Hard work, time, effort and building a family.

Those will be keys to the continued success of Eastern’s women’s basketball in the Lee Buchanan era, which formally launched at 11 a.m. on Monday at his introductory press conference in Lantz Arena’s Club Room.

“Abraham Lincoln once said that ‘I will prepare, and someday my chance will come,’” Buchanan said.

After 26 years of coaching, his Division-I coaching debut has come.

“I’m just excited to get things started; with me you’re getting a positive, energetic, passionate and demanding leader,” Buchanan said.

Calling himself a big time X and O guy, Buchanan proclaimed his love for game preparation, scouting and fundamentals before getting started on his veteran squad.

“They’ve got to be willing to come in and get in the gym and take some extra shots. They’ve got to be willing to come in and watch a little bit of extra film,” Buchanan said.

When asked how he’d sprinkle in a few new wrinkles to throw opponents off-guard for the upcoming season, Buchanan brought up one word to encapsulate it all: team.

“I want to be able to go deep into our bench. A lot of you know Ta’Kenya Nixon, Hillary (Held) and Kelsey (Wyss) sitting here in the front row, and they may be 22 years old, but their bodies are like 40-year-olds,” he said. “We’re going to try to save their legs a little bit, so that all of our players are involved.”

Buchanan is also looking to install more zone defense and trapping looks than last season (covering areas instead of traditional man defense, and preventing various penetration tactics as well as pressuring perimeter shooters).

Kicking off the press conference was Rich Moser, associate athletic director and media relations front man, citing Lee Buchanan on covering the qualities of integrity, the importance of the development and welfare of the student athlete.

“It’s another great day in the history of Panther athletics,” Moser said. Backing him up was Dan Nadler, the vice president of student affairs. “We know that we’ve selected a winner in every aspect of the game,” Nadler said.

Athletic director Barbara Burke said she is confident in Buchanan’s ability to lead the team in the upcoming school year after meeting with him during the coaching search.

“The one thing that this process did for me, it gave me an opportunity to get to know Lee better,” Burke said. “It was really important for me to talk to Lee privately and to hear his vision, which is different from Brady’s (Sallee) vision, and it should be.”

Joshua Bryant can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].