EKU basketball hasn’t reached NCAA tourney since 2014. Will that change in the new year?
Last weekend, Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball came close to what would have been a monumental upset win on the road at Louisville.
The Colonels ultimately fell short of what would have been their first win over the Cardinals since December 1963: Louisville forward Noah Waterman made a last-second layup to thwart EKU’s hopes of a stunning holiday win.
But in the process of playing U of L close, Eastern Kentucky showed it has the tools at its disposal to potentially make a long-awaited return to March Madness.
Nonconference play has come and gone for EKU, which sports a 6-7 record ahead of the start of ASUN Conference play. Head coach A.W. Hamilton’s team will begin league play Thursday night at Central Arkansas (4-9).
Last season, EKU won the outright ASUN regular season championship after posting a 12-4 mark in league games. That title was EKU’s first regular-season conference championship in more than four decades, but it wasn’t enough to get Eastern back into the NCAA Tournament.
EKU, the 1-seed in last season’s ASUN Conference Tournament, lost at home to 10-seed Jacksonville in the quarterfinals of the event. This means Eastern Kentucky’s last visit to the NCAA Tournament remains the 2014 trip that saw the Colonels lose to Kansas in the first round.
Can Eastern Kentucky make it back to the Big Dance in the new year?
That narrow defeat to Louisville offered a blueprint for how Hamilton’s team could return to college basketball’s biggest stage.
EKU has a pair of dynamic scorers in fifth-year wing Devontae Blanton and sophomore guard George Kimble III.
Blanton — who has spent all five college seasons at Eastern — is on pace to average double-digit scoring for the fourth straight season. Blanton leads EKU with 16.8 points per contest. In a Dec. 21 home loss to Jacksonville State, Blanton had a career-best 36 points.
He followed up that scoring effort with 22 points in the loss to Louisville.
“This is my fifth year playing, so I’ve pretty much seen every coverage there is,” Blanton said. “Just understanding the game plan, understanding the scout. What (opponents) want to do. Where they don’t want you to go, where they want you to go. And just try to exploit it.”
Kimble — who transferred up to Eastern Kentucky this season after spending his freshman season at Eckerd College, an NCAA Division II school in Florida — has emerged as another strong scoring option. Kimble has scored 20 or more points on four occasions for EKU this season, including a career-high of 24 points (at the Division I level) in the loss to Louisville.
“He’s a special player. He’s really, really doing a good job. He’s much improved at valuing possessions,” Hamilton said of Kimble, who is averaging 15.8 points per game. “He’s making plays for other guys. He’s playing much more disciplined on the defensive end. ... He is much improved from where he started and he’s going to be a special player. A really special player, because he’s fearless. ... I’m proud of that kid. He’s really, really growing.”
Blanton and Kimble are the only two EKU players averaging more than 9 points per game this season.
There was plenty for Hamilton to replace this offseason in Richmond from last season’s championship EKU squad. The Colonels lost four of their top five scorers (Isaiah Cozart, Leland Walker, Michael Moreno and Tayshawn Comer), their top two rebounders (Cozart and Moreno) and their top two assist men (Walker and Comer).
EKU may not be the overwhelming choice to emerge from the ASUN Conference this season, but Hamilton’s team has shown enough to not be dismissed as league play begins.
“These guys are really buying in,” Hamilton said of EKU’s offensive approach. “What makes us have the chance to be special is the kids love each other. They’re not fighting it. They know that George and Tae Tae (Blanton) are elite playmakers.”
Eastern Kentucky basketball to return to home arena in Richmond
During nonconference play, Eastern Kentucky had to play all four of its “home” games away from the normal confines of Baptist Health Arena at Alumni Coliseum in Richmond. That’s because there are ongoing renovations taking place to the facility, which won’t be fully completed until fall 2025.
Baptist Health Arena closed in March to begin the renovation project, but the arena will reopen in January so EKU can host home ASUN Conference games in its normal gym.
EKU’s home away from home during nonconference play was the Seabury Center on the campus of Berea College in Berea. The Colonels went 3-1 while playing at Berea, defeating Alice Lloyd College, Campbellsville-Harrodsburg and Eastern Illinois before losing to Jacksonville State.
Among the features that the new-look Baptist Health Arena will boast, once renovations are complete, are a 300-person concourse club, a courtside club, new restrooms, enhanced concessions and a fan shop.
EKU’s first home game in ASUN play will be Jan. 9 against North Florida (7-6).
EKU women’s basketball to begin ASUN Conference play
Hamilton’s squad isn’t the only basketball team in Richmond with hopes of reaching March Madness.
The EKU women’s basketball team will also begin ASUN Conference play Thursday night at Austin Peay (5-6) after a run of success during the nonconference slate.
The Colonels went 10-3 in nonconference play and have won nine straight games, which marks the program’s longest winning streak since 2005. This includes a road win at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, an NCAA Division II school located on the state’s namesake island.
Two of EKU’s three losses this season were to power conference opponents LSU and Michigan State. Both the Tigers and Spartans are ranked in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll.
The EKU women’s basketball program has only qualified for March Madness on two occasions, last doing so in 2005.
But, reaching the NCAA Tournament as a women’s basketball program housed in the ASUN Conference means having to go through Florida Gulf Coast, a perennial national power. FGCU has made seven consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
Like the men’s team, Eastern Kentucky’s women’s basketball team will return to Baptist Health Arena in Richmond for home games during ASUN Conference play.
