EWU adds two guards in portal, taking slow approach to team building: 'We're not in a position where we are scrambling'

May 7—Coaches have taken their time repopulating Eastern Washington's men's basketball roster during the last month, mostly because they don't feel all that rushed.

"We already had a lot of pieces in place that we felt good about," EWU associate head coach Ryan Lundgren said.

After signing two more players this week, Lundgren said he feels even better.

"The beauty of where we are at is we feel like we have a very good core, very balanced at every position," Lundgren said, "with a lot of talent and character in the locker room."

The two newest members of the Eagles' 2026-27 squad are a couple of guards: Tavi Jackson and Jalen Griffith.

Jackson has played two years of college basketball, the first at Colorado State in 2023-24 and the second at Southern Utah in '24-25. He played off the bench for CSU and then started 18 of 19 games for SSU before an injury ended his season. Originally from Las Vegas, the 6-foot-2 Jackson spent the '25-26 season recovering from that injury but is healthy now, Lundgren said.

"What he does best is rebound and defend, as good as he is offensively," Lundgren said of Jackson, who averaged 10.1 points per game for the Thunderbirds. "He's a really high-character kid."

Whereas Lundgren has known Jackson since he was a high school player, Griffith wasn't someone EWU coaches were as familiar with initially.

Griffith entered the transfer portal on April 7, the first day players could officially do so. He played the 2025-26 season as a junior at Western Michigan, where he started 17 of 27 contests and averaged 11.9 points and 3.4 assists per game.

Western Michigan finished the season 10-21 overall and 4-14 in the Mid-American Conference, and on March 8 it fired coach Dwayne Stephens.

Previously, Griffith had played at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, as a sophomore, and at Jacksonville University as a freshman. He is originally from Chicago.

Lundgren noted Griffith's 5-foot-10 frame but also pointed out that Eastern — and head coach Dan Monson throughout his career — has had success with smaller guards, such as Isaiah Moses last season, so Griffith's size wasn't a deterrent.

"He's a guy who can really put the ball in the basket but can also run the team as a guard as well," Lundgren said.

As one of the few Division I programs that didn't lose any players in the transfer portal — Andrew Cook's circumstance as a transfer with no remaining eligibility notably withstanding — Lundgren said the Eagles were positioned to be patient this offseason. Including Jamil Miller, the Eagles have now announced the signing of just three players, fewer than every other Big Sky program besides Northern Arizona (zero).

But Lundgren said the Eagles feel good about returning a frontcourt of Alton Hamilton IV, Emmett Marquardt, Shaumba Ngoyi and Allan Gballou and a backcourt of Cole Scherer, Maddox Monson plus Miller, Griffith and Jackson. High school recruits Malachi Richmond and Lance Horntvedt, Jr. will also be in the mix.