Davis near signing new 6-year deal

IU Basketball coach Mike Davis was honored Saturday evening with the Male Coach of the Year award by the Black Coaches Association (BCA) at the Hyatt Regency of Indianapolis. \nDavis was nominated for the award after he proved to be the most successful first-year head coach in the 101-year history of IU men's basketball, according to a press release from the BCA.\nOther honorees included Marianna Freeman, head basketball coach at Syracuse, Female Coach of the Year; Daniel Boggan, senior vice president of the NCAA, Athletic Administrator of the Year; Leonard Bishop, basketball coach at Lincoln High School in Dallas, Tex., High School Coach of the Year; and Willie Jeffries, football coach at South Carolina State, Lifetime Achievement Award.\n"All are most certainly at the pinnacle of their profession at the present time, and we are most honored to have them present to accept this honor," said Floyd Keith, executive director of the BCA in a prepared statement.\nGetting a pay raise\nDavis told a newspaper he hopes to sign a six-year contract that will make him one of the highest-paid basketball coaches in the Big Ten and the highest paid coach at IU.\nDavis told The Indianapolis Star prior commitments prevented him from being in Bloomington on Friday to iron out the contract's final details.\nBut he said those issues will still be on the table today when the two sides get together again to work on the deal. IU spokesman Jeff Fanter confirmed that Director of Athletics Michael McNeely will meet today with Davis.\n"I'm still real optimistic that as soon as we're able to sit down that we can get everything worked out," Davis told the Star.\nDavis said the contract's financial arrangements had been secured. The contract would lock him up as the IU coach through the 2007-08 season.\nDavis would not disclose specific details about the contract until it was signed, but the Star reported Saturday that it is believed he will earn $800,000 for the first three years and then receive a bump in pay the final three years.\n"It's a great contract," Davis said Friday. "It shows me the commitment the university is willing to make in me, and I'm looking forward to coaching at Indiana for a long time to come."\nThe anticipated new contract would make Davis the highest-paid coach at the University. Football coach Gerry DiNardo is next in line at IU, earning close to $500,000 once outside income is added up. \nThis would also put Davis in line with Iowa's Steve Alford as the fourth-highest paid basketball coach in the Big Ten. Alford, who signed a new contract in 2001, also has a guaranteed base of $800,000 per season.\nMichigan State's Tom Izzo is the highest paid Big Ten basketball coach with a guaranteed contract of $1.1 million per season. Ohio State's Jim O'Brien is next at $869,000, followed by Illinois coach Bill Self at $825,000.\nIn February, Davis signed a four-year, $2.19 million contract. He was scheduled to have earned $530,000 next season, in the second year of the four-year deal.