EKU basketball’s current winning streak could lead to another championship for Colonels
Last season, college basketball history was made in Richmond.
For the first time in more than four decades, the Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball team won a regular season conference championship, as the Colonels secured the outright Atlantic Sun Conference title. While the 2023-24 EKU season ended in heartbreak — a home loss in the quarterfinals of the ASUN Conference Tournament — the Colonels’ regular season championship stands on its own as a moment of significant on-court achievement.
And head coach A.W. Hamilton’s team could very well repeat that feat this season.
With Thursday night’s 95-73 home win over West Georgia at Baptist Health Arena at Alumni Coliseum, EKU is now on a six-game winning streak. The Colonels are 15-11 overall, 9-4 in ASUN games and in hot pursuit of what would be the program’s eighth regular season conference championship.
“We continue to make the right play at the right time,” Hamilton, EKU’s seventh-year head coach, said. “Especially in transition. We’re moving (the ball). It’s not sticking. We’re getting it to the other side. We’re really making the defense shift. It’s fun to watch. And that’s how we’ve won six games in a row.”
EKU won Thursday without star sophomore guard George Kimble III, who is considered day-to-day with a knee injury.
“There’s no timeline. ... It breaks my heart,” Hamilton said of Kimble’s injury. “He’s playing so well and he’s grown so much. ... I hate it for him. ... I hope we get him back, but we’re just going to take it day to day right now.”
That the Colonels were able to comfortably win without Kimble — who leads the team in scoring (18 points per game) and steals (2.6 per game) — speaks to the multi-pronged way the Colonels can win.
Veteran fifth-year guard Devontae Blanton scored 20 points on Thursday and was one of three EKU players to hit the 20-point mark against West Georgia.
“Our chemistry is starting to get there. It’s starting to show on the court. We’re starting to trust each other more,” said Blanton, who is second all-time in scoring in EKU men’s basketball history.
“Knowing where we like to get the ball, where we don’t like to get the ball,” added Blanton, who had a career-high 11 assists on Thursday night. “Just trusting everybody.”
Blanton — who averages 16.3 points and a team-best 4.4 assists per game — reaches a new level as a distributor and scorer when other EKU players make an impact on offense, as was the case Thursday.
Against West Georgia, 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Mayar Wol led the way with a career-best 25 points, which included six made 3-pointers.
“It opens (Blanton) up to score more,” Wol said of his 3-point shooting. “Normally people like to help off me, because for a while I was shooting bad. So they would just double team (Blanton) and leave me open or leave whomever. ... It opens up scoring for everybody. The floor is wide open. We get what we want on the floor on offense.”
Also impressing in the scoring column against the Wolves was sophomore guard Jordan Crawford, who had a career-high 22 points and five made 3s.
Both Crawford and Wol arrived at EKU this offseason as transfers from Charleston, where they played in the NCAA Tournament last season for current Louisville coach Pat Kelsey.
The contributions of junior guard Turner Buttry — the 2022 Kentucky Mr. Basketball at Bowling Green High School — are also notable. Buttry is averaging 8.2 points per game this season while shooting a blistering 42.7% from 3-point range.
As far as a potential second-straight ASUN regular season championship goes, EKU’s current six-game winning streak has the Colonels right in the thick of things with five league games to play.
Currently, half of the league’s schools — Lipscomb, North Alabama, Jacksonville, Florida Gulf Coast, Queens and EKU — have a realistic shot at the regular season title. Lipscomb, North Alabama and Jacksonville are all 10-3 in league play. Queens, EKU and Florida Gulf Coast are each a game behind at 9-4.
Included in the Colonels’ final five-game stretch are massive home contests against Queens (4 p.m. Saturday) and Lipscomb (7 p.m. Tuesday) that will go a long way toward determining the league’s regular season champion.
Something that shouldn’t be dismissed for these upcoming games is the impact of EKU’s new-look home gym.
Alumni Coliseum reopened in January after several phases of a renovation project were completed. EKU is now 5-2 this season at the venue, which was built in 1963 and now features upgrades to the basketball court, concourse and locker room areas, in addition to a 300-seat conference center, team rooms, a courtside club and a team store.
The fact that Hamilton’s team is even in the conversation for another ASUN regular season championship is an accomplishment on its own. Over the offseason, Hamilton had to replace four of EKU’s top five scorers, the team’s top two rebounders and the Colonels’ top two assist men.
“The guys love each other, and they really want to win,” Hamilton said of the 2024-25 Colonels. “We have great leadership. ... These guys are living in the gym. They stay extra after practice. They get up extra shots... The work’s showing on the floor when we’re getting out there.”
Aside from potentially retaining the ASUN regular season championship, the Colonels, obviously, also have a potential return to March Madness on their minds.
Eastern Kentucky’s last visit to the NCAA Tournament came in 2014. That year, EKU earned its NCAA Tournament bid as a result of winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, before losing to Kansas in the first round of the national postseason.
EKU learned the hard way last season that winning a regular season championship doesn’t guarantee passage to the NCAA Tournament. Nowadays, that doesn’t even guarantee you a spot in the NIT.
But for now, Eastern Kentucky has its focus squarely on Saturday’s opponent, Queens, as the potential for another ASUN championship creeps closer.
This story was originally published February 14, 2025 at 8:17 AM.
