Athletics department: Davis stays

IU coach Mike Davis will return next season to coach the Hoosiers, a source in the athletics department said Monday.\nThe official announcement will come today in the form of a press release, IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan said. However Greenspan refused to comment further.\nA voice mail was left Monday evening for Davis, but he did not return the phone call at press time.\nDavis is currently in the third year of his six-year contract, which ends June 30, 2008, paying him $225,000 per year.\nBy returning, Davis stands to receive a $300,000 one-time bonus July 1. \nThe debate surrounding the third-year head coach climaxed last week. Davis is just six days removed from a season-ending loss to Vanderbilt in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament Wednesday, which capped a 15-14 year, and a 29-29 two-year span. \nIU Trustees President Fred Eichhorn said he is looking forward to hearing that Davis will return next season.\n"If that is announced, I think it will be a good thing," Eichhorn said. "I think coach Davis has earned the opportunity to present his next team, which I think will be pretty sensational."\nDespite being invited to the NIT, the Hoosiers missed the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year. \nIU junior guard Bracey Wright said the circus surrounding Davis got old this year, and he was looking forward to it moving on.\n"It's good (he's coming back)," he said. "Last year, (IU) went through all this stuff with keeping him. They went through all this drama. This year was the same thing. They need to not keep doing it every year."\nWright, who has his own cloud of speculation around him regarding a possible jump to the NBA, said he would have missed Davis, but not from the standpoint of losing a coach. He said he considers Davis "a friend of mine more than anything basketball related."\nWright was part of Davis' first star-studded recruiting class at IU -- players who will be seniors next season. But many say the 2005-06 Hoosiers are one of the top teams in the country featuring senior transfers Marco Killingsworth and Lewis Monroe from Auburn, and recruits Joey Shaw from Phoenix and Ben Allen of Australia.\nWright said "in a way" he was surprised that Greenspan is bringing Davis back, but admitted the finances didn't seem feasible.\n"He has three years left on his contract, and it's a lot of money to pay somebody to let them go," Wright said. "They just let (former IU football coach Gerry) DiNardo go. It wouldn't have been good to let (Davis) go."\nHowever, the past five seasons almost never happened.\nIn a Sporting News Radio interview Saturday, former IU coach and current Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said the IU administration brought the current situation with Davis upon itself.\n"(IU) created that for themselves. The guy that's coaching there is a guy that I told Pat (Knight, his son) we were going to replace at the end of the season," Knight said of Davis. "There's no way that I would have kept the guy any longer than that. That's their problem."\nWright said the naysayers can keep talking about how Davis should not coach at IU, but it will not affect his feelings toward Davis.\n"They can say whatever they want," he said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Josh Weinfuss at jweinfus@indiana.edu.