Excitement and expectation surround Eastern Kentucky basketball ahead of 2023-24 season
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2023-24 College Basketball Preview
The Lexington Herald-Leader’s 2023-24 College Basketball Preview was published in the print edition on Sunday, Nov. 5. Click below to view all the stories that have been published on Kentucky.com.
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It’s been a while — a long while — since this kind of excitement and expectation surrounded the Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball program.
The Colonels put together one of the most memorable runs in school history last season: A 23-14 campaign ended with an appearance in the championship game of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
Those 23 wins were the third-most in one season in school history, and they led to a reworked contract for head coach A.W. Hamilton.
Entering his sixth season in Richmond, Hamilton is now paid $350,000 per year to coach the Colonels, making him the highest-paid head coach at the school. Hamilton’s new contract is set to keep him at EKU through April 2027.
On the court, the Colonels are the consensus pick to win the ASUN Conference from virtually every reputable source: The Almanac, ESPN and Lindy’s Sports, as well as the preseason media and coaches’ polls.
Why has there been so much praise for the Colonels?
EKU returns four starters and 11 players total from last season’s team, representing 88% of its assists, 84% of its scoring, 76% of its blocks, 74% of its rebounds and 74% of its steals from a season ago.
“There’s a lot of energy and excitement for these guys,” Hamilton said during EKU’s media day last month. “I’m proud of them for how they approach every day, though. They haven’t got caught up in any of the preseason polls. That doesn’t mean anything to them.
“They’re focused on the process of becoming a championship-level team.”
Of course, the catch with a mid-major school like EKU is the balance between putting together a stellar regular season while still having success in the end-of-season ASUN Tournament, which represents the Colonels’ clearest route to the NCAA Tournament.
EKU hasn’t made the Big Dance under Hamilton, and not since 2014 has Eastern Kentucky been in the NCAA field.
“They didn’t want to be in the CBI. That wasn’t their dream,” said Hamilton, who would receive a $50,000 bonus for reaching the NCAA Tournament this season.
“They wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament. And they knew their best path was to stay together. That was their best path to get to the NCAA Tournament.”
EKU players back with NCAA Tournament in mind
If you had to pinpoint a moment when the potential of the 2023-24 EKU men’s basketball season became clear, it would be Thursday, March 30.
On that morning, a slew of EKU players who still had college eligibility announced they would be returning to Richmond for this season.
“They didn’t come back, and stay together, to have a letdown in their approach of becoming a great basketball team,” Hamilton said.
EKU’s four returning starters — sophomore guard Tayshawn Comer, senior wing Devontae Blanton, senior forward Isaiah Cozart and senior forward Michael Moreno — combined for more than 53% of the Colonels’ available minutes last season.
Cooper Robb, a three-year player at EKU who was known for his grit and defensive tenacity, is the only starter lost. Robb now plays professionally in Slovenia.
Blanton — who averaged 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game last season — is the ASUN preseason player of the year.
“We all have the same goal. We all know what our mission is,” Blanton said of this EKU team’s mindset. “In the locker room, it’s really just good vibes all the time. We don’t try to put too much pressure on ourselves and we just always try to have the energy high.”
Cozart — who averaged 9.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game last season while breaking the single-season EKU records for blocks (94) and blocks per game — is the ASUN preseason defensive player of the year.
A Richmond native and former high school star at Madison Central who previously played three seasons at Western Kentucky, Cozart was singled out by Hamilton at EKU’s media day as a player that benefited from the team’s four-game run in the College Basketball Invitational.
Cozart averaged 18 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks per game for the Colonels during that stretch.
“What he did in the CBI has carried over to what he’s doing right now,” Hamilton said. “He’s playing with so much confidence. We’re running plays for him, he’s finishing with his right hand now, he’s making free throws.”
Moreno is on the cusp of EKU basketball history himself.
A former star at Scott County High School, Moreno is 15th on EKU’s all-time scoring list with 1,357 points and 10th on EKU’s all-time rebounding list with 759.
