Bob Huggins finally signed a contract with the Mountaineers.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP)—West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins has signed an 11-year contract with the school that will keep him at his alma mater until he’s 65.
The deal Huggins signed Friday will pay him $1.5 million a year, plus incentives. When he arrived in April 2007, he was paid $800,000 in his first season.
With a Big East paycheck comes great responsibility.
Davis has created a Des Moines-to-Providence shuttle that he’ll wear out for the next month. He’ll spend the weekdays in Rhode Island settling into a new program and then fly to Iowa for the weekends, where he’ll cut his ties to Drake University and prepare for a move to the Big East with his wife and young son. He hopes to be settled in Rhode Island sometime in June.
Besides those personal issues, the transition into a new coaching job, especially one half a country away, is a major challenge. Davis says he needs time to assess the talent the Friars have returning, jump into the always-swirling recruiting game, hire a staff, schedule games for 2008-09 and prepare to win next season.
If you can't turn your once mighty basketball program to its glory days, use a different sport: Quietly, St. John's becomes a baseball powerhouse.
Louisville's Derrick Caracter, who thought about entering the NBA draft, might not be welcomed back in Kentucky.
Derrick Caracter wants to come back for his junior season. He hasn't hired an agent, still is attending classes at the University of Louisville and sends coach Rick Pitino text messages almost every day.
But Pitino said yesterday that it's in the best interests of both Caracter and the program for the enigmatic 6-foot-9 center to move on.
"My plan is to see him get on to the NBA or get on to Europe and get on with his life," Pitino said. "He has a change of heart right now, but he's had two years to show he wants to be a student, he's had two years to show he wants to be an integral part of college life, and he has not shown that."Caracter and Pitino agreed early this season that he would leave U of L after his sophomore year. During last month's NCAA Tournament run, Caracter said he was intent on trying his luck in the professional ranks.
His NBA prospects appear murky at best, however, after a season in which he averaged 8.3 points and 4.5 rebounds as a reserve. He played only five minutes in the Cardinals' 83-73 loss to North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament East Regional final.
What is Hasheem Thabeet to do?
Thabeet has until Sunday to declare for the draft. He projects to be a late lottery to late first-round pick.
"Hopefully I'll let you know soon," Thabeet said Wednesday while at the Capitol for Husky Day. "I've been talking with a lot of people, trying to get as much information as I can."
Did Keno Davis leave Drake for more money? Will the Bulldogs be alright?
While Drake's coaching staff may end up in Providence, Keno Davis doesn't expect any Bulldog players to follow him to PC.
My friend Curt let's Rhode Islanders, and others, know why this state should be one of the greats.We were the first to renounce the crown, establish religious freedom and create an action figure. That would be G.I. Joe. We’re home to the first industrial mill, Jewish temple, roller-skating rink, and not just a first Baptist church but – in 1638 – the 'First Baptist Church in America'. Apparently, we’re big on indoor shopping here, since the Arcade was America’s first enclosed mall, and in 1768, Gladdings became the first department store on U.S. soil. Though I guess it wasn’t the U.S. yet.
We have the longest name of any state – 'The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations' and had two capitals, Providence and Newport. Arlene Violet was the nation’s first female state Attorney General. Usquepaugh hosts the country’s only jonnycake festival. And our state troopers were not only voted best dressed, but once did a fashion show on David Letterman. Beat that, Connecticut.
All this is from my favorite new local book. It’s by Roberta Mudge Humble, a professor of English at the Community College of Rhode Island, and is called 'The RIght to Crow – A Look at Rhode Island’s Firsts, Bests & Uniques'.
Perhaps it’s our small size, but there’s something about living here that makes people embrace ways that Rhode Island stands out. Good or bad.
When I first came here in the mid-1970s, I actually felt proud that the New England mob was based in Providence instead of Boston; maybe Detroit had cars, but at least we had that industry. We also once had the biggest maker of fake flowers anywhere (Calart). I’m still proud that we have the world’s biggest termite overlooking Route 95. It’s 58 feet long. And to think outsiders thought this wasn’t a major-league place.
I’ve long known we stand out as the capital of coffee milk, lemonade slush, bubblers, cabinets and an obsession with low-number plates. I’ve known we have a famous chicken breed, the Rhode Island Red, with its own monument, and that we were home to the America’s Cup for more than a century until the Aussies ripped us off. I’ve known that the longest professional baseball game, 33 innings, was at McCoy Stadium.
