Eastern Washington's Hayford gets new five-year deal

Jun 13, 2014 - 8:44 PM Cheney, WA (SportsNetwork.com) - Eastern Washington University announced Friday that head men's basketball coach Jim Hayford has received a reworked five-year contract that will run through the 2018-19 season.

Hayford, who has gone 40-54 in three seasons at the school, had two years remaining on a five-year pact he signed to become the Eagles' head coach in 2011.

Eastern Washington, which has not won more than 15 games in a campaign since 2003-04, showed steady improvement under Hayford's direction this past season. The Eagles went 7-4 over its last 11 Big Sky Conference games to finish 10-10 in league play and 15-16 overall.

"We are excited that Coach Hayford will continue to build our men's basketball program for another five years," said EWU athletic director Bill Chaves. "I feel that our program is headed in the right direction and by doing this at this time, it will help stabilize the foundation by which we are building."

Hayford owns a 294-138 record over 15 seasons as a head coach, most of which was spent at Division III Whitworth University from 2001-11. Whitworth reached the NCAA Division III Tournament six times during Hayford's 10 seasons there, highlighted by an Elite Eight appearance in 2011.