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California, also playing football and baseball. He averaged 25.1 points during his senior season.
Saint Martin’s hires EWU’s Pribble
Eastern Washington basketball assistant Alex Pribble has been named the new head men’s coach at Saint Martin’s, the schools announced Monday.
Pribble, an assistant to Jim Hayford the past two seasons, will take over the Division II program in Lacey, Washington.
“I am very happy for Alex and Saint Martin’s University,” said Hayford, who recently concluded his fourth season as head coach with the best season in EWU’s NCAA Division I history. “Alex is a great person and will be a great college coach. The players at Saint Martin’s will benefit greatly from him as a mentor.”
Hayford said he will move as expediently as needed to fill the void on his staff, which also includes veteran assistant coach Shantay Legans and David Riley.
Pribble spent two seasons at EWU after serving the previous two years as the top assistant at San Francisco State. He is a 2007 graduate of Cal and received his master’s degree the next season.
Saint Martin’s, a member of the Great Northwest Athetlic Conference, went 6-22 last year.