PROVIDENCE - Jeff Xavier is not just a college basketball player, he is a huge college basketball fan, as well. Because he is, he has a head start on some of his teammates in knowing about his new coach.

Xavier and all the Providence College players got to meet their new coach yesterday only a few minutes before the coach, Keno Davis, was introduced at a press conference at Mullaney Court. Xavier, unlike some of his teammates, already knew a bit about Davis.

``It's funny,'' Xavier said as he began recounting a story. ``Early in the season, I was looking at the ticker and I saw Drake in the top 25. I was like, `Who are they?' So I went and checked them out.'' Xavier did real research about the team.

``I loved the way they played,,'' he said. ``They shoot a lot of threes and they play hard on defense. That's exactly what I like.'' Now, the coach who put that team and that style together is the Friars' coach.

``He's the national coach of the year. You can't go wrong with that,'' Xavier added.

The PC players were in much the same position as the team's fans for the past three weeks. They did not know a lot about what was going on other than what friends told them or they read in the paper or on the internet.

``Every time a name came up whether they wanted it to leak out or not, it always seemed that we knew pretty much who they were talking to,'' said guard Sharaud Curry.

``It's been tough on us,'' Xavier said. ``Bob Driscoll came in Friday and talked to us. He told us to stay together. That's exactly what we did through this whole process. Now,

it's a great day in Friar Town. I'm really excited.''

The word got out early yesterday.

``I found out through a teammate,'' said forward Geoff McDermott. ``One of our assistant coaches started texting everybody telling us we had to be ready to get to the locker room for some big news.''

Davis met for a few minutes with his new players just before the press conference late yesterday afternoon.

``He just said he's excited to be here,'' McDermott reported. ``He knows we can win here. He wants to inspire us to believe in ourselves and know the best is yet to come for us.''

As the players talked, they all learned what Xavier knew. That one very big point of emphasis for Davis is shooting the 3-ball. At times his Drake team had five players on the court who had the green light to shoot threes.

``That brings a smile to a big man like myself,'' McDermott said. ``Anytime you extend your game and add to your game, it can only help. I'm really excited to get into his program and do whatever we need to do to win here.''

``I watch college basketball,'' McDermott said. ``I knew (Davis' team) was in the top 25. I knew they were winning. I was wondering how they were doing it coming from a small school. I knew about him. Today when I got the news I was ecstatic.''

Curry attended the press conference on crutches. He has undergone a second operation on his foot.

``I had to get a screw put in,'' the point guard reported. ``I have these for two more weeks. I should be back to full strength by June.''

``He's a great guy,'' Curry said. ``The speech he just gave us convinced all of us that he's great for the job. We're ready. We feel we can be a lot better as a team, as a group. We feel he can definitely motivate us.''