EAGLE MEN’S BASKETBALL 2017-18 SEASON OUTLOOK: MVP Candidate Bogdan Bliznyuk Leads Eagles With size from point guard to post, success by low block right now, and we can shoot the ball from the outside very committee and more emphasis on defense will be well. We feel really good about this team. We have a lot of size, with a seven-footer who could start and a point guard who is 6-6 and grew the keys for Eagles in 2017-18 season over the summer. That size will affect how we play offense and how ize and energy – and a renewed focus on defense – can other teams play against us.” take a basketball team a long way. The Eagles return eight letterwinners from last year, including a trio S Eastern Washington University first-year head coach of returning starters -- Bliznyuk, Mason Peatling and Luka Vulikic. Shantay Legans is hoping those two things will help get the Eagles The others are Cody Benzel, Grant Gibb, Ty Gibson, Jesse Hunt and through a challenging early-season schedule, combined with many other Sir Washington, with Jacob Davison and Joshua Thomas returning intangibles that will create “success by committee” as he calls it. as 2016-17 redshirts. A senior, Bliznyuk was a second team All-Big Sky Conference selection a year ago, and was the league’s Freshman of A veteran of eight previous seasons as an Eastern assistant, Legans the Year in 2014-15. has 18 players on his roster, equally split between veterans and new- comers. The Eagles, who open the season Nov. 10 versus Walla Walla, Incredibly strong and talented when driving to the basket, Bliznyuk’s are coming off a third-straight appearance in a national postseason energy is a characteristic of the entire team. tournament, and were 22-12 overall a year ago. “We get our energy by having a young coaching staff, but most of “Our players and staff are excited to get started, said Legans. “I it comes from our players,” said Legans. “Bogdan is one of the most couldn’t be happier. Our team is doing a great job and is really compet- energetic players out here, and Sir Washington being here five years ing in practice. They are really getting after it on the court and we have really has a lot of energy. Our other players feed off of that and have 13 guys right now I believe who could get into the game and play. They been working hard. The energy is electric in practice and it’s been fun are all fighting for playing time, so seeing that competitiveness is a lot of watching these guys go.” fun out there.” Such energy is contagious, and Legans saw the results firsthand Led by Big Sky Conference Player of the Year candidate Bogdan a year ago when Jacob Wiley went from a virtual college unknown to Bliznyuk, the Eagles feature a team with size throughout their lineup. receiving an offer to play in the National Basketball Association. Eastern could potentially having a starting unit with a 6-foot-6 point “Our freshmen who played last season, Mason and Luka, have guard, plus players 6-3, 6-6, 6-7 and 7-0. Bliznyuk was one of six players come leaps and bounds,” he added. “And Jesse Hunt has done a great selected to the preseason All-Big Sky team. job. We are going to do it by committee, but it’s always hard replacing The eight newcomers include Lithuanian seven-footer Benas a pro.” Griciunas, a graduate transfer who has 59 games of NCAA Division I Legans also has the task to blend in a large group of newcomers, experience. including six who have never played NCAA Division I basketball. He’ll “I love this team – we have size, we have veterans and we have have to determine who are ready to play now and who will need to be youth,” said Legans. “We have athleticism and we can score on the redshirted. “We have to catch our younger players up,” said Legans. “Our veterans are really good – Sir has been here five years and Bogdan has been here four. Benas has played a lot of Division I basketball at a very high level. We also have Cody, Ty, Luka, Jesse and Mason, and all of those players have played and started at some point in their careers.” “They have to mentor the younger players, and let them know exactly what they need to be doing on and off the court,” he continued. “They are doing a great job of that already – they started this summer and have carried it on over. We’re building toward the beginning of our season, and we are off to a good start.” Legans said his team will have a renewed focus on defense, after previous teams under Jim Hayford were New Eagle Head Coach SHANTAY LEGANS 2017 & 2016 CBI TOURNAMENT • 2015 NCAA TOURNAMENT • 2015 BIG SKY TOURNAMENT & REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS 15 EAGLE MEN’S BASKETBALL 2017-18 Senior Point-Forward BOGDAN BLIZNYUK offensive-minded. A year ago the Eagles were among the Big Sky leaders in scoring offense at 79.5 points per game, but also allowed opponents to score at a 76.2 clip per game. “I think we’ll bring a lot more defense to the game plan,” stated Legans. “We have Nick Booker on our staff, and he’s a great defensive coach and he has our guys really revved up on that end. He’s done a really good job with them early. We have a great base of offense that Coach Hayford es- tablished here before he left. We’re a graduate transfer in the 2015-16 season, followed by forward Jacob going to keep building on that, with a couple of tweaks here and there. Wiley. Wiley is now with the New Jersey Nets in the NBA, and was the But defensively is where we are really going to make our name.” Big Sky Conference MVP last season after averaging 20.2 points, 9.2 A former player at Cal and Fresno State, Legans had previously rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots per game as a senior. assisted Hayford in recruiting, scouting and game preparation for the “Losing a professional obviously changes a lot,” admitted Legans. Eagles, as well as on-the-floor coaching and the development of EWU’s “When we lost Tyler Harvey we picked up Austin McBroom, and when backcourt players. Legans is Eastern’s 18th head coach in the school’s we lost Venky Jois we picked up Jake Wiley. And now that we’ve lost 109-year basketball history, and the 10th head coach since EWU Jake, we’ve picked up a good player in Benas, our big fella from UNC became a member of NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 season. Charlotte. He’s a really good player. And then we put a lot more on He has been a part of Eastern teams from the 2013-14 through Bogdan’s shoulders.” 2016-17 seasons which have win totals of 15, 26, 18 and 22. The two The definition of versatility is the 6-6, 215-pound Bliznyuk, who 20-victory seasons are the top two win totals in EWU’s 34-year history burst on the scene in 2015-16 to earn Big Sky Conference Freshman in NCAA Division I. The combined 81 victories in four seasons, 66 in of the Year honors. He followed that by recording the first triple-double three and 44 in two are also the most since EWU became a member of in school history as a sophomore, and then earned second team All-Big NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 season. Sky and All-District 6 honors in 2016-17 when he averaged 20.6 points, Eastern has had its first back-to-back national tournament post- 6.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. season appearances at the Division I level with a current stretch of He has scored 1,428 points in 103 career games, and needs just three-straight, including its first-ever win (79-72 over Pepperdine in the 375 points to break EWU’s all-time mark of 1,803 points set by Venky College Basketball Invitational in 2016). He helped coach Eastern to Jois from 2013-16. If Bliznyuk plays 25 games he will equal the record a 26-9 record overall, Big Sky Conference regular season and tourna- of 128 set by his former teammate Felix Von Hofe from 2014-17. ment titles and a NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2014-15 season. Bliznyuk is formerly from Lutsk, Ukraine, and graduated from Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way, Wash., in 2014. Eagle Frontcourt . “He is an experienced, versatile player who will continue to do a little bit of everything for us,” said Legans. “Bogdan is ready to have his Eastern has leaned heavily on graduate transfers the last two sea- best year as an Eagle yet.” sons, and this year will be no exception. After beginning his collegiate The 6-8 Peatling started 17 of Eastern’s 34 games as a true fresh- career at Auburn and then playing at UNC Charlotte, Griciunas will man in 2016-17, and averaged 4.0 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. play his senior season at Eastern. Most recently he started seven of 20 Hunt, a 6-7 junior, averaged 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds in 33 games games in the 2016-17 season at UNC Charlotte.