Amazing Article on EWU Hoops Hire

homeytennis · Post by **homeytennis** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:10 am

This makes MSU Football Search look good. To put it into perspective who was hired, they hired a coach who had been an assistant at Weber State and was fired when Joe Cravens was let go and was an assistant at North Carolina Wilmington. UNCW record this year was 5-22. Weber had two consecutive losing seasons prior to the staff being let go. Can you imagine if MSU's football coach or basketball coach were hired and oh yeah just happen to be friends with the interim AD? I think the torches and pitchforks would be out.

Royal successions aren't this well greased.

Four men are due apologies after the announce- ment of Eastern Washington's new basketball coach Friday – the three runners-up, who were put through a pointless exercise, and Kirk Earlywine, who will carry the unfortunate baggage of being his buddy's hire until he can put a gold star of his own making on the resumé.

Though, of course, he has the consolation of actually getting the job.

But few grumps will mind the charade – or maybe even remember it – if he succeeds. It's the singular blessing of our results-intensive culture.

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Performance trumps process.

Alas, for the time being all we have for reference is the process, and the odor wafting from this one is surely something Eastern didn't need to cap a year of administrative and competitive calamity.

That Earlywine's career as a well-traveled assistant coach happened to dovetail with that of EWU interim athletic director Michael Westfall 12 years ago on the same staff at Central Michigan does not preclude the coach from being the right fit at Eastern. But that connection should have been of enough concern to nudge EWU president Rodolfo Arévalo into taking more steps to insulate the search, if you can call it that, from the perception that it was being compromised.

Or they just should have embraced the back-scratch and said the hell with it.

Instead, there were lots of demurrals and citing of big-name endorsements. Curiously, Earlywine's old boss, Rick Majerus, wasn't solicited for a rave, but his name was dropped so often that I kept looking around for the buffet.

"I knew this would become an issue," said Westfall, who is also EWU's vice president for advancement. "I knew I would get some heat for it. But at the end of the day, I have to do what's best."

Well, it would have also been best not to use three worthy coaches as beards.

"I know Jim Shaw and Rod Jensen," said Seattle Pacific coach Jeff Hironaka, the other finalist with those two before Shaw withdrew his name. "We all kind of felt like, unfortunately, anytime somebody knows one of the guys in the final search, you obviously feel he has an advantage."

Said Shaw, a University of Washington assistant, "You'll find a lot of times people hire people they know. It's not uncommon. If there was a (permanent) A.D. in place, it probably wouldn't have worked the way it did. But there wasn't. So it is what it is."

He's just too discreet to say what it is.

For instance, Hironaka didn't see the gym, the weight room, the offices – or the library or counseling center, for that matter. Shaw and Jensen saw the gym, but only because they asked. Earlywine didn't take that tour, either, but he'd made seven trips to Reese Court as an assistant at Weber State.

The fact is, the interviews were the equivalent of One-Hour Martinizing. Hironaka landed in Spokane at 11 a.m. and was home for the evening news. He and Westfall did grab some lunch.

At McDonald's.

Hope he didn't have to order off the Value Menu.

Again, this isn't to say that Earlywine was put up in a Davenport suite and dined at Luna. He caught red-eyes back and forth from North Carolina. Nobody needed to be spoiled here. But if this was a serious process, then why didn't Eastern think it needed to show off its place, to let candidates see where they might be working, to take an extra few hours to get to know the prospective coach?

Because that had already been decided, perhaps?

Late last basketball season, former athletic director Darren Hamilton spoke to the president's executive counsel about firing coach Mike Burns. Hamilton told The Spokesman-Review's Dave Trimmer that Westfall approached him in the days after the end of the season and said he ought to consider Earlywine as Burns' replacement.

"He also gave me a one-page summary of his accomplishments and background," Hamilton told Trimmer. "I said, 'Thanks for the input, but I don't think I'll need your help.' "

But on March 15, Hamilton was fired. Even though the president had signed off on firing Burns a week before that, Hamilton hadn't yet pulled the trigger.

Inexplicably, two months would pass before Westfall did.

But when he did, there wasn't much doubt what would happen – even when Brad Holland, with 13 successful years as the head coach at San Diego behind him, applied for the gig. Holland was announced as a finalist but immediately withdrew after a conversation with Westfall about the issue of money which he described as "challenging for both of us.

