Davis leaves Drake after one season, moves on to Providence

"I just told them I was happy to be here -- introduced myself to each one of them and told them what I was kind of going to expect," he said. "That's not necessarily the wins and losses. That's the kind of effort that we want to have the pride of playing with and see if it's good enough to win some ballgames."

Davis succeeded his father, Tom Davis, as Drake coach in March 2007. The team was picked in a preseason poll to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference. Instead, Drake opened with a 22-1 record, cracked the national rankings in January and then knocked off then-No. 8 Butler a month later.

The Bulldogs won their first MVC regular season title since 1971 and their first-ever conference tournament title.

They entered the NCAA tournament as a No. 5 seed in the West Regional, but were upset in overtime by Western Kentucky, 101-99.

Davis said it was a hard decision for him to leave Drake.

"They tried to do everything in their power to keep me there," he said. "That's financially, that's conversations, that's the pep talks."

Davis and his father became the first father and son to win the national coach of the year award. Tom Davis won it in 1987 as coach of Iowa.