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Eastern Washington University Basketball

Eastern Washington men’s basketball releases schedule, will face WSU and former coach on Nov. 21

Eastern Washington coach David Riley directs players on the court during a game against Southern Utah in December 2022 in Cheney. Riley, who played collegiately at Whitworth, left to take the Washington State job this offseason. (COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
By Dan Thompson The Spokesman-Review

Those hoping to see how the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team looks under new head coach Dan Monson will have a handful of in-person opportunities to do so even before the end of the upcoming football season.

And if people are curious about how former coach David Riley’s new team is doing, they won’t have to wait long – or travel far – for that, either.

This season, the Eagles will play two November home games at Reese Court in Cheney, plus a neutral site matchup against Riley’s Washington State Cougars at the Arena on Nov. 21.

Eastern released its full men’s schedule as well as the women’s team’s Big Sky Conference schedule on Thursday.

The Eagles men will play five nonconference home games, two more than last season when they won a second consecutive Big Sky regular-season championship. Those home opponents are Seattle University (Nov. 6), Cal Poly (Nov. 17), North Dakota (Dec. 4), Lincoln University (Dec. 21) and Eastern Oregon (Dec. 30).

The Eagles and Cougars have played against each other in each of the previous four regular seasons, including a matchup at the Arena in 2022-23.

During the offseason, after Riley accepted the job at Washington State, four of Eastern Washington’s top scorers transferred to Pullman: Cedric Coward, Ethan Price, LeJuan Watts and Dane Erikstrup.

As it did the previous three seasons under Riley, Eastern’s schedule still includes a handful of road matchups against major programs. This slate includes games at Colorado, Missouri, Utah and Washington, plus midmajor road matchups at Cal Baptist, UC Santa Barbara and South Dakota State.

The contests against South Dakota State (Dec. 7) and North Dakota constitute Eastern’s part of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge, which began last season.

Eastern’s men’s and women’s teams will play an 18-game Big Sky schedule, with home and away games against each of the conference’s nine other teams. On Jan. 18, both teams will travel to Moscow, Idaho, to play the Vandals in a men’s and women’s doubleheader; the programs will do the same in Cheney on Feb. 15.

Conference play will begin on Jan. 2 and Jan. 4, with the EWU men hosting Montana and Montana State, respectively.

The EWU women, who won the Big Sky regular-season and tournament titles last year, will open the conference season at the Montana schools before hosting Portland State on Jan. 9 and Sacramento State on Jan. 11.

After the regular season concludes on March 3, the men’s and women’s Big Sky tournaments will begin March 8 in Boise.