Eastern leading scorer Derik Hollyfield had 27 points in the opener against Northern and followed up his coming out party with a grand total of two points against the Wisconsin Badgers.

My position is clearly not to point out the negative aspect of this junior-college transfer who will probably lead the Panthers in scoring. This just proves exactly how inconsistent the young Panthers team has start out the 2003-2004 season.

How does a team allow one of its star players to be in the zone one night and then three days later have a big doughnut throughout the first 30 minutes of a contest?

This proves Panther fans must be patient with this season’s squad but expect more consistent performances out of its star talent.

If someone had told me before the season started that sophomore Josh Gomes would not have one game in double figures and be shooting 33 percent from the field, I would’ve been worried.

Currently, the Panthers have been dominated down low on the boards by certain forwards like the Huskies Marcus Smallwood and Wisconsin’s Mike Wilkinson. The absence of 6-9 290-pound center Aaron Harrison, who is still on crutches, is being felt about as much as the pain in the young man’s foot.

However, I only saw this team playing together once during this break and that was when the squad broke down a 17-point lead by Northern to take its first lead of the game. It was during that run that I saw Eastern be aggressive and actually have confidence in all five members on the floor.

I certainly didn’t see that against Wisconsin as guard Cortez Forte came off the bench to provide a spark and instead delivered a team-high seven turnovers.

The site of Lantz Arena better bring new hope to this young Panther team as Eastern prepares to take on the Illinois-Chicago Flames led by head coach Jimmy Collins, Indiana State (whom Eastern lost to last year) and St. Francis all in Charleston this week.

With Big Ten conference opponents Iowa (the Hawkeyes beat Louisville in the John Wooden Classic) and Ohio State (who won at least a game in the Maui Invitational), the Panthers will have to tighten up the offense, not look lost in the motion offense and not turn the ball the over constantly.

The problem with Eastern is simply as an observer and as a coach, I along with Samuels probably wanted to figure out who was going to be the leader, scorer, defender and rebounder on this club. However, through two games none of these people questions have been efficiently answered and the clock is ticking.