Grin and Barrett, 2/17/08

And down the stretch they come. The Eastern Oregon University women’s and men’s basketball teams close their regular season with senior night in La Grande, Saturday, Feb. 23.

Since the season has been a historic one, I have decided to devote this week’s column on what might be in the near future. Both teams have already clinched home-court advantage through the semifinals of the Cascade Conference tournament the last week of Feb. to March 1.

The women and men are also both tied for first-place in the conference on their respective sides. At the moment, the EOU men (23-4, 16-3 Cascade Collegiate Conference) hold a slight advantage over Oregon Tech (24-4, 15-3 CCC). So let me break this down to everyone who may question what’s happening since both are tied this late in the season.

The conference tiebreaker begins with head to head record, which OIT and EOU have split their season series. Next is record versus opponents with a record above .500, there are currently five teams with that record, including Eastern. The Mountaineers are 6-2 versus the other four teams with a plus .500 record, while Oregon Tech is 4-3 with Concordia University (14-13, 10-8 CCC) visiting Tech this Friday.

Eastern’s final game is hosting Northwest Christian (10-18, 7-11 CCC) who on Jan. 4 almost beat the Mountaineers in Eugene until a late rally gave EOU 75-68 victory. Oregon Tech hosts Concordia Friday, and Corban College (10-18, 5-13 CCC) Saturday. Concordia appears to be the only threat of an upset and live stats and radio can be found on the EOU athletic website Friday night.

On the women’s side there are also five teams above the .500 record mark, including Eastern (23-4, 15-3 CCC). And, just like on the men’s side the tiebreaker is in favor of EOU. Southern Oregon (24-4, 15-3 CCC) is the team even with the Mountaineers, during the regular season SOU and EOU split their series, so the second step of the tiebreaker is used again.

Southern Oregon currently has a 4-3 record against teams with a plus .500 record, compared to Eastern’s 6-2 record against the same opponents.

SOU hosts Corban College (24-4, 15-3 CCC) Friday evening, and Concordia (15-3, 11-7 CCC) Saturday evening in Ashland. The live stats of the Concordia and Southern Oregon women’s game will be available Saturday on the EOU athletic web page.

The Eastern men seem destined for the national tournament in Point Lookout, Missouri for the first time in school history. The CCC’s top two teams have been to the tournament for the past several years and EOU has already clinched that they will be in the top two. The women on the other hand have some work to do, and need to watch other games closely.

But, before talk of national tournaments, and conference tournaments, the Mountaineers need to finish the regular season with victories. When asked where he’s staying in Point Lookout, EOU men’s head coach Ryan Looney answered, “We’re not going to discuss that until we have won the conference.”

If you’d like to help, on Feb. 26 the Eastern Oregon athletic department will give free EOU t-shirts to the first 200 students who buy tickets and select fans, the rest will be sold. The athletic department is asking fans to wear white for the Feb. 26 and 27 first-round games. Student tickets are two dollars and will be sold soon after the Feb. 23 game in the athletic office.

I know it is a lot of numbers, and can lose fans in the mess, but it’s not called “March Madness” for nothing, and it is quickly approaching.