Dick Davey doesn't mince words about his departure from Santa Clara a year ago.
"I was fired," Davey said Monday. "I told people that. Maybe it comes time for a change and they were looking for a coach who was upbeat and did things differently."
So, Santa Clara hired UCLA assistant Kerry Keating. All indications are that Keating is going to do fine with the Broncos, who went 15-16 in his first season.
But the way Davey exited -- he was unceremoniously dumped by the school in the midst of his 30th season there -- and the bitter taste it left with him the past year wasn't warranted.
And that's why Davey's sudden revival in the Bay Area as one of Johnny Dawkins' new assistants at Stanford is such a feel-good story. Davey deserved a second chance to finish on his terms.
"How often does a 66-year-old guy get another chance?" Davey said. "I'm excited. I'm really fired up, fired up for the right reasons."
Davey said new Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins came to him instead of Davey pursuing the gig. He said Dawkins was looking for an older coach who could work with big men and help with defense, recruit and scheduling. Health issues within Davey's family made a move out of the Bay Area impossible. That's why Dawkins' lifeline to restart Davey's coaching career was so welcomed.
"But nobody is more pleased than I am," Davey said.
Dawkins' hiring of Davey, along with former Loyola Marymount head coach and Arizona assistant coach Rodney Tention, gives Dawkins instant credibility on the West Coast. Davey might not be out on the road much grinding through recruiting, but he has had to recruit in a pool that might have had a few Stanford-type players in the pot at one time or another. Tention is connected within the West, too.
Dawkins clearly learned well at Duke in assembling a quality staff that makes sense for him.
Final nuggets
• Memphis picked up a key newcomer for next season when former Nebraska signee
Roburt Sallie decided to play for the Tigers. Sallie couldn't get into Nebraska because he once took classes at the school and then left early in the semester to go to junior college because he wasn't eligible. Big 12 rule 6.2 states that a player cannot enroll if he hasn't met initial eligibility requirements. Sallie went to San Francisco Community College, committed again to the Huskers but lost an appeal with the Big 12 to be reinstated. He was then free to go elsewhere outside the Big 12, and he also considered Kentucky. Sallie, at 6-foot-4, potentially gives Memphis another body to score facing the basket.
• Only one of the five all-Pac-10 first-team players is returning now that Cal's Ryan Anderson stayed in the draft. Arizona State's James Harden is the only returning first-team player.
• The Big 12 and Pac-10 announced their pairings for the Hardwood Series on Monday. They are all return games from a year ago. I'm genuinely interested to see UCLA at Texas (Dec. 4), Oklahoma State at Washington (Dec. 4), Baylor at Washington State (Dec. 6) and Kansas at Arizona (Dec. 23).
Andy Katz
