Sports

Great Alaska Shootout ran in the family for champion Chippewas coach Davis

Coaching in the Great Alaska Shootout was a bucket list item for Central Michigan coach Keno Davis ever since he watched his father win the tournament with Iowa in 1986, when Davis just in middle school.

He got that chance last week and made the most of it, coaching the Chippewas to the final Shootout title on Saturday in a tumultuous 75-72 win over Cal State-Bakersfield.

And he did it with one of his dad's old players. Kevin Gamble, an '87 Iowa alum who spent 10 seasons in the NBA, is an assistant coach on Davis' staff.

"I think if I wasn't able to coach in the Shootout, it's something you always wish you had the opportunity," Davis said after the Chippewas' first-round win over Sam Houston State. "There's certain venues, certain places that you want to be at.

"You want to be at the Great Alaska Shootout, you want to be in Maui, you want to be in Madison Square Garden – you want to experience those types of things."

Davis, 45, was in 8th grade when he watched his father, Tom Davis, coach Iowa to the '86 title over Northeastern at Sullivan Arena.

He remembers his first Shootout experience fondly. Davis recalled watching Iowa's B.J. Armstrong bury two free throws to send the semifinals game to overtime, where the Hawkeyes' beat N.C. State 90-89 to go to the championship. And he remembers waking up to a fire alarm at their hotel in the middle of the night on their first night in Alaska, and having to wait outside in the cold until they were allowed to go back in.

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"Just something about this place that those memories last longer than at other tournaments or other locations," Davis said.

Tom's Hawkeyes returned to the Shootout in '95 and again made it to the championship game, where they lost to Duke 88-81.

Keno and Tom Davis are believed to be the second father-son duos to coach in the Shootout and they're the only ones to each win titles.

Legendary hoops coach Eddie Sutton coached in five Shootouts – two with Arkansas ('80, '83), one with Kentucky ('88) and two with Oklahoma State ('94, '02).

His son, Scott Sutton, coached Oral Roberts in the '05 and '12 Shootouts. Eddie made it to the championship twice but neither he nor Scott won a title.

Tom racked up nearly 600 games for five different teams in 32 years before he retired at Drake in 2007. Keno took over as the new Drake coach in 2008 and took over as head coach at Central Michigan in 2012.

His teams are known for their 3-point shooting and putting up points in a hurry. The Chippewas were third in NCAA Division I in scoring last season with 88.3 points per game and first in 3-point field goals made with 399 (35.8 percent).

Central Michigan won Saturday's championship largely because they shot 43.5 percent from beyond the arc and had six different players sink 3s.

Davis is in his 10th season coaching college basketball, five with the Chippewas, and owns a modest overall record of 156-140.

He etched himself into a little piece of basketball history with Saturday's championship win in the 40th and final Shootout.

"To be in those record books and be on the right end of a trivia question is definitely is something that is kind of a neat fact and we'll enjoy it for a long time," he said.

Stephan Wiebe

Stephan Wiebe writes about all things Alaska sports.

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