Eastern men’s basketball team has the look of a North Carolina, a Michigan State or a two-time defending national champion Florida this year.

Before you choke on those words, by no means are the Panthers ready to compete at the national level like those programs.

The key word in that opening sentence is “look.”

The Panthers’ new uniforms this season are designed in the form-fitting way that most serious contenders, a la the above-mentioned teams, in college basketball have today.

But Eastern has a long way to go – still – before it can begin to get out of the depths of the Ohio Valley Conference, one of the worst college basketball conferences in the nation.

It’s December, and once again, instead of sitting here talking about the ways in which Eastern has improved in its third year under head coach Mike Miller, the same problems are plaguing the Panthers.

Turnovers.

An inside scoring presence.

Rebounding.

Finding a consistent third scorer.

The list could go on, but this column space isn’t long enough to go into all the details.

Miller has said repeatedly since the end of last year’s 10-20 season that his team played their best basketball from the middle of January to the end of February.

One would expect then, with 11 returning letter-winners and two new freshmen, the improved play would continue.

It hasn’t.

But, with the start of conference play tonight against Tennessee Tech, all the negative vibes, the lack of offensive production and overall lack of wins could change.

But, according to recent history, it most likely won’t.

But then again, who knows.

The Panthers were 0-4 before starting OVC play in Miller’s first year.

Eastern then proceeded to go 5-15 in league play, good for a 10th place finish.

The 2006 season saw moments of hope early on.

Well, one of those was a win in November. All right, it was against an NAIA opponent, but after the 6-21 season the Panthers suffered in 2005, any positive stride is noticed.

The Panthers headed into Christmas with a 5-8 record.

But the merry feelings the team had before Christmas soon turned to coal shortly after wins against quality opponents like Wisconsin Green Bay at home and Tennessee Tech on the road soon became 26-point losses at Tennessee-Martin and a 27-point blowout loss at Austin Peay.

The Panthers went more than a month between wins and, in the process, lost eight games, seven of which were OVC games.

The annual countdown to looking at opposing OVC teams’ schedules to see if the Panthers had a chance to crack the eight-team postseason tournament began.

And with it came the mind-numbing process of figuring out if Team X won, then Team Y lost this game two days later, but if Team Z won four of its next five but lost the third game, then Eastern would make the postseason.

The progress the Panthers showed late last year (a 5-4 record in their last nine games), gave a glimmer of hope the program would improve this year.

Now, in the cold winter that has hit east-central Illinois this week that hope hasn’t arrived yet.

No Eastern fan that enters Lantz Arena tonight can be certain if they’ll leave with a warm feeling of the Panthers win.

But hey, at least their uniforms make them look like a Division I team – because their play certainly hasn’t.