Senior center Ellie Colson is in her last year of eligibility of basketball with the Panthers. During the 2023-24 season, Colson played in 33 games making nine starts. Colson averaged 1.5 points per game and 1.7 rebounds.
For the 2024-25 season, she has played in 17 games averaging 1.6 points.
Coming to Eastern straight from Summit High School where the team’s record was 17-11, averaging 11.4 points per game, Colson knew Eastern was where she wanted to go after one conversation with the welcoming team.
When Colson was younger, her father not only encouraged her to play basketball but also served as her coach. She would even decline to play any other sport, even if her mother recommended softball.
Colson is a marketing major, and she hopes to work for a professional sports team, preferably a basketball team since that’s what she knows best.
In this Q&A , Colson talks about her loyalty of staying at Eastern all four years, how the coaching change for the 2024-25 affected her and why Michael Jordan will forever be the G.O.A.T in basketball.
Q: When did you first start playing basketball?
A: “I started playing basketball in kindergarten, so I think I was 6 years old. Six or 7, something like that.”
Q: Did you play rec league?
A: “Yes, rec league. My dad coached me, some days it was fun, some days it wasn’t, but that’s how I started off, and I loved it immediately.”
Q: Does your dad still try to coach you?
A: “Oh yeah, it was way worse than high school. God bless that man. He would sometimes get kicked out of games because he’s over there trying to coach, by all means, it was all coming from a good place. He does it less now that I’m in college.”
Q: Why did you choose to play at Eastern?
A: “I would definitely say the people, and I know so many people say that at Eastern, but I think Eastern has all the best personalities, and you get a mix of everyone from different walks of life, and I think that’s what makes it so special. The team, they were so welcoming, and they just made me feel like I was already a part of it, and that sounds cheesy, but they’ve always done a really good job of bringing in people that are talented, hard-working, and caring, even when it’s just a recruit. So, that was really big for me, and I just felt like I prayed a lot about it, and I think God made it clear, this is where I’m supposed to be.”
Q: You’ve been playing at EIU all four years while most usually transfer. How’s that been?
A: “It has been very rewarding in a way. I’m very big on loyalty, and the team is what has kept me coming back, the assistants, the head coaches we’ve had, and to me, it’s all worth it. I think in high school, I had periods of time where the people kind of made it harder for me to enjoy basketball. When it was here it was like, no matter how hard practice was I was still laughing in the middle of practice while I’m dying doing 16 ones, and that was big of being able to still enjoy it while going through the hard times.”
Q: With the head coaching change this year, how did you feel?
A: “I really liked it. Marqus [McGlothan], you can just tell he was born to coach basketball. He has a mind that I’ve never seen a coach have, offensively and defensively. While we’re hooked on one thing, he’s already 10 steps ahead, and he knows how he’s going to fix it, how he’s going to approach it, how he trains us, all of it. Coach B[ollant] was an amazing coach, and I’m forever grateful for him because he taught me so many things about life and basketball, and so even having Marqus as our assistant the past few years, it was a very easy transition for us because we were used to him, but grateful for both coaches and thankful that Marqus decided to stay and become a head coach for us. It meant a lot to me.”
Q: Who on the team are you giving the aux to?
A: “Sydney James-Desroches. She’s got great music taste, and we’re both big music lovers, so we often share, like, ‘Hey, I think you’ll like this song,’. She’s my roommate, so we’re constantly listening to music, and she’s got impeccable music taste, so definitely Syd.”
Q: Who are your top five music artists?
A: “Donny Hathaway, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, One Direction and The Eagles.”
Q: Do you think pineapple goes on pizza?
A: “Oh my gosh, me and my teammate were just talking about this. OK personally, I do not mind pineapple on pizza. Is it my first choice? No, but if it’s on there, I’m eating it. I think it’s still a good combo. I have no complaints.”
Q: Who is the G.O.A.T in basketball?
A: “This is so controversial, but I will live and die on the hill of Michael Jordan.”
Q: Why do you say Michael Jordan?
A: “It’s just the effect he had. I’m gonna go ahead and give it to him. It was like he was just pivotal to basketball. He was the first one that you saw, that man can do it all. He’s not just a shooter, which he had to develop later in his game. But like the frenzy he caused not only in America, but in other places, especially once they had the Olympics. There’s no name like that. He was to me the frontier and like the starter of like, man, like the NBA is legit. You’ve got Larry Bird, you’ve got Magic Johnson that was incredible as well at their craft, but it went beyond basketball with Michael Jordan. It was just life being lived, socially, or socializing, fashion, even, like the way he dressed, people ate it up. So yeah, Michael Jordan through and through to me.”
Q: Who inspired you to play basketball?
A: “My dad. He was the first to go off to college and actually get his college paid for through basketball. And he started at a JUCO down in Georgia, and then transferred to Austin Peay [University] his last two years. So we’ve always been a big basketball family. It’s always been what’s on in the living room. Football, sure, every now and then, but for me and my sister, both, it was always basketball, basketball, basketball. And so just the little passion my dad had for the game very much transferred over into me and his hard work ethic and his drive for it.”
