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RFH 2010, Cover Stories, Colgate Sports

Davis Out as Colgate Men's Hoops Coach

Wed, Mar 16, 2011

Davis Out as Colgate Men's Hoops Coach
Colgate today announced that its winnest basketball Coach Emmett Davis (in photo on the sidelines when Colgate played at Duke this season) was released from his contract after 13 seasons.
The Raiders this year finished 7-23, Davis' toughest season at Colgate. It was the team's third losing season in a row, and ffith in the last six seasons.
David became Colgate's 19th head basketball coach in April of 1998. Since then, he went on to win 165 games, the most of any coach in the program's 111-year history. Davis surpassed Colgate coach legend Howard Hartman on March 9, 2008 when the Raiders beat Bucknell in the Patriot League Tournament semi-finals..
This is a recap of Davis career from the university's sports website: 
  • The 1999-2000 season saw Colgate advance to the Patriot League tournament semifinal round for a league record eighth straight time.  The Raiders defeated Holy Cross 58-49 in the quarterfinals.  Colgate was eliminated by the regular season league champion Navy in the semi final round.
  • The 2000-01 year, Davis’ team finished third in the Patriot League standings which was at that time, Colgate’s best finish in conference play since HCS star Adonal Foyle (eighth overall draft selection by the Golden State Warriors 1996-97) donned the maroon and white in 1996.
  • The 2001-02 Raiders enjoyed their best season since 1994-95 by finishing with a 17-11 overall record.  Among those 17 victories were two wins over Patriot League Tournament Champions Holy Cross and a sweep of both Lafayette and Army as well as a 4-0 record vs the Ivy League (Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale).  The 2001-02 Raiders became just the sixth team in the 100 plus year history of Colgate basketball to win 17 games (school record for wins in a season is 18).
  • The 2002-03 team finished the regular season with a flurry by posting five consecutive wins over the final two weeks of the season beating Army, Navy, American, Lehigh and Bucknell.  In addition, Colgate finished with its best Patriot League record since the 1995-96 season.  The Raiders finished 9-5 in the conference tied with American University for second place behind Holy Cross, the regular season and tournament champions.
  • The 2003-04 team finished with a 15-14 record winning three of its final four games.  In the middle of the season the team dealt with adversity when leading scorer and rebounder Howard Blue went down with a knee injury.  Blue, a pre-season first team all league senior missed six Patriot League games, but returned to compete in the final two weeks of the season.  The team finished strong after Blue’s return, posting consecutive wins over league leaders Lehigh and Bucknell and a first round upset in the Patriot League Tournament over Lafayette.  Colgate’s 67-66 overtime victory over Lafayette enabled the Raiders to advance to the Patriot League semi-final round for the third time in six seasons.
  • Playing well in February has been a Colgate trademark under Davis with his teams winning nearly 65 percent of their Patriot League February games over the four year span from 2001-2005.  Once again the 2004-05 Raiders finished the regular season strong winning four of their final five contests heading into a season ending game at Bucknell on Senior Day.  The Raiders had victory snatched from their grasp when lone Bucknell senior Chris Niez hit a desperation three point shot with :01 second left to turn a 59-57 Colgate lead into a heartbreaking 60-59 defeat.  Despite the loss, the Raiders completed yet another top half finish in the Patriot League for the sixth time in seven  seasons.
  • The 2005-06 season started with great promise but numerous injuries and a demanding schedule took its toll as the Raiders played three top 25 teams: Iowa, Georgetown, and Syracuse.  The injury bug started on the first day of official practice when Alex Woodhouse, a sophomore forward who started 21 games as a freshman, was lost for the season suffering a torn ACL injury to his knee.  In addition to Woodhouse, three starters: Kendall Chones, Kyle Roemer, and Alvin Reed, each missed multiple games due to injury.  There were however, several highlights during the season including Alvin Reed reaching the 1,000 point career milestone, Coach Davis earning his 100th career win, a sweep of Army and Navy, and a 62-39 victory over perennial Ivy League power, Princeton.
  • The Raiders were very competitive throughout the 2006-07 season despite losing their leading scorer from the previous year, Kyle Roemer.  Roemer missed the entire 2006-07 season because of an ankle injury that required surgery. The Raiders were led by seniors Jon Simon, Marc Daniels, Todd Checovich and Dan Gentile.  Simon led the team in scoring and became the 18th player in school history to score over 1,000 points in his career (1,172).  Simon also earned second team all-league honors.  The Raiders finished their league season with two overtime losses to American and Lehigh depriving them from a third place finish.
  • In August 2006 Davis took his Colgate team to Spain to play a five-game schedule against Spanish professional teams.  The Raiders went 4-1 during the nine-day trip that took them to Madrid, Marbella and Barcelona.  This was the second foreign tour that Davis has led during his nine seasons.  In August 2001, the Raiders traveled to Germany, Switzerland and France.  This inaugural trip marked the first time that any Colgate athletic team had competed in Europe.  The Raiders went on to have a highly successful 17-win season following the 2001 European tour.
  • The 2007-08 Colgate basketball team enjoyed a record setting campaign on many levels in addition to Coach Davis’ career achievement of becoming the winningest coach in school history.  The Raiders registered 18 wins which tied the school record for wins in a season previously held by the 1992-93 team.  The Raiders advanced to the Patriot League Tournament Championship game for the first time since 1996 and set a new school record by winning nine non-conference Division I games.  The team’s 4-0 start was the best early season record at Colgate since 1960-61 and included Colgate’s first in-season tournament title since 1991-92, as the Raiders won the “100 Club Classic” tournament championship hosted by Kennesaw State.  Kyle Roemer and Kendall Chones shared team MVP honors as both players became 1,000 point scorers (Roemer, 1,096 and Chones 1,086). Chones became the 12th player in school history to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds in his career.
  • The Raiders were very competitive throughout the 2008-09 season despite numerous injuries and the loss their leading scorer from the previous year Kyle Roemer. The Raiders led by Mike Venezia, Ben Jonson and Yaw Gyawu finished tied for fifth in the Patriot League regular season, before upsetting Navy to advance to the semifinals for the second straight season.
  • Davis reached another career milestone in November 2005, as Colgate defeated Matt Doherty’s Florida Atlantic team 78-74 earning Coach Davis his 100th career victory making him just the fifth coach in school history to win 100 games. 
While at Colgate Davis was active in the fight against cancer and this season organized an awareness and fundraising campaign for Alzheimer's research. In 2007 he was given the Wayne Sevier Memorial Award, which goes to a person in the sports community who is an inspiration to the children, families and volunteers of Camp Good Days.  
 
