After nonconference struggles, EKU basketball enjoys historically good start to ASUN play

After spending the first two months of the season falling well short of lofty preseason expectations, the EKU men’s basketball team hasn’t lost since the calendar flipped to 2024.

And Eastern Kentucky’s current seven-game winning streak has also rewritten the record books in Richmond.

For the first time since the 1959-60 season (and for just the third time in school history), EKU is off to a 7-0 start in conference play: The Colonels are 11-9 overall, still a perfect 7-0 in Atlantic Sun Conference games and owners of a two-game lead atop the ASUN standings.

Not bad for a team that is 4-9 in nonconference games and lost home games to Tennessee-Martin (KenPom No. 256) and Prairie View A&M (KenPom No. 312).

“These guys will never quit and they’ll never stop fighting,” EKU coach A.W. Hamilton said of his EKU team following last week’s home win over Jacksonville. “And they love each other... They are a family. They genuinely love each other.”

So what changed with the Colonels to spark this seven-game unbeaten run, which began after suffering five straight defeats including a 111-67 loss at Alabama?

Well, talent was never the issue.

EKU was the consensus favorite to win the ASUN this season and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014.

That praise came with good reason: The Colonels returned four starters and 11 players in total (which equated to 84% of last season’s scoring) from a 23-win team that reached the championship game of the College Basketball Invitational.

Hamilton was also the offseason recipient of a reworked contract that made him the highest-paid coach at the school. So, there was continuity, and during EKU’s team media day in October, Hamilton praised his team for not getting caught up in the preseason hype.

But, in talking to EKU players now, it’s clear the Colonels needed the wake-up call provided to them in the early part of the season.

“I feel like us having a rough nonconference, I feel like that was kind of good for us,” fifth-year guard Collin Cooper said. “It helped us get the chip on our shoulder that we needed, and it’s showing.”

“Even though games weren’t turning out the way we wanted them to, and we were struggling on defense and offense, it brought us closer together, more than ever,” fifth-year center Isaiah Cozart said. “It made us want to win even more.”

EKU’s early-season woes have been reversed in recent weeks, as the Colonels won their seven ASUN games by an average of 13 points.

The stats further support the Colonels’ dominant start to league play.

Cozart, undersized for his position at 6-foot-7, is averaging a double-double with 15.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. By a wide margin, Cozart, who earlier this season recorded the first triple-double in EKU program history, is the NCAA leader in total blocks (74) and blocks per game (3.9). Cozart is also top-five in the nation in offensive rebounds per game (4.16).

Fifth-year forward Michael Moreno, whose younger brother, Malachi, is a star basketball recruit at Great Crossing High School, has made 47 3-pointers this season and broke the program record for career 3s made in December.

Sophomore guard Leland Walker is top-10 in the ASUN in both total assists (91) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7). He also scored a career-high 29 points in EKU’s most recent victory, a 89-76 triumph over North Florida on Saturday.

But any question posed to Hamilton about EKU’s resurgence will yield an answer about how the Colonels have improved defensively.

EKU is the only ASUN team allowing less than 72 points per game in league play. The Colonels have allowed an average of 67.3 points per ASUN contest, and ASUN teams are shooting just 39.9% from the field against the them. That number further drops to 32.9% on 3-pointers.

“We’re doing a great job finishing possessions, guarding the three-point line,” Hamilton said. “And then our perimeter defense has gotten a lot better.”

Isaiah Cozart finds his voice as a fifth-year leader

EKU went 1-7 in December, with its only win coming at home against Bethany College, an NCAA Division III school from West Virginia.

But losses to Western Kentucky, North Carolina-Greensboro, Louisiana, Northern Kentucky, Troy, Alabama and Purdue revealed a need for the aforementioned, soft-spoken Cozart to become a better leader.

“I knew I had to get more confidence and be more demanding in the post,” Cozart said. “And especially just be more of a leader on the court.”

That’s easier said than done for Cozart, a former star player at Richmond’s Madison Central High School who spent the first three seasons of his college career at Western Kentucky. After making no starts at WKU, Cozart has made 55 starts for the Colonels over the last two seasons.

“I knew I had to get more used to being that type of guy that, no matter what, no matter how the game’s going, I still have to keep a level head and still be able to get buckets for the team and still be able to lead them,” Cozart said.

Cozart’s voice wasn’t only needed to lift up the overall play of this EKU team. The big man also needed to demand more of the ball himself as one of the most productive post players in the nation.

“We trust Coz. Every time we feed him the ball we think he’s going to get a bucket,” sophomore guard Turner Buttry said.

“He’s ducking in, he’s demanding the ball, he’s calling for the ball,” Hamilton said of Cozart this season. “He’s like a whole new person.”

EKU could secure home court advantage for ASUN Tournament

While all has gone well for EKU thus far in ASUN play, plenty of challenges lie ahead.

Six of EKU’s nine remaining league games will be played on the road, including both of the Colonels’ games this week at Queens and defending ASUN Tournament champion Kennesaw State.

KenPom currently has the ASUN ranked as the 25th-best league (out of 33) in the country. Per BracketMatrix, the ASUN projects as a one-bid league for the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Once the ASUN Tournament begins on March 4, EKU’s margin of error is essentially zero as the Colonels pursue a first NCAA Tournament berth since 2014.

The good news? The higher seed hosts games throughout the ASUN Tournament, so the Colonels can lock up home-court advantage for the entire event by finishing first in the league’s regular season standings.

Next game

Eastern Kentucky at Queens

When: 8 p.m. Thursday

Where: Curry Arena (Charlotte, North Carolina)

Records: Eastern Kentucky 11-9 (7-0 ASUN), Queens 8-14 (2-5 ASUN)

Series: Eastern Kentucky leads 2-0

Last meeting: Eastern Kentucky won 84-80 on Feb. 9, 2023, in Charlotte