 |
 |
 |
|
Keno Davis is the new coach at Providence. According to sources, he's going to earn a salary of nearly $1 million per year, and any Drake fans upset that the 36-year-old isn't being "loyal" to their school should read that number again.
That's nearly $1 million per year.
|
|
| New PC coach Keno Davis' bank account just got much bigger. (Getty Images) |
Which is why Davis had to make this move, because $1 million per year is significantly more than the $400,000 per year the reigning CBSSports.com National Coach of the Year could've probably received from Drake if Drake would've stretched itself. In other words, Davis will earn roughly 150 percent more per season at Providence than he could've ever made at Drake, and is there seriously a person out there who wouldn't move for that kind of cash and security?
I mean, besides Tony Bennett?
Look, I know this sucks for Drake and its fans.
Honestly, I do.
The school took a chance on the son of a legend, took a risk on an unproven assistant and when it worked brilliantly it made for a brilliant season, one in which the Bulldogs won the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles before returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1971. That's a great story by any standard. It would've been nice to see it continue. But the reality of big-time college basketball is that guys who enjoy success like Davis just enjoyed do not normally stay at places like Drake too long.
Consequently, the great stories rarely continue the way fans would hope.
In this era, unusual spurts of success at unsuspecting schools lead to Mark Turgeon moving from Wichita State to Texas A&M, Todd Lickliter moving from Butler to Iowa, Bruce Pearl moving from Wisconsin-Milwaukee to Tennessee, Craig Robinson moving from Brown to Oregon State, Jeff Capel moving from VCU to Oklahoma, Mike Anderson moving from UAB to Missouri, Darrin Horn moving from Western Kentucky to South Carolina and so on and so forth. Like it or not, there is a natural progression of things -- a progression that features small-budget schools losing coaches to big-budget schools and those coaches ultimately making statements like the statement Davis made Tuesday.
"This is big-time athletics," Davis told a crowd of boosters at his introductory press conference, which was attended by the Providence cheerleaders, band and hundreds of onlookers. "I'm excited to be a part of it."
Extra zeros in a paycheck have a way of doing that to a man.
They do it every offseason to some man, without exception.
