‘I was star-struck’: Former Eagles reflect on Eastern Washington’s 2007 loss at eventual national champion Kansas
Four months before Kansas guard Mario Chalmers’ jumper sent the Jayhawks to overtime and an eventual national championship game victory over Memphis, he was tasked with a lighter duty.
The third-ranked Jayhawks – a team that featured five future NBA draft picks – welcomed a new-look Eastern Washington team to historic Phog Allen Fieldhouse for a Dec. 5, 2007, nonconference tuneup.
An hour before thousands of raucous, blue-clad fans began to trickle into the cavernous venue, a sizable group of hecklers were already peppering Eagles coach Kirk Earlywine’s squad as they stretched.
“In my 34 years of basketball, it was the wildest atmosphere I have ever been in,” said a reflective Earlywine, now an Indianapolis resident who will be in attendance Saturday when the No. 14 seed Eagles face third-seeded Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“And that was just a nonconference game against Eastern Washington, so I can’t imagine what that place was like when they faced a Big 12 team.”
EWU, which went on to finish 11-19 and seventh in the Big Sky Conference, made the Midwest trip for a two-game swing. It first defeated Missouri-Kansas City 65-64 before locking up with one of college basketball’s winningest programs.
It was a payday for the Eagles.
It was a dunking spree for the Jayhawks.
Bigger, stronger and substantially more athletic Kansas – a team with the same Naismith Hall of Fame coach it has today, Bill Self – exhibited its NBA-level talent early in a 85-47 blowout.
EWU forward Matt Brunell, who played for Cheney High School and owned a pair of Kansas basketball shorts as a teenager, looked on as the Jayhawks attacked the rim with authority, jumping out to a 15-3 lead.
“I was star-struck more than anything,” said Brunell, who works in real estate in Spokane. “Going up against all of those big-name guys. They had three or four quick dunks on us. The fans were yelling at us. They were so close to the floor, too.”
Behind future NBA figures like Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Darnell Jackson, Darrell Arthur and Cole Aldrich, Kansas asserted itself early, but EWU didn’t let things get out of hand too early.
When EWU went into halftime trailing 37-23, Earlywine wasn’t overly disappointed.
“We uglied the game a bit,” said Earlywine, who has sat out of coaching this season. “The second half was different.”
Kansas began to force turnovers at a heavy clip – 15 total – scoring 28 points off EWU’s gifts as the lead swiftly ballooned to 30 points.
EWU junior guard Adris DeLeon, a transfer from junior college power College of Southern Idaho, wasn’t intimated.
The 5-foot-11 DeLeon, who went on to have a successful professional career overseas, went 8-for-11 from the field for a team-high 24 points. Kellen Williams, a 6-foot-5 forward, willed his way for 13 points for the Eagles.
Brunell had three points on 1-for-5 shooting.
“After most of the game was already over, I thought to myself, ‘Hey, I can play with these guys,’ ” Brunell said. “But then again, we were down by 39 points.”
He expects a much different result on Saturday when the Big Sky Conference Tournament champion Eagles (16-7) face the Jayhawks (20-8) at Farmers Arena.
The Jayhawks were recently hit with the coronavirus, forcing them to bow out of the Big 12 Tournament.
According to reports, Kansas’ two primary big men, 6-foot-10 David McCormack (13.4 points, 6.1 rebounds per game) and 6-8 Jalen Wilson (12.1 ppg, 8.2 rpg), didn’t make the trip to Indianapolis.
“I think EWU can win,” Brunell said. “I’ve been watching both teams this year. This EWU team is a lot better than we were.”