Friars Fall: Could Keno Davis Be Gone?
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
The 2010-2011 Providence College men’s basketball season came to an end last night – mercifully! The Friars bowed out in the first round of the Big East Tournament losing to Marquette 87-66. You have to wonder if it was Keno Davis’ final game on the PC bench.
Providence fell behind 17-0 in the first 5:30 minutes of the game before a Marshon Brooks basket stopped the bleeding for PC. But for most of the game it was much the same for the Friars who gave up open shots all over the floor to the Golden Eagles.
Even when the Friars cut it to 7 early in the second half, you knew it was fool’s gold. As usual, there was no defensive intensity and an undisciplined offense featuring poor shot selection.
Marquette shot 49% from the field (32-66) and 50% from three (7-14). The Golden Eagles also dominated the backboards outrebounding the Friars 49-31.
Marshon Brooks finished his career at PC by scoring 20 against the Golden Eagles. Vincent Council led the Friars with 21 points and 7 assists.
But enough about the game. It’s now about the future of the program and whether or not it includes Keno Davis.
There is simply no way that his boss – Athletic Director Bob Driscoll – can ignore the consistent hideous defensive performances by this program over the past couple of seasons. He also has to wonder if there’s any way that his current coach can change that.
However, to say that nothing good came out of this season would be unfair to both Davis and the program. There was the surprising (11-2) non-conference record which, admittedly, came against somewhat soft competition.
During that non-conference portion of the schedule, sophomore Vincent Council played very well looking like one of the better point guards in the Big East.
Freshman slasher Gerard Coleman showed plenty of promise being thrown into the fire right away. And who will forget the amazing, record-setting senior season of First Team All-Big East forward Marshon Brooks?
All of that good, however, was overshadowed by a dreadful Big East season.
An (0-6) start to conference play eliminated any hopes of the team competing in the middle of the pack of the Big East.
Yes, there were upset wins at home over ranked teams like Villanova and Louisville. But those were overshadowed by a (4-14) record, an awful home loss to DePaul which was the Blue Demons’ only conference win of the year and off the court issues which saw Gerard Coleman and Duke Mondy miss games and Brooks get benched at the start of the DePaul game.
The defense was absolutely horrendous for a second straight season. And on many nights, there were too many empty seats at the Dunk.
Which brings us to today – the day after. What happens next?
Speculation is rampant that Keno Davis could be dismissed as soon as today by the school. If that happens, many questions will arise. The most important one is: who will PC bring in as his successor?
We threw out some names here a few weeks ago like Harvard’s Tommy Amaker, former Boston College coach Al Skinner and Randy Bennett at St. Mary’s. Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt’s name has also been making its way around the rumor mill. Whoever it is, he had better be the right one. This program cannot afford to continue to head in the direction that it has been, which is to say backward, for much longer.
Some worry about what a coaching change could do to recruiting or the current make-up of the team. Does that really matter? Will you be upset if a team that is losing Brooks and went (4-14) in the Big East looks drastically different next fall? You shouldn’t.
This is not only a critical off season for PC basketball, it’s a critical one for AD Bob Driscoll and the entire athletic department.
If Driscoll decides, against the odds, to keep Davis, he had better hope that things improve dramatically next year or it could get uglier - uglier on the floor, uglier in the stands, and uglier for the department’s bottom line.
Likewise, if Driscoll does the expected and makes a change, he needs to pick the right man for the job. Friar fans’ patience is wearing thin so whoever the new coach is will have to have the ability to make everyone buy in to what he’s doing. More importantly, progress must be shown in his first few years. Without that, Bob Driscoll will be the one looking for employment elsewhere.
Not since Gordie Chiesa’s disastrous 1987-88 campaign have Friar fans been so disenchanted with the program. But that was only one year removed from their Final Four appearance so the interest level in the program was extremely high. They have lost some of that interest this time around.
However, Chiesa’s successor was none other than Rick Barnes who led PC to 4 NCAA Tournament appearances in his 6 years on Smith Hill. And if Driscoll can bring in the next Rick Barnes, all will be forgiven and PC fans will start to make their way back to Friartown.
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