Another game. Another loss.

This situation is becoming all too familiar for the men’s basketball team.

Starting the 2009-10 campaign, Eastern raced to 10-5 record, 4-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference. But there has been a sputtering in the Panthers’ engines over the last seven contests.

Going 1-6 puts Eastern at 11-11 and 5-7 in conference action. The Panthers have gone from fourth to seventh place in the league.

Now, its true Eastern has gone 0-5 on the road in this span, but it was 5-1 to begin the season.

Eastern head coach Mike Miller said winning on the road is a challenge.

“It’s tough,” he said. “If you look at college basketball, the home team wins over 70 percent of the time. It’s difficult to win in any league or level in college basketball on the road.”

However, why did Miller’s team do a good job on the road earlier in the season?

A big part for the early success was that Eastern was beating up on not the greatest competition.

Western Illinois (9-13), Toledo (3-18) and Chicago State (6-16) were three of those victories.

Another problem is Eastern finally faced stiffer competition with the upper echelon of its league with Murray State (20-3, 11-0 OVC), Morehead State (15-7, 9-2 OVC) and Eastern Kentucky (15-8, 7-4 OVC) putting the Panthers in their place.

The road is not the main problem, though.

For a fact, injuries are not affecting the team. Miller said in last Tuesday’s interview that everyone is healthy.

And this drop-off does not have anything to do with senior guard Romain Martin calling it quits. Martin was not himself after a knee injury limited his production to 4.4 points per game off the bench.

One possible clue on Eastern’s current lack of success comes from Miller himself. In numerous interviews with WEIU-FM after frustrating conference defeats, Miller points out breakdowns on offense and defense as the main problem.

Miller said during the Jan. 21 game against Murray State, the Racers had nine blocks within five feet and Eastern missed 15 overall.

“If we make five out of those 15 shots, we have 10 more points and a win,” Miller said.

Scoring has also been down, with Eastern putting up 57.1 points per game over the last seven games down from 75.47 ppg over the first 15.

Before the losing spiral, junior guard Tyler Laser said his team was not complacent.

“We have no reason to be complacent,” Laser said. “We haven’t done anything. We have won a few games; but in the outlook, we have we have really done nothing.”

The Panthers will still make the OVC Tournament because Tennessee Martin and Tennessee State are a combined 1-20 in league play, but Miller needs to fix his team’s lapses to be competitive against real opponents.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].