WSU Loses 2nd Assistant Schneider Named Head Coach At Floundering Cal Poly-Slo

Washington State University men’s basketball coach Kevin Eastman lost his second assistant in as many days Saturday when Jeff Schneider accepted the head coaching job at Cal Poly-San Louis Obispo.

Schneider, 35, will be introduced at a press conference Monday as the successor to Steve Beason, who resigned after a disastrous 1994-95 season that saw the Mustangs finish 1-26 overall and 0-6 in the American West Conference.

Byron Samuels, Eastman’s other top aide, resigned Thursday to become the head coach at Hampton (Va.) University, a private school that is stepping up from Division I to Division II next fall.

Eastman, who led WSU to an 18-12 record and into the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament in his first year as a Cougar, said he considered the losses as “nothing but a positive step” for his program.

“I’m as excited as can be,” he said, “because I think it’s going to allow us to attract more quality assistants. I can’t sit here and say that every year they’re going to be able to get a Division I job, but I know we’ll be able to get good people in here from now on, no question about it.”

Eastman said it is nearly unprecedented that two assistant coaches from the same staff would land head coaching jobs at Division I schools in the same year.

“Granted, they’re both growing programs,” he admitted. “But you’ve got to start somewhere. And the majority of coaches who are Division I assistants right now won’t get the opportunity to start at a Division I level. They’ll have to go Division II or NAIA, like I did.

“I think it’s a great statement about our program and how it’s perceived nationwide.”

Eastman said he has already received close to 20 phones calls from interested candidates and hopes to fill the two vacancies on his staff by the end of this month.

“I know now what Washington State needs and I know now what our players need, so I’m going to fit the applicants into that,” Eastman said. “I want workaholics who are first-class people and who can relate to all constituencies of our programs in that they can talk to little kids at camps, they can talk to high school prospects, they can talk with college players, they can talk with parents and they can talk with a 30-year-old fan as well as a 70-year-old fan.

“And I feel confident we’ll be able to get that type of person.”

With Wednesday’s national letter-of-intent signing day approaching, Eastman admitted that the the departures of Schneider and Samuels might have been better timed.

“But, basically, I’m not going to work on anything but recruiting for the next three weeks,” he said.

Eastman, who had two prospects on campus this weekend, said he will not announce any late signing on Wednesday, but plans to sign at least one more wing player and probably another backup front-liner by the end of May.