Eagles have their own final four

Kirk Earlywine, assistant coach at UNC-Wilmington and colleague of Eastern Washington University interim athletic director Michael Westfall, was confirmed Saturday as one of four finalists for the Eagles men’s basketball head coaching opening.

Another finalist is a surprise – former Boise State coach Rod Jensen.

Seattle Pacific coach Jeff Hironaka and Washington assistant Jim Shaw are the other two under consideration.

“We’ve got a great pool,” Westfall said of the final four candidates to replace Mike Burns, who was fired May 30 after three seasons as head coach. “The selection committee was ecstatic over the pool.”

On Monday, Jensen will interview in the morning and Hironaka in the afternoon.

Earlywine is the first interview on Tuesday, followed by Shaw.

A decision is expected no later than Thursday.

“It sounds like I’m the underdog,” Hironaka said Saturday morning. “I hope I show well and make them make a decision.”

Hironaka is a native of Weiser, Idaho, who has compiled a 94-49 record in five seasons since replacing Ken Bone at SPU.

He was Bone’s top assistant for 11 years, during which the Falcons went 312-126 and made the Division II Final Four in 2000.

Prior to that, he was an assistant coach at Idaho State for three seasons and an assistant at The Master’s College in California.

Jensen has spent the last two seasons as an assistant at UNC Greensboro and was an assistant at Virginia from 2002-04.

Jensen was at Boise State for 19 years, the first dozen as an assistant through 1995 and then seven years as the head coach. The Broncos were 109-93 under Jensen with their best record 21-8 in 1998-99.

A graduate of the University of Redlands, he was an assistant there and at Penn State before going to Boise State.

Former Idaho and Weber State coach Joe Cravens, who just returned to the States from a European vacation, endorsed his long-time assistant, Earlywine, for the position.

“He has a good basketball mind and he’s been out West for a lot of years,” Cravens said. “I think he’d do a good job. He knows the Big Sky as well as anyone could, other than me, maybe.”

Noting Earlywine’s connection with Westfall, Cravens said, “It’s who you know as much as what you know.

“Had I been around and the timing was right, I probably would have tried to make a play, but … I want to support Kirk. He supported me.”

Earlywine was an assistant under Rick Majerus at Ball State in 1988-89 and followed him to Utah.

After three years with the Utes, Earlywine went to Central Michigan for a year, 1994-95, when Westfall was on staff. Earlywine then went to Pfeiffer College for a year and at Wisconsin-Milwaukee for two before joining Cravens at Weber State from 2000-06.

Cravens said he was fortunate that through basketball he was able to vacation in Europe but added, “In this case, it worked against me.”

He was a logical thought for a candidate because he was a long-time Weber coach before being fired just more than a year ago. He knew the area because he was once a coach at Idaho and an assistant at Washington.

Shaw has been at UW three seasons, which includes some of the best seasons in Husky history.

Prior to that, the Chimacum, Wash., native and Western Oregon graduate spent five seasons on Kelvin Sampson’s staff at Oklahoma.

While there, the Sooners went 131-37 with three Big 12 tournament titles, a Final Four berth in 2002 and Elite Eight in 2003.

He has also been an assistant at St. Louis, Portland, Montana State, Southern Utah, Oregon State and Idaho State.

“I’ve got a good job,” Shaw said. “I’m happy where I’m at. I’m looking forward to learning more about that situation.”

The five-person EWU search committee also picked former San Diego coach Brad Holland as a finalist, but he withdrew on Friday.