FanHouse Keno Davis

In an effort to talk about something college basketball-related other than scandals in the summer, let's talk best current coaches. We'll attempt to order the top 25 current coaches in the nation. This is about the present and the future, not the distant past. What a guy did in the mid-90s doesn't matter near as much as the direction his program is currently headed. Past pedigree also matters, to an extent. For the perfect mix of past accomplishments with present achievement and a paved road for future success, look no further than the man atop the list.

With Keno Davis off to Providence after one wildly successful season as the Bulldogs head coach, Drake had to find someone to try and ensure it would be less than 37 years before their next NCAA Tournament appearance. They've settled on Mark Phelps, an assistant under Herb Sendek at Arizona State and North Carolina State for the last dozen seasons.

Phelps has never been a college head coach and has no ties to the Midwest but there are reasons to believe he'll succeed at Drake. He's been a top-flight recruiter domestically and abroad, the latter being a place Drake can exploit to get talented players who might not consider the school if they were from Chicago. In addition, two former Sendek assistants have done a fine job since leaving his bench. Thad Matta and Sean Miller have both won big so it's a decent bet on pedigree by the Bulldogs.

He's inheriting two solid players in Josh Young and Jonathan Cox and a program that's gained some name recognition thanks to their conference title. He should be able to recruit better players because of that and will need to since the Bulldogs are losing about half their scoring and assists from this season. The biggest loss is Adam Emmenecker, the MVC Player of the Year, who ran the point with aplomb last season. Replacing him will be quite tough and how well Phelps does it will help determine Drake's chances in the MVC and beyond in 2008-09.

It'll be hard for Keno Davis to top his first year on the bench as a head coach. Drake improved from 17-15 to 28-5 and swept the regular season and tournament titles in the Missouri Valley Conference. That meant the Bulldogs made their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1971 and won a school-record 21 straight games at one point in the season. And, to top it all off, he was named the Associated Press Coach of the Year today.

His father Tom won the award in 1987 with Iowa and the Davises are the first father-son duo to win the honor. He's just the second first-year coach to win the award. Bill Hodges, who took Larry Bird and Indiana State to the finals in 1979, was the first and, interestingly, he's also the only other MVC coach to take home the honor.

Given Drake's extended history of mediocrity, it's hard to argue with the choice. Bo Ryan of Wisconsin finished second with Bruce Pearl, John Calipari and Purdue's Matt Painter close behind. All definitely deserved consideration but I'm surprised that Sean Miller of Xavier isn't higher up the list. Xavier's been successful for years but they dominated the A-10 this season and Miller got production out of every player in his rotation.

Drake won 20 of their first 21 games because of the way they closed out games. They made their shots and made their stops down the stretches of games and that turned a team with average talent into a world beater. In two of their last three games, though, the Bulldogs haven't been quite so steely in the final minutes. Against Southern Illinois they couldn't get a late shot to fall and they let Bradley score the final nine points last night to pick up their first home loss.

Two losses in the face of 14 wins doesn't seem like anything to get in a twist about, especially when you are 15th in RPI and playing in one of the ten best conferences in the country. Thing is, there's definitely a school of thought among college basketball cognoscenti that Drake isn't all that good and didn't do enough to guarantee a NCAA bid. If Butler beats them badly on Saturday, that feeling will grow. If they lose one of their final two MVC games, it will grow exponentially. If both those happen and they don't win the MVC tournament, they will officially be on the bubble.

I think that's ridiculous. There's no way the auto bids can shake out that there will be 34 teams more deserving of an at-large bid than the Bulldogs. Somehow I don't think my reassurances will mean much to Keno Davis if his boys don't win a few more games though.

On the surface of it, Drake's 65-62 loss to Southern Illinois would only seem to matter to purveyors of 2008 MVC Champion t-shirts. If the Bulldogs had won in Carbondale, they would have clinched the conference title but will now have to wait until Saturday at Northern Iowa, if not longer.

Drake had a simple defensive philosophy in last night's game with the Salukis -- Stop the inside game. It seemed like a good strategy. SIU struggles from deep, after all, and Drake's lack of size means they need to devote a little more attention to the paint. It backfired, partially because the Salukis made 9-of-20 three-pointers but also because they made 15-of-28 shots from two. Drake has allowed teams to make 51% of their two-pointers this season, a ghastly total that is easy to attack.

A team like Northern Iowa, for example, can give them more fits than Butler might later this month. The Horizon's Bulldogs are aces from the outside who don't rely on post play, but the Panthers rely on the inside play of Eric Coleman and Justin Eglseder to drive their offense.

This issue isn't likely to cost them in the short-term. They lead the MVC by three and have proven themselves. It's a bit of a catch-22 for Keno Davis come March, though. They'll likely run into a team that can score inside and out in equal measure and Drake showed last night that defending both at once is difficult for them.

It's fixing to be a pretty memorable week in Des Moines and, for the first time all month, it has nothing to do with Barack Obama. It has to do with Keno Davis, Adam Emmenecker, Leonard Houston and the rest of the Drake Bulldogs. When this week's AP Top 25 comes out, it would be a shocker if Drake isn't included among its ranks for the first time since 1975.

They beat Illinois State 79-73 yesterday to take over sole possession of first place in the Missouri Valley. It was also their 15th straight win and last week's top "Other Receiving Votes" school should leapfrog losers like Clemson and Rhode Island into the rear end of the rankings. That's an exciting start for Davis, who replaced his father as the team's coach this season, and for a school that wasn't picked to do all that much in the MVC this season.

Emmenecker, a former walk-on, had 19 points, six rebounds and six assists and Houston added 19 points of his own. Drake overcame Josh Young's absence for the third straight contest and, for the third straight game, had a different leading scorer. They also overcame a 12-point ISU lead with under 14 to play. The Redbirds had won nine straight behind tight defense and good shooting. The shooting remained strong at 55% but their defense and ballhandling undid them.

For a week that featured very little college basketball, it was a pretty good one for the mid majors. Binghamton and New Orleans pulled off nice upsets while the A-10 grew in stature thanks to wins from Xavier and Massachusetts. The weekend brings a bit more action although you wouldn't know it from tonight's slate. Eight games are on tap, but only two of them match D-I schools against each other. Hartford figures to be a sacrificial lambs at Villanova but Drake's got more than an outside chance in Iowa City. Their MVC cohorts from Bradley already beat the Hawkeyes at Carver Hawkeye Arena and so did Louisiana-Monroe.

The Bulldogs have another edge over the Hawkeyes. Their coach, Keno Davis, has probably seen more games at Iowa's home than their coach Todd Lickliter. Davis is the son of Dr. Tom Davis, and graduated from Iowa in 1995, so he should feel right at home this evening. If Josh Young and Leonard Houston continue to nail almost 50% of their three point tries, Drake has a good chance to make them Iowa's biggest winner. Until January 3rd anyway.