Centralight

Sports • cmuchippewas.com Meet Coach Davis' CMU Athletics Director Dave Heeke, left, with Coach Keno Davis Hoop Dreams The introduction of 2008 National Coach of the Year Keno Davis as the 20th men's basketball coach in CMU's history marks the beginning of a new era on the court. Davis believes that the on-the-court Xs and Os can only go so far in building a successful program. Championship Culture means more to him than just the fi nal result on the scoreboard and the win-loss columns. It's about building a program the right way. "Everybody wants the program to have a ton of wins and to win championships and to have that kind of success," Davis says. "More importantly, you have to have the right kids in the program who are going to represent the program well, who are going to work hard in the classroom and who are going to represent it off the court." It is this philosophy and commitment to building a program the right way that attracted Davis to CMU and vice versa. When the Chippewas head coaching position became available in mid-March, Davis says it was on his short-list of jobs in which he was interested, in part because of CMU's commitment to its student-athletes. Great success is the goal for which Davis and his program will strive, but in order to do so he believes his players, both present and future, must show a high level of commitment to hard work and dedication, a blueprint for success he learned from watching his father Dr. Tom Davis, who 32 32 centralight summer '12 fall '11 coached for many years at – among other places – Boston College, Stanford and Iowa. Applying this blueprint in his own career, Davis took over a Drake team in 2007- 08 that fi nished the season 28-5, ranked No. 14 in the country and as champions of the Missouri Valley Conference with a 15-3 conference record. That blueprint followed him to Providence College from 2008-11. He guided the Friars to a 19-14 record and a seventh-place in the ultra-competitive Big East Conference on the merits of hard work and dedication. "The way you build it is fi rst with the young men who are part of the program," he says. "You challenge them to do great things. To do that, they have to have a work ethic that they're going to outwork their opponents. You take those young men who are already focused on that or need to be refocused, and then you recruit the best fi t." In saying he wants to recruit the "best fi t," Davis doesn't necessarily mean the best player, but rather the player who will best help CMU basketball become the best it can be. "He's the kid the fans want to see and they want in the game," Davis says. "They're chanting his name because he's their favorite player. I want a team of favorite players. They're going to outwork so many guys around the country that, when they leave, they're the success stories. By putting together a team of motivated student- athletes, we can achieve great things." • coaching team Jeff Smith and Kevin Gamble were the fi rst two assistant coaches to join Keno Davis' fi rst CMU staff . As of press time, a third assistant coach had yet to be named. Gamble was a member of Davis' staff at Providence, while Smith – a Michigan native – is a former CMU Chippewa assistant. Gamble, a 10-year NBA veteran, left an eight-year stint as a college head coach to spend the 2010-11 season as the Friars' coordinator of player development and video operations, heading up the program's academics, student-athlete development and video eff orts. Smith returns to his roots in the state of Michigan for his second stint as a Chippewa assistant. He originally joined the CMU men's program as a graduate assistant in May 1997 and served in that capacity for two years before being promoted to assistant coach. Shortly thereafter, he helped the 2000-01 Chippewas to a 20-8 record and a Mid- American Conference title. Smith was on the CMU bench until September 2002 when he joined the staff at Oakland. The Bay City native became the associate head coach at Oakland, helping the Golden Grizzlies to a 2005 Mid-Continent Conference Tournament championship and a win in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. After a successful fi ve-year tenure, Smith joined Jim Boylen's staff at Utah and helped the Utes to the 2009 Mountain West Conference title and a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. •

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