DES MOINES (AP) – Drake hired Arizona State associate head coach Mark Phelps as its new men’s basketball coach on Monday, moving swiftly to steady the program and replace outgoing coach Keno Davis.

Phelps’ rollout, held at a jam-packed news conference on the school’s Des Moines campus, came less than a week after Davis took the coaching job at Providence. School officials said Phelps was their top choice to replace Davis.

“One day last week, Sandy (Hatfield Clubb, Drake’s athletic director) called me … and told me about Drake University, about the Drake experience and immediately I just got excited,” Phelps said in a brief interview after the news conference.

“We had another conversation on the phone. I was up here the next day, and now I’m the coach. It was just a whirlwind,” he said.

Phelps, 42, has 20 years of coaching experience, including more than a decade as an assistant to Arizona State coach Herb Sendek, both in Tempe and in Sendek’s previous job as coach of North Carolina State. Earlier, Phelps was a high school coach in Virginia, compiling a .736 winning percentage over six years at two schools.

He replaces Davis, the first-year coach who led the Bulldogs to one of the best years in school history. Drake compiled a 28-5 record, winning the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship and tournament, earning the school’s first NCAA tournament birth since 1971 and first national ranking in 33 years.

Phelps said Drake’s improbable success made people all over the country take notice.

“If you were alive, you knew about Drake basketball this year,” Phelps said.

Phelps called the opportunity to follow Davis “precious,” and said he’d bring an aggressive approach to Drake.

“We’d like to initiate rather than react,” he said. “On offense and defense.”

One hallmark of Drake’s success this year _ the 3 point shot _ will likely remain, Phelps said.

“We love the 3-point shot,” Phelps said. “Drake loves the 3-point shot. I love the 3-point shot.”

Hatfield Clubb said Phelps’ background as a high school coach and a top-flight assistant made him ideally suited for the school.

“His profile was perfect for us,” she said. “He had two things _ he was a high school coach not once but twice, he did it two times and had success. It tells me he can teach the game … The second thing is, he has the assistant experience not in one but two conferences … He knows how to compete and recruit.”

Drake officials moved quickly to replace Davis, who was announced as Providence’s coach on Tuesday. Hatfield Clubb said the speed of Phelps’ hire was as much a reflection of Drake’s allure as it was the school’s desire to quickly replace Davis.

“It’s a direct reflection of the job itself,” she said. “Our job here at Drake University went from being a good job to a great job. The people we profiled as the top candidates in the country are the same people who were interested in us.”

Several of Drake’s players attended Monday’s press conference, lingering in the back before coming up to chat with their coach after he had taken questions from the media. Phelps, sporting a Bulldog-blue striped tie and a Drake lapel pin, said he met with the team earlier in the morning at the Knapp Center.

Phelps said he did not expect any players to transfer and that he would work to keep the commitments of recruits secured by Davis. Recruits include Sean Jones, a 6-foot-11 center for Carson City, Mich., and Jared Vlastuin, a 6-foot-5 forward from Lennox, S.D.

The school loses three key players from last year’s team: point guard Adam Emmenecker, the MVC Player of the Year, guard Leonard Houston and forward Klayton Korver.

Drake will build next season’s team around All-Valley picks Josh Young and Jonathan Cox, who will form a potent inside-outside combination. The Bulldogs also return forward Brent Heemskerk, guard John Michael Hall and point guard Josh Parker, who backed up Emmenecker last year.

Young and Parker attended Monday’s announcement and said they liked what they heard from their new coach.

“Coach Davis leaving … it took a toll on all of us,” Parker said. “But we called each other as a team, and we just said, if we stick together as a team, no matter what happens we can stick together and we get through a lot of stuff and we will.”

Young said it was time to get back to business.

“I’m glad it’s over. Obviously it was a tough time, but I think with Coach Phelps we’re all looking forward to what’s ahead of us now,” Young said.