Q: Do you watch the WNBA or the NBA more?
A: “Oh, WNBA. I don’t want to say I love the NBA, but they don’t play defense for real over there. I ain’t ever seen somebody box out. To me, it’s soft now. The NBA is soft now compared to when you had Dennis Rodman, especially on the Detroit Pistons. They were the Bad Boys. It was physical. It wasn’t panty-ante stuff. I will always watch women’s teams over men. The passion they have.”
Q: What is your favorite team?
A: “For the NBA, even though I don’t watch them that much, I really like Minnesota for the guys because Anthony Edwards, he’s just fun to watch. For the WNBA, I do enjoy watching Chicago play. We’ve gone and seen them play during the summertime with our team. I do. I like the way they play. They have a little attitude to it, and they back it up. This is so hard since I’m a college player, this is cheesy and like everyone’s favorite, but I love watching South Carolina. I love Dawn Staley, they’re fun to watch. For the guys, I used to like watching Marquette play.”
Q: If you weren’t playing basketball what sport would you play?
A: “Probably softball. When I was younger, my mom always wanted me to do other sports. Like volleyball and softball. I refused because I was like, no, we play basketball in this house.”
Q: Do you think the Earth is round or flat?
A: “Oh girl, that thing is round.”
Q: What is your favorite memory with the team?
A: “I think one of my favorites, this past summer, Marqus got two pontoon boats for team bonding. It was really fun getting to know the new people coming in. Marqus is so good about team bonding stuff and keeping us together. I think that was a moment of like, OK yeah this team is special, really, really special.”
Q: Who’s the funniest person on the team?
A: “The immediate person that comes to mind is, once again, Sydney. We have the same sense of humor, so it just works out perfectly. So I would say Sydney. Georgia [Cox] is really funny. Someone that is underrated funny just because of how close I am with them. So I get to kind of see how they are, Macy [McGlone]. Macy has a very funny sense of humor and just like stuff she’ll say or do. Like she doesn’t even realize it’s funny. I would say them. And Kennedy Davis, that girl. She’s hilarious.”
Q: If you had a walkout song what would it be?
A: “’Partyman’ by Prince.”
Q: What do you think the biggest strengths of the team are?
A: “I think our biggest strength would be that we just don’t give up. We are very, very relentless, and competitive, and you could feel it in the summer when everyone even first got there, that first or second practice. Like the energy in the room was different. When we’re backed up in a corner against the wall, we’re going to fight and fight and fight to get out of that corner. I think that’s just a testament to who Marqus is and how he has coached us. I think in other years, we’ve lacked that and we’ve got the leadership now that enforces it.
Q: What is your major?
A: “Marketing.”
Q: What do you plan to do with your major?
A: “I would love to be part of a marketing team on a professional sports team. I’d love for it to be basketball, especially because I know the ins and outs of basketball. But I would also enjoy being on a marketing team for football.”
Q: How has playing college basketball influenced your future career plans?
A: “I think in high school, I very much was like, OK, I’m gonna, I’m gonna keep basketball as just something that I do. Uh, it’s not going to be much else than that. I’m going to play college ball, that’ll be the end of it. I’ll wind up getting a job somewhere, not a boring job, but it’ll be something outside of basketball where now it’s like. I think basketball can be a tool for me to get to other places. Especially in the work field, when it comes to marketing, there’s a lot of marketing that goes into sports like getting people to games, fundraising, all of that. And now that I’ve, especially on a college level, seen that, I think that sparked my interest. I’m like, OK, I think I like, I want to do something about this, like social media marketing, something like that.”
Q: How do you prepare mentally for a big game?
A: “So mentally, usually I pray a lot. In general I pray a lot, but especially like before games and during the national anthem, I’m praying just for peace. No matter the outcome of win or loss, like you are still God. I think knowing that, and that being my focus of knowing, no matter what happens, whether I play good, whether I play a lot or not, God is still God. He’s sovereign and he rules over all of this. As long as I have him and I maintain my relationship with him, I’m good.”
Q: What advice would you give to young girls aspiring to play basketball at the collegiate level?
A: “I would say when you are choosing a school, don’t choose a school just because of how big the university is and how many people they have at their games. Whether the coach has X amount of wins, It’s really about the people because that’s who you’re going to be spending the most time with. And when you are with a team that truly loves you and sees you for who you are and they’re still competitive, but they encourage you and want to see you win, that is what makes it all worth it.”
Q: What would you tell your younger self?
A: “I think I would tell my younger self to just slow down and just enjoy, enjoy what’s happening around me, especially when it comes to basketball. I think I very much got caught up in being perfect all the time. In high school, having to be the go-to person and like the star of the team, there was a lot of pressure, not even just from coaches, but like my dad. And I, instead of leaning into it, I kind of shied away from it and it gave me a lot of anxiety. I feel at times I didn’t work as hard as I should have. I would give myself that advice of like, at the end of the day, like this is, this sport is for you. You’re not doing this for other people. You’re doing this for yourself and just being able to remind yourself of that more.”
Payton Liggins can be reached at 581-2812 or at paliggins@eiu.edu.