Thoughts on the new PC Coach

By: Frank Carpano

Here’s what I’ve heard about the new coach of the Friars.

All very positive.

Keno Davis comes from a college basketball background. His Dad Dr. Tom Davis was a very successful coach who finished his career at Drake. His son was an assistant for his dad, and it was understood that Keno would take over for his dad when he retired.

Dr Tom retired after the 2006-2007 season and Keno became a head coach for the first time this past season.

The transformation of the Drake program under Keno’s guidance was nothing short of amazing. The school where “experts” claim is tough to win (sound familiar), rocked the Missouri Valley Conference this past season. Drake picked to finish 9th in the 10 team league, won the regular season title and the conference tournament.

Drake won a school record 21 games in a row and won a school record 28 games this past season. They played in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 37 years, losing the Western Kentucky in overtime. And all this was accomplished with only one returning starter from the year before.

Prior to this season, Drake was hard pressed to put people in the seats at their home games. But this year produced many sellouts

Drake’s lost 4 times this past season by a total of 13 points! That tells you they were in every game they played.

Keno Davis likes to play an up-tempo style. His teams a school record number of 3 pointers. They employed a match-up zone defense which opponents found very difficult to score against. I’m told that Davis likes to use full court pressure, but didn’t have the personnel this past season to use it successfully.

Davis, a 1995 graduate of the University of Iowa, was named the 2008 National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Sporting News

All that and he’s a Red Sox fan too!