But there are a lot of firsts I barely knew; or didn’t know. Such as that the Newport Reading Room has the world’s oldest flush toilets.
So I love this book.
It further tells me that the first World Series ever, anywhere, was held here. And the Providence Grays won. They beat the New York Mets. To me, that’s right up there with inventing religious freedom. So is the fact that Babe Ruth once played for the Providence Grays.
I’m even proud that in 1976, a state rep named Bernard Gladstone proposed a $2 tax on sex to increase revenues. At least it was a first.. It didn’t pass, thank God.
The nation’s first-ever speeding ticket was given in 1904 in Newport. The guy deserved it; he was going 20 miles per hour.
The most expensive piece of furniture ever sold was an 18th-century desk by Rhode Island carpenter John Goddard. In 1989, someone paid $12.1 million for it. But ounce for ounce, that’s probably not as valuable as the $25,000 paid here for license plate number 7. That means plate number 1 is worth six figures.
Plus, I’m guessing no other place has as much collective interest in such odd foods as doughboys, dynamites, grinders, New York System wieners, clamcakes and stuffies.
I’m also guessing that no other successful politician legally added an “a” to the beginning of his name, as Ralph aRusso did, to be first on a ballot. After winning, he went on to serve as mayor of Johnston for 24 years, a state record for that office.
Oh, and show me another state where the landfill is the second-highest point. It gives you a shiver of pride.
Mr. Potato Head was born here. So was Furby, My Little Pony, and the Easy Bake Oven...
Maybe one reason we need books like Humble’s is that the rest of the world doesn’t give us enough credit for these things.
I’m still angry that Boston gets acclaim for sparking the Revolution by dumping some tea in the harbor in December 1773 when, a whole year and half before that, some Rhode Island Freemason's burned an entire British tax ship (the Gaspee).
But who, besides us, remembers that?
Now, we have a reminder.
I think I’ll celebrate with some stuffies and coffee milk!
Xavier agrees with hiring of Davis
Friars gambling on Keno
"The answer to a prayer:" Drake's Davis agrees to multiyear deal to lead Friars
Keno Davis: Good roots and a great name
Across PC's campus, a sense of relief and anticipation
PC players upbeat over arrival of Davis
Talk PC hoops with Kevin McNamara on Friday
Them's Good Eaton on why Keno Davis is a good hire for the Friars.
From WPRI.com:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The search for a new basketball coach appears to be over. CBS Sports is reporting that "Drake" Coach Keno Davis has reached a deal in principle to coach the Friars.
Davis led Drake to a 28 and five record last season, and a conference championship. If the deal is finalized, he'll replace Tim Welsh, who was fired last year after ten seasons at PC.
Drake's Keno Davis could be offered the coaching job at PC, and may not turn it down.
WATERLOO --- According to multiple media outlets Monday night, Drake’s Keno Davis is the front-runner to become the next men’s basketball coach at Providence.
The Bulldogs were recognized at the statehouse in Des Moines on Monday for their storybook season, but Davis was absent.
FoxSports.com reported that Davis, the Associated Press’ National Coach of the Year, was in Providence, R.I., Monday, meeting with the school’s administration.
The Providence Journal said on its Web site, barring any breakdown with negotiations, that Davis, 36, could be named the program’s next coach as soon as today.
I thought George Washington's Karl Hobbs was the man; I thought wrong. " PC’s fans and players have followed the search’s twists and turns closely:"
It appears that PC has now focused its search on Drake’s Keno Davis. It took the Friars several weeks to contact the Associated Press’ National Coach of the Year, but he has emerged as the leading candidate to take the job. Barring a breakdown in negotiations, Davis could be introduced as the next coach at Providence as early as today. In his first year on the job, the 36-year-old Davis led Drake to a 28-5 record this season. The Bulldogs were upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Western Kentucky in a wild overtime game.
Davis was born and raised in Massachusetts and is the son of Dr. Tom Davis, the former head coach at Boston College. Tom Davis eventually landed at Drake and helped his son take over the position.After being turned down by Ford last week, PC contacted Davidson’s Bob McKillop but was dismissed. Three other prospects — George Washington’s Karl Hobbs, Iona College’s Kevin Willard and Hofstra’s Tom Pecora — were all not in the mix as of yesterday.
