The decision by Drake athletic director Dave Blank to hire Davis is the best thing that’s happened in the university’s athletic department since Maury John took three consecutive teams to the NCAA tournament from 1969-1971.

Drake needed this. Des Moines needed this. Basketball in this state needed this. Tom Davis needed this.

I’m predicting that Davis will do the same thing at Drake that he did at Iowa. He’ll be a winner.

That’s certainly not to say he’s going to win 269 games and take nine of his teams to the NCAA tournament. He’s not going to be here that long. After all, when you’re 64, you take ‘em one season at a time.

Two years, three years. Four. Maybe five. That’s how long I expect Davis to be sitting on the Drake bench before he turns it over to one of his assistants—maybe his son, Keno.

Davis isn’t here for the money. He’s here to teach. He’s here to show people he’s not over the hill. He won’t say it, but he’s also here to beat Iowa—and I think he’ll do it a time or two.

Davis doesn’t know how well he’s going to do next season with Luke McDonald, Lonnie Randolph and the rest of the Bulldogs who will be on the team, but count on it that he’ll be competitive.

History tells us that.

"The last time you coached some other guy’s players you won 30 games," I pointed out to Davis.

I was referring to the 1986-87 Iowa team that went 30-5 overall, 14-4 in the Big Ten and came within one victory of making it to the NCAA Final Four.

I shared his agony when the Hawkeyes blew a big halftime lead and lost to Nevada-Las Vegas, 84-81, in the West Regional championship game at Seattle. Like him, I wanted to go to the Final Four, too.

I didn’t need to remind Davis of that season, which saw him named National Coach of the Year.

"I was blessed with a really nice group of guys," he said. "I was telling the Drake players that when I took over that team Brad Lohaus was going to quit; Kevin Gamble told me later that he didn’t think he was going to play, but because he and Eddie Horton were good friends he was going to stay on the team, and that B. J. Armstrong’s dad called me and said his son wanted to transfer because he didn’t think he was good enough. He said B. J. was going to Central Michigan."

"Not that some of these guys we have here at Drake have that kind of potential—I have no idea of that—but you have to assume the best," Davis said. "I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt, and we’ll see what they have how hard they’re willing to work."

Davis will use the same pressure-defense-fastbreak-offense-mass-substituting at Drake that worked so well for him at Iowa.

People are already peppering Davis with questions about his first trip to Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City next season.

"I don’t know if I can find my way there," he joked. "Maybe we’ll have a good bus driver. I won’t make a big deal out of our game there, to be honest, in our locker room. But the players always get excited about playing at Iowa and Iowa State."

Someone else asked if next season would finally be the one in which Drake beats Iowa. The Hawkeyes have won 24 consecutive games in the series.

"In what sport?" Davis asked.

"I think it will be a fun game," Davis said. "You never know."

The word is that Davis has not stepped foot in Carver-Hawkeye since he cleaned out his office. But he has not publicly bad-mouthed Iowa athletic director Bob Bowlsby, Steve Alford, the coach who succeeded him, or anyone else.

Give him credit for that. Others would not have had that much restraint.

And don’t look for Drake to win at Iowa next season. Davis doesn’t deserve that pressure at this stage—not with the team he’ll likely have in 2003-2004.