Keener can do good things, but it will take some time

The Hot Corner

Since graduating from Davidson College in 1988, and before being hired as men’s basketball coach, Dean Keener was a college basketball assistant for 16 seasons.

This coaching career included a short stint at JMU and, most recently, a four-year tenure at Georgia Tech, where the Yellow Jackets were national runners-up in Keener’s last season.

Part of the lure in bringing in a proven assistant coach with experience at a major university is that he has “been down that road before.” Keener is no exception to this rule. After coaching and recruiting for an Atlantic Coast Conference team, he should make the transition back to JMU fairly easily.

Keener is a coach who should not be fazed by the pressures of the Colonial Athletic Association.

No offense to the CAA, but Keener spent his final days with Georgia Tech practicing in front of more fans and members of the media than JMU usually plays in front of at its home games. Pressure should not be a problem — even given the competitiveness of this conference.

Keener also will bring a winning attitude to JMU. The Dukes have not had a winning season since 1999-’00 (also the lone year that Keener served as an assistant to former coach Sherman Dillard) and are in dire need of a turnaround campaign — starting now.

Several factors went into the decision to bring Keener back to JMU. He is familiar with JMU basketball and the university and is an up-and-coming coach with what looks to be a bright future ahead of him. Because of the recent success of his Yellow Jackets, Keener also is associated with winning and having a tough mental attitude.

Remember, this is the Georgia Tech team that ended Duke University’s 41-home game winning streak last month.

This is the same team that beat Oklahoma State University in the national semifinals. This is the team that, though overmatched Monday night, was relentless in not giving up against the University of Connecticut Huskies, hitting 3-pointers and fouling UConn players until the bitter end of their 9-point loss.

It is the toughness of playing and succeeding under high pressure conditions that made the Yellow Jackets’ run so impressive. For these same reasons, Keener became a very attractive choice for the Dukes’ coaching vacancy.

However, questions still arise: Can Keener do it? Can he go from Final Four to CAA basement and resurrect a program that has been in dismal straits for the past four years?

Will his lack of head coaching experience leave him ill-suited for the job? And, finally, will people expect too much too soon?

Keener’s run at Georgia Tech will solve all but one of these problems. Yes, given the right personnel and players, he can bring this program back to CAA prominence.

Keener gets to choose his own assistants to coach alongside him at JMU and he was Georgia Tech’s top recruiter, so the man has an eye for talent.

No, Keener’s lack of head coaching experience should not hurt him in any way. Keener sat on court level in San Antonio, Texas, last week as the lead assistant coach for the second best team in the country. Experience is something that he does not lack.

That leaves the final burning question. Will people expect too much from Keener too soon?

In the end, they probably will, as Keener signed a five-year contract and is focused on being competitive now. However, with the way the Dukes played at times last season, it looks like it will be at least a year or two before they will be able to compete for that elusive CAA automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Keener’s success and experience as an assistant coach (particularly at Georgia Tech) will enable him to turn this program around in a fairly short period of time. But, don’t expect too much from him too soon.

After all, even Rome wasn’t built in a day.

James Irwin is a sophomore SMAD major who is looking forward to the beginning of the Dean Keener era at JMU.