Keno Davis

[VegasWarrior77]

Just curious... what happened to Buzz's running the equivalent of the distance to Indianapolis?  (I think that's what it was.)

[Lennys Tap]

Are you saying Buzz was the national coach of the year prior to coming here?  Let's compare apples to apples, shall we. 

If Buzz wins a national title in his second year at MU like Meyer did, I'll anoint him.

I was tough on Crean until year four...I'll stay consistent.

Didn't you say that if MU was 10-8 and made the tounnament that Buzz would deserve to be coach of the year? Not saying they will but under those circumstances is Buzz off probation?

[Pakuni]

BTW, the former coach of the year is now a terrible coach?  Get real.  The PC job is among the most challenging in the country and certainly in the BE.  Look at the coaches who have been there, left and had success elsewhere, e.g., Pitino, Barnes.  The PC job is a tough gig.

It's too soon to completely judge Keno (or Buzz, for that matter ... but I know who I prefer by a ton so far).

That said, you're vastly overstating the difficulty of the Providence gig and seem to be implying that Pitino and Barnes had a rough go of it there.

In fact, Pitino took them to a Final Four in just his second season. Barnes averaged 18 wins a year and made the NCAA three times in five seasons (including a Big East championship season). Dave Gavitt's teams were regulars in the tournament, back when it was 32 teams. We aren't exactly talking Northwestern here. It's a well-established program with a history of success (two Final Fours), good players, great coaches, excellent facilities, and membership in an elite conference. Nothing about the Providence gig makes it inherently more difficult than Marquette, Xavier or any number of similarly situated schools.
Among the most challenging in the country? Pfft.  

[ChicosBailBonds]

Didn't you say that if MU was 10-8 and made the tounnament that Buzz would deserve to be coach of the year? Not saying they will but under those circumstances is Buzz off probation?

In fact I said it again earlier today...I actually said if they make the NCAA tournament he should be Big East COY and yes, I said it again today.  But I think the award would actually go to Jamie Dixon if I were to guess.

And no, I still need 4 to 5 years.  Steve Lavin was coach of the year, Matt Doherty was National coach of the year....your favorite coach, Tom Crean, was COY as well (twice).    Until then, the best they get from me is "so far so good"

[GGGG]

National expectations for Drake were low and that's why he won the award?  Really?

Yes.  There are many other examples of that in the last 20 years.  Phil Martelli, Cliff Ellis, Matt Doherty, Larry Eustachy, Randy Ayers...  Just because you're coach of the year, that doesn't make you an elite coach.

[WxWarrior]

I bet that if the mods check your IP you'll turn out to be a vanity account for someone that decided to troll Chicos a bit without trying to make yourself look bad.  Why else would someone start derailing threads in their first couple posts?

Wow, you couldn't be more off base.  I have much better things to do with my time.  I guess I'm just a fan of Buzz AND MU. 

   

[ATWizJr]

It's too soon to completely judge Keno (or Buzz, for that matter ... but I know who I prefer by a ton so far).

That said, you're vastly overstating the difficulty of the Providence gig and seem to be implying that Pitino and Barnes had a rough go of it there.

In fact, Pitino took them to a Final Four in just his second season. Barnes averaged 18 wins a year and made the NCAA three times in five seasons (including a Big East championship season). Dave Gavitt's teams were regulars in the tournament, back when it was 32 teams. We aren't exactly talking Northwestern here. It's a well-established program with a history of success (two Final Fours), good players, great coaches, excellent facilities, and membership in an elite conference. Nothing about the Providence gig makes it inherently more difficult than Marquette, Xavier or any number of similarly situated schools.
Among the most challenging in the country? Pfft.  

Small Dominican school, off campus antiquasted arena, tough place  to recruit to.  If it was easy to succeed there, Pitino and Barnes would still be there.

[Pakuni]

Small Dominican school, off campus antiquasted arena, tough place  to recruit to.  If it was easy to succeed there, Pitino and Barnes would still be there.

The Dunkin Donuts Center received $80 million in renovations less than two years ago and is located about 2.5 miles from campus. It's hardly a DePaul-like situation. Heck, it's not that much farther than the BC is for most Marquette students. Georgetown plays in an arena further from their campus. Don't see it holding them back much.

I'd suggest big-money offers from the NBA and Clemson, respectively, had more to do with Pitino and Barnes leaving than with Providence being among the most difficult jobs in the country. I suppose one could say "If it were easy to succeed at Kansas, Larry Brown and Roy Williams would still be there."

