[03/29/02]LORMAN Making pressure-packed decisions on Alcorn State’s bench was easy for Dave Whitney compared to his decision to keep on making them.

Whitney said at a Thursday news conference that he would return to coach the Braves next season, ending months of speculation on whether he would retire after leading Alcorn to its 12th Southwestern Athletic Conference championship and fifth NCAA Tournament appearance under his leadership.

“Certainly, the decision I had to make was much tougher than coaching 13 guys during the season,” Whitney said, adding that on a scale from 1-10, the decision to return rated a “nine and nine-tenths.”

Whitney, a 10-time SWAC Coach of the Year, said the decision to return next season was extremely difficult. When asked how close he was to retiring, he said, “You can’t print this, but D-close.”

He had on-again, off-again talks with Alcorn president Clinton Bristow Jr. throughout the second half of the season. At another meeting Wednesday afternoon, Bristow finally sold Whitney on the idea.

“I think the forcefulness and the expectations by (Bristow), when I talked to him, was more important in making this decision than anything else,” said Whitney, who has a career record of 551-337 and has won 496 games at Alcorn.

Bristow said their discussion focused more on academics than the success of the basketball program.

“We didn’t even talk about athletic successes. We talked about how he can be an ambassador for the university to help nationally with our motto of athletes and scholars,’ and to put something in place here at Alcorn … that will survive as a legacy to the value of sports and learning,” Bristow said. “Whitney is not a rocking-chair type person. He does not want to go fishing, he wants to help young adults achieve academically and develop themselves, and that’s what I wanted him to do next year in addition to coaching.”

After the meeting, Whitney went home and discussed it with his wife and children. They gave him their blessing, and he accepted Bristow’s offer to coach one more season.

Whitney said it was a relief to finally be able to answer the question people have been asking him “35-40 times a day,” but he wasn’t good company on Wednesday.

“That’s the first time in 26 years I’ve been at Alcorn that all the lights at my house were out, because I didn’t feel like talking to anybody,” he said.

A number of factors played into his decision, Whitney said. The biggest was Bristow’s announcement of the creation of a new “center for sports and learning” on the Lorman campus.

Whitney will play a prominent role in the development of the center, which will strive to help students balance both academics and athletics through sports-related activities, programs and courses.

“When the president came up with trying to get this learning center started, I thought I could help in that respect,” Whitney said. “It’s something we need, it’s something for the community, and it’s something new for black institutions, and I thought Alcorn ought to take the lead in that.”

Two other factors were the state of the basketball program and Whitney’s own competitiveness.

“I still have that fire,” Whitney said with a smile.

By leaving after next season, he also feels he’ll be tying up some loose ends. Alcorn will have six seniors on its roster next season, and only one the year after that.

Whitney said he would recommend that assistant coach Samuel West succeed him.

“That’ll clean the slate. It will leave a few good players … and it’ll give the new coach a chance to bring in five or six guys,” Whitney said.

Alcorn forward Lee Cook, the lone sophomore on this year’s team, said Whitney’s return will put pressure on the Braves to repeat this season’s SWAC championship and send the coach out in style again.

“He decided to come back, so we have to come back saying the same thing as last year. No slacking. That’s what he expects from us,” Cook said. “I know he won’t be looking for nothing less than another championship, so we just have to come in, give all that we can give and pray for the best.”

Whitney’s duties next season will go beyond the basketball court and the center for sports and learning, however. Bristow said he planned to use Whitney as an “ambassador” for the school.

“He will be our poster link for the whole concept of sports and learning,” Bristow said. “He will be used next year to really promote what we stand for as an institution. There is no better ambassador for Alcorn than Coach Whitney … and layered on top of that will, hopefully, be another very successful basketball team.”

Whitney, who had said that this season would be his last, promised there would be no news conference similar to Thursday’s a year from now.

“I don’t want to be a dead legend. If I’m going to be a legend, I want to be a living legend,” he said with a laugh.