The Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team has a new head coach: Dan Monson is returning to Spokane County. Monson led Gonzaga to the Elite Eight in his second year as the program’s head coach in 1999, and, twenty-five years later, will now coach less than thirty minutes away. 

After EWU Athletics announced on April 3 that then-head coach David Riley would be leaving Eastern Washington University to coach for Washington State University, the Eagles’ coaching search began. The team posted on social media on April 9 that their hunt for the next head coach included over 240 phone calls and more than 700 text messages.

Director of Athletics Tim Collins chose Monson, who was recently involved in one of the biggest stories leading up to the NCAA tournament. Monson coached at Long Beach State University for 17 years, becoming their record holder in career games won (275 games). However, the program announced that at the end of the conference tournament, he would be fired.

Long Beach State entered the conference tournament as the fourth seed but rallied behind Monson to win the conference championship and qualify for the NCAA tournament for the second time since his arrival.

Prior to coaching at Long Beach State, Monson was at the helm of Minnesota for eight seasons, compiling a 118-106 (.527) record, and was the coach of Gonzaga for two years before that, going 52-17 (.754) and winning two conference championships. In total, he brings 445 career wins, four NCAA tournament appearances, and five conference Coach of the Year awards to Cheney. 

Monson spent a total of 25 years at Long Beach State and Minnesota. In comparison, Eastern Washington has had seven different head coaches during that span, with none staying longer than six seasons. With the Eagles losing 89.5% of their total minutes played due to graduating seniors and transfers, as reported by Dan Thompson of the Spokesman-Review, Monson may provide much-needed stability in a transitional period for the program.