Brady ball: Year three.

That title has graced the cover of the game releases this season for Eastern’s women’s basketball.

The expectations were high for head coach Brady Sallee and the Panthers in his third season as head coach.

Year one was forgettable and year two showed promise.

Year three was supposed to be when Sallee’s young team, strengthened by his great recruiting, put everything together and competed for the Ohio Valley Conference title.

It has not happened.

Heading into the final weekend of conference games, Eastern is in ninth place in the 11-team OVC and needs two straight wins in order to sneak into the postseason tournament.

Eastern will play Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Ala., and Samford in Birmingham, Ala.

Eastern has struggled on the road and two games to finish the season in Alabama, with so much on the line, is hardly an ideal situation.

But regardless of the outcome, there should be one definite for next season.

There should be a Brady ball: year four and, hopefully, year five.

In his third season, Sallee still has some players from the previous coaching staff and his first recruiting class is only sophomores.

Forward Rachel Galligan and guards Ellen Canale and Megan Edwards should be allowed to graduate in two years with the same coach.

Sallee, despite his three-year record of 29-54 overall and 18-36 record in conference play, deserves to lead Galligan, last year’s OVC freshman of the year, and the sophomores in their senior season.

That is the only way to accurately gauge how skilled a coach is and how worthy he is of an extension.

On Tuesday, the Daily Eastern News editorial stated they did not want the Eastern athletic administration to give either Sallee or men’s basketball head coach Mike Miller contract extensions after this season like they did last year.

I disagree.

Sallee will be in the final year of his contract next season and should not be a lame-duck coach, or a coach that does not know whether or not he will be back next season.

Miller has proven he can recruit as well, with OVC freshman of the year Mike Robinson running the point and Romain Martin poised to win the award this season.

Sallee’s freshman class has been equally as impressive with point guard Jessica Huffman almost a shoo-in to bring the women’s OVC freshman of the year award home.

Young talent is how you build a program but it does not ensure wins. It is when young talent matures into experienced upperclassmen that wins should be expected.

So give Sallee and Miller another year on their deals and let them take their first recruiting class to its senior season.

But if Eastern continues to struggle, then when Sallee has his first recruiting class as seniors, then it will be time to say goodbye.