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There are not a lot of coaches who have been at their current school for the past 25 years, but Dave Loos is still going strong at Austin Peay after taking over in 1990. He is a 5-time OVC COY, and if all goes well this year he will record his 400th win as coach of the Governors. Even if he runs into a couple of obstacles along the way, all he has to do to maintain his confidence is look down at the name of the floor on which he is standing: Dave Loos Court. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Loos about playing basketball at Memphis State and having his kids go into the family business.
At Memphis State you played PG for the basketball team and SS for the baseball team, and were inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2002: which sport were you better at, and which 1 did you enjoy the most? I was better at baseball. I enjoy coaching basketball more…and my wife also enjoys the fact that I coach basketball!
In the 1995 OVC tourney final you had an 8-PT loss to Murray State after star forward Bubba Wells suffered a right leg stress fracture: do you think that you would have won with a healthy Wells? Anything that might have happened after Bubba got hurt is speculation: I do not know if we would have won or not. I tip my hat to him because he came back out and tried to play.
What are your memories of the 1996 NCAA tourney (Drew Barry had 11 AST in a win by Georgia Tech)? They had a great PG who we could just not deal with. We kept it to single digits in the 1st half and played very well against a good team.
What are your memories of the 2003 NCAA tourney (Luke Whitehead scored 20 PTS in a win by Louisville)? We played them in Birmingham and got off to a great start against a very good Louisville team, but their press ended up hurting us down the stretch.
You used to work as the athletics director in addition to being head coach: was it hard to do both jobs simultaneously, and which gig did you enjoy the most? It is difficult because both jobs were time-consuming, but I am a coach 1st and foremost. Being a coach serves me well as an AD because I knew what the other coaches were going through.
In 2007 the school named the basketball court after you: what was your reaction after finding out about it, and where does that rank among your career highlights? I certainly was appreciative and flattered by it but I do not take a lot of time to think about that while I am still active. Right now we are just about the next game/practice/recruit. I kidded people that I just did it myself 1 night with a script pen!
What are your memories of the 2008 NCAA tourney (AJ Abrams had 26 PTS in a win by Texas)? We got off to a terrible start, which allowed the Longhorns to jump out to an early lead.
Your son David is a color commentator for Austin Peay sporting events, and your son Brad is an assistant basketball coach at Missouri: were you an influence on their decisions to go into sports-related fields, and how proud are you of all their success? I am very proud of all my children and what they have done. They grew up in the gym so I am not surprised that they got involved in sports. My daughter Nicole used to coach our dance team and is now the director of alumni relations, so she is involved as well. David considered coaching but decided to go into broadcasting instead, while I cannot see Brad doing anything else because he just has coaching in his blood.
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I hope that people say we followed our objective, which is to have people leave here with a diploma in 1 hand and a championship ring in the other. We tried our best to be very consistent with what we did and we did it the right way.