After another year of not meeting expectations, Providence decided to move forward with a new coach for the 2008-09 season, saying goodbye to Tim Welsh after 10 seasons. One priority for the new hire will be a better record in the postseason.

Keno Davis, the 36-year-old reigning college coach of the year, has a pretty sparkling record. His postseason success is debatable, perhaps, but Drake did win its first conference championship and conference tournament since sideburns were made fashionable.

Davis was announced April 15. Son of Tom Davis, former Boston College coach, the family has ties to the area and a familiarity with the fan base. Drake went to the NCAA Tournament and posted a 28-5 record, a miraculous turnaround with a roster of mostly upperclassmen who hadn't accomplished much for the senior Davis.

Welsh's undoing wasn't just that the team only made two NCAA Tournament appearances and three NIT trips in his 10 years, it's also his 0-2 NCAA record and 1-9 mark in the Big East tournament. But Welsh cited another factor which killed the team in 2007-08; the injury bug.

The Friars lost their starting point guard, Sharaud Curry, with a stress fracture in his foot in October, and it never healed. He wound up needing additional surgery after the season ended. Backup point guard Dwain Williams missed the end of the season with his own injured ankle, and several other members of the squad battled assorted bumps and bruises.

In part as a result of that, it was a frustrating year for the Friar faithful. The team swept UConn, and won nonconference games against Temple and Arkansas, and began Big East play with three wins in its first five games. At that point, it looked like the team might contend for an NCAA Tournament trip. But a win at UConn was followed by a disappointing home defeat to Seton Hall, which began a streak where the team went 1-9 over a 10-game span to fall into the bottom tier of the conference.

If the injuries stay away this year -- the team was hit hard and consistently by health issues last season -- the situation could prove ripe for a turnaround with Davis at the helm. The same formula -- senior leadership in a steady conference -- will apply.

The Friars return everyone except Charles Burch from the playing rotation, and will add a presumably healthy Curry in 2008-09. It will be a senior-dominated squad with a lot of Big East experience. But then again, it was supposed to be a veteran squad ready to take the next step in 2007-08, and the result was bad enough that the job vacancy arose in the first place.

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