“We’re big on trying to block out the noise as best we can,” Moreno said about how EKU is dealing with the preseason hype. “Obviously, we appreciate the expectation and the standard that we’re held to... It’s a testament to what we’ve been able to accomplish here.”
Moreno — whose younger brother, Malachi, is a prep basketball star at Great Crossing High School who recently earned a Kentucky scholarship offer — is also just 16 made three-pointers away from passing Matt Witt as the program’s all-time leader in made threes.
“He is the ultimate ambassador of Eastern Kentucky,” Hamilton said of Moreno, who embodies his role as a top team communicator.
“… That will be one of the hardest senior nights, probably the hardest senior night, I’ll ever have to do.”
EKU schedule includes local rivals, national powers
EKU’s nonconference schedule includes seven games against teams that won 20 or more games last season, and four games against teams that played in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Games at Alabama and Purdue — a pair of No. 1 seeds from last season’s NCAA Tournament — highlight the nonconference slate, especially since those games will be played one after the other on Dec. 23 and Dec. 29.
But there’s also extreme local interest in EKU’s out-of-conference schedule.
The Colonels host Northern Kentucky on Dec. 17, and before that travel to Western Kentucky on Dec. 3.
That “Battle of the Bluegrass” matchup between EKU and WKU will represent the 162nd all-time meeting between the schools.
EKU and WKU first played each other in men’s basketball in the 1914-15 season: Western Kentucky leads the all-time series 117-44, and the Hilltoppers have won four straight games and 18 of the last 20 in the series.
Last year’s game in Richmond (won 66-60 by WKU) featured a crowd of 6,303 spectators, the largest at Baptist Health Arena since 2004.
“I think it’s great for both programs,” Hamilton said of the WKU game. “… We want to play all the teams in our state. I think that’s really, really important.”
That crowd helped set the stage for what became a strong home court presence for the Colonels all season long: EKU led the ASUN Conference with an average home attendance of 3,533 fans per game.
Since 1977, when the NCAA began tracking annual team attendance, no EKU team had ever led its conference in attendance.
Baptist Health Arena is also currently undergoing a facility renovation of more than $31 million that’s slated for completion in fall 2024.
2023-24 EKU men’s basketball schedule
Home games in all capital letters. All times Eastern.
Nov. 7: WEST VIRGINIA TECH, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Nov. 10: WILBERFORCE, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Nov. 17: TENNESSEE-MARTIN, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Nov. 21: PRAIRIE VIEW A&M, 12 p.m. (ESPN+)
Nov. 27: TROY, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Dec. 3: At Western Kentucky, 5 p.m. (ESPN+)
Dec. 7: At North Carolina-Greensboro, 7 p.m.
Dec. 10: BETHANY COLLEGE, 4 p.m. (ESPN+)
Dec. 13: At Louisiana, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
Dec. 17: NORTHERN KENTUCKY, 4 p.m. (ESPN+)
Dec. 21: At Troy, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Dec. 23: At Alabama, 4 p.m. (SEC)
Dec. 29: At Purdue, 5 or 7 p.m. (Big Ten)
Jan. 4: LIPSCOMB, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Jan. 6: AUSTIN PEAY, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Jan. 11: At Central Arkansas, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
Jan. 13: At North Alabama, 8:15 p.m. (ESPN+)
Jan. 20: BELLARMINE, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Jan. 25: JACKSONVILLE, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Jan. 27: NORTH FLORIDA, 4 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 1: At Queens, 8 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 3: At Kennesaw State, 5 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 7: FLORIDA GULF COAST, 9 p.m. (ESPNU)
Feb. 10: At Stetson, 4:45 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 14: CHICAGO STATE, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 17: At Bellarmine, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 22: NORTH ALABAMA, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 24: CENTRAL ARKANSAS, 1 p.m. (ESPN+)
Feb. 28: At Austin Peay, 8 p.m. (ESPN+)
Mar. 1: At Lipscomb, 8 p.m. (ESPN+)
Mar. 4-10: ASUN Tournament (ESPN+ and ESPN2)
This story was originally published November 5, 2023 at 6:50 AM.
