Come on, give Davey a break
By Brian Witter
There seems to be some angst among Santa Clara fans revolving around the status of men's basketball coach, Dick Davey. Some are calling for Davey's head, citing that the program is in need of new ideas and a new face to lead the charge up the ranks of the West Coast Conference. I'm not completely sure that all of the criticism is warranted, considering that the team's record does not just reflect his coaching.
Davey knows college basketball. He's been at the university for 28 years, which is longer than any undergrad enrolled here has been alive. I'm pretty sure what the answer would be if you asked Steve Nash if Davey's coaching had an impact on his game in college. The team has had a rough time this year, but they're young. We'll only be graduating one letter-winner after this season, and we're not even at the bottom of the conference -- Paul Westphal's Pepperdine team is. Westphal played professional ball and coached Phoenix to the NBA Finals in the 1990s. He obviously knows a thing or two about the game, but if you use the same logic that people are applying to Davey, it would seem as if Westphal doesn't know what he's doing. And that's ridiculous.
College rosters constantly change and coaches have the difficult task of feeling out their new team, learning its strengths and weaknesses, and building upon those strengths every year. Some years, everything clicks and comes together to make for a great season. The coach is regarded as a genius. Then there are the years where you struggle, and buzz words like "retirement" and "change" are heard around campus. People look at Gonzaga's program and see what Mark Few has done with his team every year and are envious of what can happen in the WCC. Few is an excellent coach and the Zags definitely deserve to be in the Top 25, but there's an element of luck that impacts everything.
If Adam Morrison's hometown were Santa Clara rather than Spokane, things would be different. If we would have had a number of consecutive Cinderella runs through the NCAA Tourney over the last decade, recruiting would be much easier. Things might be different if Dick Davey was long gone by now. Those "what if" questions aren't fair though. What is fair is keeping in mind a man who has become an institution at this university. Davey may not have a winning record every season, but rest assured -- he earns the respect of his players, an admirable quality of an even more worthy coach.
Contact Brian Witter at (408) 551-1918 or bwitter@scu.edu.