Eastern Washington University has promote men's basketball associate coach David Riley to the head coaching position vacated by Shantay Legans. Legans accepted a head coaching position at the University of Portland after guiding the Eagles to a Big Sky Conference title and NCAA tournament appearance this season.
CHENEY - Continuing the tradition of hiring from within and rewarding program loyalty, Eastern Washington promoted associate head coach David Riley to fill the vacancy left when Shantay Legans was hired away by the University of Portland on March 22.
Previously Aaron Best in 2017 was named to succeed Beau Baldwin in football and Legans, in the same year, were both assistant coaches who earned promotions. The 2021-22 season will be Riley's 11th in Eastern's program and his eighth as a coach.
"I am honored and excited about being named the next head coach of Eastern Washington University," Riley in a news release. "The past 10 years at EWU have been an incredible journey and I am grateful to all the current and former players who helped put me in this position."
Interim EWU President Dr. David May was one of many who signaled approval of Riley's promotion. "I am very pleased that Coach Riley has agreed to lead EWU's men's basketball team to the next level of success," he said.
His former boss, Legans, was a big fan of Riley's elevation to leading Eastern's program. "It makes me feel good that I'm leaving this place and then Dave (Riley) is going to take over and do a great job; I'm excited about it," he predicted in a March 24 interview with the Cheney Free Press. "If Eastern wants to be good they better hire Dave Riley?
One of Riley's first tasks will be to attempt to plug the transfer portal hole that opened in Cheney after news of Legans' departure. So far Jacob Davison and the Groves brothers - NCAA Tournament phenoms Tanner and Jacob - have entered into the pool that because of COVID-19 allows a transfer to another school without losing a year of eligibility.
Riley is a 2011 graduate of Whitworth University and two years later received his master's degree from EWU. He played at Whitworth for Jim Hayford, then was director of basketball operations at EWU when Hayford took over as Eastern's head coach in 2011. He then served three seasons as an assistant for Hayford, and the last four under Legans.
Under Hayford and Legans, Eastern's four 20-victory seasons are among the top five win totals in EWU's now 38-year history in NCAA Division I. The combined 125 wins in six seasons are also the most since EWU became a member of NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 season.
"David has been an integral part of Eagle Basketball for years and so he understands the culture and the potential that this program has," EWU athletics director Lynn Hickey said.
Riley inherits a program that finished with a 16-8 record and reached the Big Sky Conference tournament championship game in 2018 and 2019. The Eagles were conference regular season champs in 2020 before COVID-19 wiped out both the conference and NCAA tournaments. The team won the 2021 conference tournament crown and faced Kansas before losing 93-84 on March 20.
Riley's uncle Mike has been head football coach at Nebraska, Oregon State, the San Diego Chargers and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League.
Paul Delaney is a retired former Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].
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