Providence Decides to Play Keno, Stevens Stays at Butler

Well you could say that the Friars hit the lottery, hiring Drake's Keno Davis as their new head coach.  In his first season as head coach of the Bulldogs, Davis led Drake to a 28-5 season, where they won the Missouri Valley regular season and tournament conference championships and were ranked in the Top 25 for a good part of the season.  Drake lost to Western Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament 101-99 on a wild three point shot by the Hilltoppers' Ty Rogers at the buzzer.   

A couple of other mid major coaches were offered the Friars' job, including George Mason's Jim Larranaga and Davidson's Bob McKillop, but they turned down the offer.  The reason being that it will be very difficult to recruit in such a deep Big East conference, where eight teams this past season made the NCAA tournament.   However, Davis' ball control offense and hard work philosophy may make Providence a team to reckon with next year.  The team returns all five of its starters who averaged in double figures led by Jeff Xavier and they will also have back injured point guard Sharaud Curry.   So Davis walks into a pretty good situation in his first year.  It made sense for Davis to leave.  His former Bulldogs team graduates three players including Missouri Valley Conference Player of the year, Adam Emmenecker, guard Leonard Houston and forward Klayton Korver.   The Bulldogs do have Josh Young and Jonathan Cox returning, so whoever takes over at Drake, the cupboard is not exactly bare.

One Bulldogs coach leaves, another one stays. Brad Stevens signed a seven year contract extension to remain the coach of Butler.  Stevens led the Bulldogs to a 30-4 record which included a Horizon League regular season and conference tournament championship, a first round win in the NCAA tournament by drubbing South Alabama 81-61, then lost a second round heartbreaker to Tennessee in overtime 76-71.  The Butler head coaching position has been a past springboard for previous coaches.  Thad Matta left for Xavier, then Ohio State.  Last year, Todd Lickliter went to Iowa.   Stevens will have a little bit of a rebuilding year as seniors Mike Green, A.J. Graves, and Pete Campbell all graduate.  But he will have the impressive Matt Howard back for another three years.

And in a semi surprising move, we had our first mid major player declare for the NBA draft.  Gonzaga junior guard Jeremy Pargo declared for the draft, but wisely did not hire an agent (unlike the genius Eric Gordon).  Jeremy stated "I'm looking forward to Orlando and the pre-draft workouts [May 27-30] and then I will make the decision to return to Gonzaga or stay in the draft."   This will hopefully give him the knowledge (by hopefully talking to NBA scouts) whether or not he should play in the NBA.   If Pargo comes back for his senior season, Gonzaga should be the best mid major conference team in the NCAA next season (and would be my pre-season Mid Major's Bakers Dozen #1 ranked team).