Before joining Colgate, Davis was an assistant coach for 12 years at the Naval Academy, and before that coached at St. Lawrence.

Davis is a native of Gloversville and graduated from Gloversville High School in 1977. He went to college and played basketball at St. Lawrence.
His wife, Gail, is a member of the HCS school board and director of the Hamilton Youth Basketball League. They have three sons.
Davis' year by year record at Colgate:
1999 Colgate University       14-14              Head Coach            PL Semifinalist
2000 Colgate University       13-16              Head Coach            PL Semifinalist
2001 Colgate University       13-15              Head Coach            PL Third Place Tie
2002 Colgate University       17-11              Head Coach             PL Third Place Tie
2003 Colgate University       14-14              Head Coach             PL Second PlaceTie
2004 Colgate University       15-14              Head Coach             PL Semifinalist
2005 Colgate University       14-14              Head Coach             PL Fourth Place Tie
2006 Colgate University       10-19              Head Coach             PL Sixth Place
2007 Colgate University       10-19              Head Coach             PL Fifth Place
2008 Colgate University       18-14              Head Coach             PL Championship Runner Up
2009 Colgate University       10-20              Head Coach             PL Semifinalist
2010 Colgate University       10-19              Head Coach             PL Sixth Place
2011 Colgate University         7-23              Head Coach             PL Seventh Place
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