Jordan brand: From QBing the pregame warmup to rooting on starters, Eastern Washington’s Veening finds his niche

At the end of their pregame routine on Monday, a handful of Eastern Washington men’s basketball players lined up in a football formation and prepared to snap the ball.

It started with a snap to the quarterback, who executed a play that led to a slam by Deon Stroud, who has built something of a reputation this year as the best dunker on the team.

“Me, Cedric (Coward) and LeJuan Watts, we’re all from Fresno, we played football together,” Stroud said, “so we came up with that just to get us rowdied up before the game starts.”

Why Jordan Veening was the quarterback on Monday – a role he has often filled in these routines – wasn’t entirely clear to Stroud.

“The quarterback’s been switching a lot, actually,” he said. “At first it was Tyreese (Davis), then it was (Angelo Allegri), now it’s Jordan, and Jordan is holding it down.”

There is something apt about Veening’s part in this pregame act. Thoroughly engaged from his in-game seat on the bench, the senior is known by teammates to be goofy and energetic. He is a practice dynamo for an Eagles team that is the No. 1 seed in the Big Sky Tournament, which begins Saturday in Boise. Eastern will play its first game at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Although he’s played just 31 total minutes in a season that has spanned 31 games, Veening is enjoying the second-string role he plays – and his teammates are happy he’s in it.

“It’s just fun,” Veening said last week. “I wanted to be close to home. It didn’t really matter about the minutes or ever playing again.”

Veening is one of three holdovers from the Eagles team that won the Big Sky Tournament and nearly upset Kansas in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. He and Steele Venters appeared in the waning moments of that 93-84 loss; Ellis Magnuson, now a redshirt junior, played 3 minutes.

But after that year, when Shantay Legans left to become Portland Pilots head coach and David Riley was promoted to head coach at Eastern, Veening decided to transfer somewhere he could play a bit more: Division II Western Colorado, where he was recruited by Ben Beauchamp.

Veening did play more, averaging 19.2 minutes and 6.4 points in 11 games . He was enjoying basketball and his time with teammates, but overall the situation wasn’t a good fit for him, he said.

Beauchamp left Western Colorado for a position at Eastern before that 2021-22 season, and Veening decided to return to EWU.

When Veening ran into Riley, the coach invited him back to practice and it “turned into what it is now,” Veening said.

Riley said he understood why Veening left to play a season at Western Colorado.

“He was a really good walk-on his first two years here,” Riley said of Veening, who played three years at Nooksack Valley. “He wanted a chance to play because he can really play. He’s a good player.”

Having him back, too, has been great, Riley said.

“(Last summer) he was like a veteran. He knew all of the stuff,” Riley said. “He’s tough, high energy, super physical, but also just a goofy, great guy.”

He’s a great practice player, sophomore teammate Dane Erikstrup said, because Veening treats practices with great importance.

“He says it’s the Super Bowl every time he practices,” Erikstrup said. “… He just brings the spirit up on the team, no matter what. Anything he says is funny. I don’t know why.”

Veening’s most significant playing time this season came on Dec. 20 against Northwest Indian College, a game the Eagles won 130-54. Veening played 19 minutes, making 3 of 4 shots for six points while also grabbing five rebounds. On each one of those baskets, his teammates erupted in cheers.

Riley has gone out of his way multiple times this season to draw attention to the work of the team’s second unit – the depth players who intensify practices.

Veening said he’s happy to fill that role as the “fun energy guy.” Coming back also reunited him not just with Riley but also Beauchamp, who is Eastern’s director of player development and recruiting coordinator. Veening is also that much closer to his family; he grew up in Sumas, Washington, and also has family near Chelan, Washington.

The occasional playing time is nice, too.

“It’s good fun,” he said, “even if I just go in for 55 seconds (and get) one personal foul.”

Veening has left the door open for playing again next season but said he also could spend time in Europe. His father Theo is a European citizen and Veening has a Dutch passport, which makes traveling there easier.

But he still has more to do this season by helping the Eagles get ready for the Big Sky Tournament and a potential return to the NCAA Tournament after that.

“I love it,” he said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t do it.”