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Eastern Washington University Basketball

Four new players commit to Eastern Washington as coach Dan Monson begins reloading roster

Dan Monson, pictured during his introduction as Eastern Washington basketball coach last month in Cheney, has added four new players to the roster. (Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review)
By Dan Thompson The Spokesman-Review

Next season’s roster is coming together for the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team.

In addition to its social media announcement of the commitment of 6-foot-8 forward Angelo Winkel, three other players have made clear their commitment to Eastern Washington.

The other three are 6-5 guard Tyler Powell (Nevada); NAIA first-team All-America selection Andrew Cook (Carroll College); and 6-6 guard Elijah Thomas, who like Winkel played the past two seasons at Des Moines Area (Iowa) Community College.

Winkel and Thomas each have two years eligibility remaining. So does Powell, who spent his first college season at Seton Hall. Cook, the Frontier Conference Player of the Year, has one year left.

Cook is coming off a season in which he averaged 20.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Originally from Huntington Beach, California, the 6-4 guard played in 81 games during three seasons at Carroll College in Helena.

Powell didn’t play last season (redshirt), but he appeared in 33 games for the Wolfpack in 2022-23 and averaged 2.2 points and 1.0 rebounds while playing 9.3 minutes per game. He played just 46 minutes in his one season at Seton Hall.

Winkel and Thomas were mainstays at DMACC the past two seasons. In 2023-24, Winkel started all 35 games and averaged a team-high 16.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. Most of his scoring came from inside the arc; from 3-point range he made 16 of 64 attempts.

Thomas made 71 of 195 3-pointers (36.4%) and averaged 10.7 points while starting in 33 of 34 games.

The Bears went 31-5 overall and 16-2 in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference, which is part of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

The 2024-25 EWU roster lists six returners from last year’s Big Sky regular-season championship team: sophomores-to-be Vice Zanki, Mason Williams and Sebastian Hartmann, as well as redshirt junior Nic McClain and redshirt freshmen Jackson Seale and Emmett Marquardt.

The Eagles are looking to replace all five starters from last year’s team.

Ellis Magnuson and Jake Kyman exhausted their eligibility, and Ethan Price, Cedric Coward and Casey Jones transferred (as did top reserve Dane Erikstrup) after former head coach David Riley left to become head coach at Washington State.