"I approached Michael from the standpoint of could we get creative to enhance (salaries)," Holland said. "He didn't seem to really want to try, at least within the first year. To me, quite frankly, that was a little bit of a red flag."

Or a white flag. Hey, school colors.

"I consider myself to be a principled person," Westfall said. "I'm not going to exclude a candidate because I happen to know him. And the last 12 years, we've seen each other four times, face to face. He wasn't in my wedding, he's not my kids' godparent. He's just someone I respect."

Earlywine did betray some concern that people would focus on his relationship with Westfall "rather than my credentials." And he recounted a conversation with former EWU coach Ray Giacoletti on Friday where career parallels were drawn and it was acknowledged that he'd had a previous relationship with the A.D. who hired him, Scott Barnes.

But there are obvious differences. Giacoletti spent four years recruiting the state as a UW assistant, and then three cutting his head-coaching teeth at North Dakota State. Earlywine has one year as head coach, a decade ago, and no experience recruiting here. Nor was Barnes an interim, a caretaker. He would have to live with his hire.

And Eastern will live with this one. It would be nice to be able to say more.

MSUcantouchus · Post by **MSUcantouchus** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:22 am

What is going on over there?

MSUcantouchus · Post by **MSUcantouchus** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:22 am

What is going on over there?

noreastercat · Post by **noreastercat** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:23 am

this is a bit of a confusing post. Is this a quote from an article somewhere or just homeytennis posting?

Cat in NC · Post by **Cat in NC** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:56 am

I think it's from an article (from the "Advertisement" part of the text) but, good God, it's damn near impossible to read. Brutal. From what I gather, the hiring process wasn't a process at all. More like a bad joke. Dinner at the Golden Arches? Sheesh.

homeytennis · Post by **homeytennis** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:03 pm

The article was in the Spokesman Review last week. The Seattle Pacific coach is really fired up and is saying some things in the Seattle media about the charade he was on. The other two Jensen and Shaw are keeping their mouths shut for the most part.

MSU01 · Post by **MSU01** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:14 pm

Say what you want about Peter Fields, but I think we can all agree that we're glad we didn't conduct our coaching search like that!

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:31 pm

Link to article:

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/sports/s ... ?ID=195182

BTW: if you are not a Spokanereview subscriber go to the top of the article and click on "Printer-Freindly" link and it will give you a text only version, but of the entire article.

oldcatfan · Post by **oldcatfan** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:17 pm

At least our coaching candidates got to see the football field and eat a decent meal while in town.

Cat in NC · Post by **Cat in NC** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 5:03 pm

oldcatfan wrote:At least our coaching candidates got to see the football field and eat a decent meal while in town.

You insinuating that a double quarter pounder with cheese, large fries and a McShake doesn't consititute a decent meal? He may have even gotten an apple pie! Snob...

Post by **SonomaCat** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 5:09 pm

So now anytime a college student goes on an internship interview and gets anything even better than McDonald's comped for them, they can take pride that they were being wined and dined better than a head coach at EWU.

PapaG · Post by **PapaG** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:30 pm

MSU01 wrote:Say what you want about Peter Fields, but I think we can all agree that we're glad we didn't conduct our coaching search like that!

Now knowing the eventual bargaining tricks being carried out by Van Diest and Lennon during their time in Bozemn, I almost wish Fields had done this to them.

It would have saved some much needed money. A Greyhound trip seems proper in retrospect as well.

4everacatfan · Post by **4everacatfan** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:40 am

This is why EWU will always be considered a second tier program to the people of Spokane. We who are sports enthusist want to root for them but when they pull crap like this in their hiring practices it is no wonder most people in this area would rather go watch a GSL High school basketball game then go watch the Eagles. This is just disgusting and embarassing for the school

homeytennis · Post by **homeytennis** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:21 am

The irony is that Eastern hired the least qualified of the four people that interviewed. Jensen (Boise State) and Hironocka (Seattle Pacific) have head coaching experience and Shaw was on a staff that went to the Final Four. You would think the Eastern President would get a backbone and have overruled the AD.

grizzh8r · Post by **grizzh8r** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 4:24 pm

Bay Area Cat wrote:So now anytime a college student goes on an internship interview and gets anything even better than McDonald's comped for them, they can take pride that they were being wined and dined better than a head coach at EWU.

I ate at a Steak N' Shake on my interview trip - how does that rate?

homeytennis · Post by **homeytennis** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:28 am

That not only would have gotten you the head coach job, but also the athletic director's and president of the university.