Eastern Washington fires Earlywine

CHENEY - Eastern Washington will not renew the contract of men's basketball coach Kirk Earlywine after four losing seasons.

Earlywine was 42-78 at the Big Sky Conference school. Eastern made the league playoffs for the first time in five years this season, and was eliminated in the first round. The 46-year-old Earlywine was 24-40 in conference play.

Director of athletics Bill Chaves said the program wants to go in a new direction. The search for a replacement will begin immediately.

"I would like to thank coach Earlywine and his staff for the contributions they have made over the past four basketball seasons at Eastern," Chaves said. "But after evaluating our overall situation, it was determined that a change in leadership was in the program's best interest."

Chaves said a search for a replacement for the 46-year-old Earlywine will begin immediately.

Chaves notified current Eastern players of his decision early Monday afternoon. There were no seniors on this season's 15-man roster, which included two players who redshirted and one who did not play.

Earlywine's record included a 24-40 (37.5 percent) record in Big Sky Conference games. After three-straight seventh-place finishes in the league, Eastern was 7-9 this season to finish in a fifth-place tie. That earned EWU its first berth in the Big Sky Conference Tournament in five years.

Eastern's season came to an end at Weber State last Saturday (March 5), when the Eagles lost to the Wildcats 79-70 in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Eastern ended the season just 10-20 overall, but finished the regular season with wins over two of the league's top three finishers -- a 59-55 overtime triumph over Montana and a 75-59 victory against Weber State. Those wins by the Eagles kept the Grizzlies from clinching at least a share of the league title and cost the Wildcats a first-round bye in the tournament.

Earlywine, who is originally from Indiana, spent seven seasons from 1999-2006 as an assistant coach at Weber State. His lone season as a head coach prior to his tenure at EWU was at Pfeiffer University in 1995-96. Pfeiffer was 21-8 overall and 14-4 in conference play to advance to the NCAA Division II Championship that season.