Many moons ago, Chris was a student manager for the University of Southern Indiana’s men’s basketball team. While there, he met two men who went on to have very successful national basketball coaching careers. The first was the head coach at the time, who was Bruce Pearl. And the second was an assistant coach, Keno Davis.
Chris was close to Keno during their years at USI. They went on recruiting and scouting trips together and spent time with each other off the court, too. Chris has followed Keno’s career since they parted ways at USI. Keno has held several coaching positions, but they haven’t brought him to Indiana. Until this season when Keno became the head coach at Central Michigan University, which is in the same conference as my Ball State Cardinals.
We were very excited to see that the Chippewas would be visiting Muncie in February. Keno offered some tickets, and the three of us joined Grandma and Grandpa Hromada on the journey to campus last night. While Grandma and Grandpa sat in their usual seats, Chris, Avery and I were lucky enough to sit on the second row, directly behind the Central Michigan bench. It was pretty strange for me to be hanging out in enemy territory, but I found myself rooting for my Cardinals team and for Coach Keno. (I’ll never be a Chippewas fan!)
We sat directly across from my parents. Do you see them waving at Avery?
“Go Ball State!” Even Avery unashamedly rooted for the Cardinals while sitting with the Central Michigan fans.
It was fun to be up close and personal with the game. One thing Chris pointed out was the players’ speed. College players are much faster on the court than the high school players we’re used to seeing. And this was a MAC game…watching games up close in the better leagues must be even more entertaining.
Although I couldn’t hear much of what Keno said, I could tell that he is passionate about basketball and loves it as much as Chris.
As usual, it was very entertaining to sit with Chris. For the first time, he talked strategy while watching a game instead of critiquing the officials! He recognized many of Keno’s plays.
Avery sat with Grandma and Grandpa for about half of the second half. She was a dancing fool! Sometimes she prefers the band and the cheerleaders over the game itself.
This was a very exciting game! Central Michigan was down 11 at the half and was behind by as many as 14 or 15 during the game. Ball State hasn’t had a great season, so I didn’t expect them to hold on to the lead. The Chippewas made a comeback and got to within two points before the Cardinals pulled away again. This ended up being a very high scoring game.
After the game, we waited around to see Keno and to thank him for the tickets. Avery started a conversation with him right away and wasn’t afraid to ask him questions about his kids and pets. I could tell that Chris liked connecting with Keno again face-to-face.
Unfortunately, we walked away without the most important picture of all: Chris and Keno together! But we already want to go to another Central Michigan game next season.