The cries were heard after last basketball season to see a change at the helm of the men’s basketball program here at Eastern. Brady Sallee left for Ball State. And 25-year head football coach Bob Spoo retired.

So what can the Eastern community expect to see from so many new-look Panthers come Fall 2012?

As far as men’s hoops, “new” is going to be the feel on the hardwood this fall, said new head coach Jay Spoonhour.

“Everything is going to be new for these guys,” Spoonhour said. “New terminology, new offensive stuff, new defensive stuff, new stuff that drives me crazy that didn’t drive the previous coach crazy, all that stuff. And as a player, that’s what you have to learn.”

Installation of the defensive scheme has started, but we won’t know how the new-look Panthers attack the basket until November due to evaluation of the roster being the base of the offensive scheme for now, even though coach Spoonhour, like most coaches, has a preference on what they want to run.

“We’ve got to see what we’ve got first,” Spoonhour said. “In terms of offensively, we’ll figure out who can make it and we’re going to try to get them as many shots as we can. And the guys who can’t make it, we’ve got to convince them to get the ball to guys who can make it.”

Women’s coach Lee Buchanan has already revealed his hand and will be installing the Bill Self Motion (Kansas Motion) this season.

To get this offense to work, ideally you would like a good rotation at the center and forward positions for strength in the paint and one-on-one match-ups versus the other team. This leaves perimeter shooters to hang on the three-point line, or close to it. Both man-to-man and zone defenses will struggle against this attack if the perimeter shooters are making baskets, forcing more attention to them and away from the heart of the offense (the post).

On the football gridiron, Panther fans will be seeing an attack close to the up-tempo attack that the Baylor Bears and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III ran last season while they had Eastern’s new football coach Dino Babers.

This speedy attack means fans will see much less of the huddle. In this case the offense will line up and the quarterback or coordinator will read the defense and call plays from there. The typical pro-style under-center, three-, five- and seven-step drops before firing a pass will not be featured often.

The short passing game and fast pace allows you to “dink and dunk,” forcing the defense (which is already spread out) to move laterally and often times second guess themselves after the snap.

This means when the opponent is tired or catching on to the scheme throughout the game, the other team will have space between the tackles to set up the run.

These new tactics are the plan to upgrade and solidify three Panther programs this fall with the hope of players buying into the new systems and churning out positive results on the scoreboard and win columns.

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