What makes Providence more difficult to recruit to than, say, Storrs, Conn.? Or Manhattan, Kan.?  Or West Lafayette, Ind. (eeww)?Or, for that matter, Milwaukee, Wis.?

[Rocco]

I honestly could care less about accolades.  That team I saw MU beat by 30 sunday was terrible and it wasnt due to talent.......so make what ever conclusions you would like.  In my opinion he is terrible.  No discipline.

[ATWizJr]

The Dunkin Donuts Center received $80 million in renovations less than two years ago and is located about 2.5 miles from campus. It's hardly a DePaul-like situation. Heck, it's not that much farther than the BC is for most Marquette students. Georgetown plays in an arena further from their campus. Don't see it holding them back much.

I'd suggest big-money offers from the NBA and Clemson, respectively, had more to do with Pitino and Barnes leaving than with Providence being among the most difficult jobs in the country. I suppose one could say "If it were easy to succeed at Kansas, Larry Brown and Roy Williams would still be there."

What makes Providence more difficult to recruit to than, say, Storrs, Conn.? Or Manhattan, Kan.?  Or West Lafayette, Ind. (eeww)?Or, for that matter, Milwaukee, Wis.?

Renovations or not, the facility is subpar, the school has an enrollment of 3,000 and RI is not a hotbed of recruits for D1 play.

[smellofhotbeeftips]

"If it were easy to succeed at Kansas, Larry Brown would still be there."

Brown was caught with his pants down. He was boneing a cheerleader.

[Pakuni]

Looks like the honeymoon is over for Keno.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Trouble-in-Providence-Davis-taking-heat-after-F?urn=ncaab,215414

[rocky_warrior]

Looks like the honeymoon is over for Keno.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Trouble-in-Providence-Davis-taking-heat-after-F?urn=ncaab,215414

Wow, reading the article, you'd think Buzz should be under fire too for his identical 11-8 record, and similar comments about not having enough good players. 

I guess we throttled PC though, so it's all ok...

[Pakuni]

Wow, reading the article, you'd think Buzz should be under fire too for his identical 11-8 record, and similar comments about not having enough good players. 

I guess we throttled PC though, so it's all ok...

I'm pretty certain Buzz would be under fire if he followed a 30-point loss to a middle-of-the-pack team by blowing a 12-point lead w/2:00 to play at home to a bottom dweller...  followed by putting all the blame on the players and none on himself. (Not to mention a 22-point home loss to a so-so Louisville team and a home loss to Iona).

I'm pretty sure that's never happened in the past two years, but maybe I missed it when it did.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I'm pretty certain Buzz would be under fire if he followed a 30-point loss to a middle-of-the-pack team by blowing a 12-point lead w/2:00 to play at home to a bottom dweller...  followed by putting all the blame on the players and none on himself. (Not to mention a 22-point home loss to a so-so Louisville team and a home loss to Iona).

I'm pretty sure that's never happened in the past two years, but maybe I missed it when it did.

I'm pretty sure that the previous 6 years at PC were much different than the previous 6 at MU as well, meaning that Buzz and Keno started from completely different jump points.   Apples and Oranges, but it's good to see Rivals.com is still alive.  Thought they had gone dead, but with leading edge journalism like this, they are certainly going to stay around for a long time.


The first comment is of note: "Just thought I'd mention that Jim Donaldson is not the most liked sports writer in this area and he usually says outrageous things that nobody agrees with. I'm not even sure why he still has a job to be honest because he's pretty much a D-bag. PC is a young team with no big men down low defensively. Most people in the area knew that PC wasn't going to be any good on defense this year and they'll be lucky to finish around .500. I actually think the talent Keno has brought in has been solid and he has a 2 top 100 recruits coming in next season. "

[Pakuni]

I'm pretty sure that the previous 6 years at PC were much different than the previous 6 at MU as well, meaning that Buzz and Keno started from completely different jump points.   Apples and Oranges, but it's good to see Rivals.com is still alive.  Thought they had gone dead, but with leading edge journalism like this, they are certainly going to stay around for a long time.

Actually, Rivals for 2+ years has been part Yahoo! Sports, which has been regularly kicking tail on the likes of ESPN and SI on college sports stories  (just ask Pete Carroll, Reggie Bush and Jim Calhoun).
Try to keep up.

Just wondering, though, what does blowing a 9-point lead with 49 seconds to play at home against a team entering at 1-5 in conference have to do with the state of Providence basketball in 2004?
I'm guessing the correct answer is "Nothing."
Fact is, a decently coached high school team shouldn't blow that kind of lead to Kentucky in 49 seconds.

