New coach Davis to PC: ' We can do something special here'
6:28 PM Tue, Apr 15, 2008 | Permalink
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PROVIDENCE -- Keno Davis, introduced today as Providence College's new men's basketball coach, said at a news conference that the team "is at a tipping point where we can do something special here." With as many as 300 people, including cheerleaders and a band, attending the 5 p.m. announcement in Alumni Hall, Davis expressed thanks to Drake University, where he has been coach this season and assistant coach for four prior seasons. "They did everything they could and more to try to keep me there," Davis said. "It was a tough decision." But he said the lure of playing in the Big East and one of the biggest conferences in the country drew him to Providence College. Davis, 36, won the Associated Press' National Coach of the Year award at the Final Four last week after leading Drake to a 28-5 record in his first season as head coach. Davis arrived in Providence on Monday and discussed particulars of the job into the night with athletic director Bob Driscoll. A contract was apparently agreed upon this morning. The question of who would replace former PC coach Tim Welsh had been hovering over the program for a month. The Friars thought they had a new coach twice before in this laborious process and were ultimately turned down, first by George Mason’s Jim Larranaga and then by UMass’ Travis Ford. -- With reports from Journal sports writers Paul Kenyon and Kevin McNamara Davis is the son of Dr. Tom Davis, who was the head coach at Boston College from 1977-82. Keno was born in 1972 and raised as a BC fan before his dad left to take a job at Stanford and then moved on to Iowa and then Drake from 2003-07 where he was joined by his son, Keno. Bob Driscoll, Providence College's athletic director, said at the news conference: "This is a great day to be a Friar." Driscoll introduced the coach and the coach's wife, Krista. Driscoll said the good news is Davis spent part of his childhood in Boston and his father coached ar Boston College -- and that the new coach is a Red Sox fan. (His wife is a Cardinals fan). Father Brian Shanley, Providence College's president, was involved in the search for the new coach. "Keno is an answer to prayer. I really believe that," Shanley said. Shanley noted that Keno has gotten several coaching awards. "To get the consensus national coach of the year to come to Providence College, is a great treat for us," Shanley said. The Drake University Bulldogs were picked to finish ninth in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference but blossomed into the most surprising team in the nation on the way to a conference title with a 15-3 record. At one point, Drake won 21 games in a row. Drake advanced to the NCAA's for the first time since 1971. The Bulldogs lost to Western Kentucky in the first round on a last-second 3-point shot in overtime. Keno Davis was previously an assistant coach at Drake from 2003–2007, Southeast Missouri State 1997–2003, Southern Indiana 1995–1997, as well as an undergraduate assistant coach at Iowa from 1991–1995. He and his wife Krista, whom he married in 2005, have a son, Brady, who was born in November 2007. 
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