[smellofhotbeeftips]

A) You're not new around here

B) I thought we were talking about Keno, why did you bring up the other guy...strange for a "new" guy around here to be bringing it up.

LOL   

why do you give such love to the tanned one? is this homo eroticism?

[ChicosBailBonds]

Actually, Rivals for 2+ years has been part Yahoo! Sports, which has been regularly kicking tail on the likes of ESPN and SI on college sports stories  (just ask Pete Carroll, Reggie Bush and Jim Calhoun).
Try to keep up.

Just wondering, though, what does blowing a 9-point lead with 49 seconds to play at home against a team entering at 1-5 in conference have to do with the state of Providence basketball in 2004?
I'm guessing the correct answer is "Nothing."
Fact is, a decently coached high school team shouldn't blow that kind of lead to Kentucky in 49 seconds.

Yes, Eric Winter at Yahoo Sports is a great friend of mine...I worked with him here for a number of years.  And I do know about the association, but I honestly had thought it was Rivals being the bit player, not the other way around.  I'm surprised Rivals got top billing on it and not Yahoo, but that must be part of their agreement.  Yahoo bought Rivals several years ago for a very small sum, something like $90 million if I recall.  I didn't realize that part of the agreement was to keep the name in play...it's so nostalgic and cute.  It seems to me it's all Yahoo Sports basically, but their agreement must keep Rivals.com name alive.  Hell, even the XM name is still alive.  Go figure.

The reason why 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 are significant is because of what the coach is walking into, what expectations are, what they have to work with, etc.  It's all pretty elementary.  I agree, you shouldn't lose a game up by 9 points with 49 seconds left.  Definitely a gag job.  You shouldn't lose a game to DePaul either.  Go figure.

[Clam Crowder]

He's bringing in better recruits than PC has seen since the Pete Gillen era with Godd Shamgodd and their elite 8 team. He's a great recruiter, but his coaching is comparable to Buzz. Buzz inherited a great team last year, and deserves little credit for what they did last year. Buzz and Keno are on the same level.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

From the article:

"In 2008-09, Providence was expected to have its struggles. Some could even say the Friars played above expectations. Davis had tempered expecations from an understanding fanbase. But that's not the case in 2010. "

Are there any other schools, say, in the Midwest, that find themselves in similar situations? Maybe if Keno was a little bit better at PR, the media wouldn't be brow beating him.

[Clam Crowder]

I don't know what idiot would think PC would be good this year. Jamine Peterson was redshirted last year and nobody could predict the great season he has had. Look at his numbers. In addition PC is struggling because one of their better players is playing absolutely awful. The PC bench is full of freshman (and first year JUCO recruits), and if I had the choice between our slim bench and their all freshman one I would take ours. Look at his class next year, pretty similar to ours

[ChicosBailBonds]

From the article:

"In 2008-09, Providence was expected to have its struggles. Some could even say the Friars played above expectations. Davis had tempered expecations from an understanding fanbase. But that's not the case in 2010. "

Are there any other schools, say, in the Midwest, that find themselves in similar situations? Maybe if Keno was a little bit better at PR, the media wouldn't be brow beating him.

Part of the problem is that Providence has to deal with the East Coast media that is never kind to anyone.  Plus, he's a midwest guy in an eastern part of the country.  I always felt, perhaps wrongly, that the midwest news outlets were much kinder and gentler on the coaches than the eastern writers.  Perhaps ecompt has an opinion on that, since he was very much in the middle of all that.

[Lennys Tap]

Yes, Eric Winter at Yahoo Sports is a great friend of mine...I worked with him here for a number of years.  And I do know about the association, but I honestly had thought it was Rivals being the bit player, not the other way around.  I'm surprised Rivals got top billing on it and not Yahoo, but that must be part of their agreement.  Yahoo bought Rivals several years ago for a very small sum, something like $90 million if I recall.  I didn't realize that part of the agreement was to keep the name in play...it's so nostalgic and cute.  It seems to me it's all Yahoo Sports basically, but their agreement must keep Rivals.com name alive.  Hell, even the XM name is still alive.  Go figure.

The reason why 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 are significant is because of what the coach is walking into, what expectations are, what they have to work with, etc.  It's all pretty elementary.  I agree, you shouldn't lose a game up by 9 points with 49 seconds left.  Definitely a gag job.  You shouldn't lose a game to DePaul either.  Go figure.

Probably shouldn't lose to Loyola (Maryland) or Iowa (by 15) at home either. Go figure.

[4everwarriors]

Did they lose to BU also?

[mviale]

George Mason too