By Jeff Dahn

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- The late Denny Thiessen influenced hundreds if not thousands of high school basketball players and coaches during his incredible run as the head coach at Bettendorf, Cedar Rapids Prairie and Iowa City High high schools.

Paul Gavin, a 1984 Prairie graduate who played for Jeff Wessel before moving on to an outstanding collegiate career at Mount Mercy, certainly absorbed everything Thiessen had to offer. Now the Mount Mercy men's basketball coach, Gavin's first opportunity to do any coaching was a one-year stint as an assistant for Thiessen at Prairie.

"I learned more in that one year with him than anywhere else," Gavin said recently. "He really helped establish my philosophy as a coach. He was so offensive minded, and I tend to think I'm the same way -- not quite to his level, probably."

Gavin was being unduly modest. Now in his 18th season as the head of the Mount Mercy men's basketball program, Gavin has the 2009-10 Mustangs playing at such a high level, talk of a Midwest Collegiate Conference championship and maybe even a berth in the NAIA national tournament has began to pick up steam on the picturesque hilltop campus on Cedar Rapids' near northeast side. The Mustangs won 14 of their first 17 games this season and the program looks poised to contend for its first conference championship and national tournament berth since 1996.

There have been many factors involved, many pieces fitting together just right. Gavin has assembled a staff of veteran assistant coaches, a solid group of players he has been able to bring in since the school began offering athletic scholarships two years ago, and then introduced a wide-open, free-wheeling offense that is scoring points by the bucket load, getting a lot of players involved and exciting a fan base that has been longing for something to be excited about for more than a decade.

"We've had several years of .500 or just below .500 ball and we've just been kind of mired in our own muck, if you will," Gavin said. "I wanted to make a change in terms of how we played, and I talked to some other coaches who I respect about the type of things we can do."

Gavin said those conversations led to the Mustangs doing some different things on both ends of the floor. He shuffles players in five at a time with the starting five getting a little more playing time. He regularly plays between 10 and 14 players in each game.

The offense has been prolific, averaging nearly 85 points per game. "This team as a group has kind of bought into this system of play," Gavin said.

The Mustangs have been led this season by Keith Kuenstling, a 6-foot-7 senior out of Dunkerton. Kuenstling leads the team at 17.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while shooting 59 percent from the floor. James Henderson, a solid 5-3 junior from Roseville, Minn., by way of NIACC, averages 13.9 points and 4.1 assists.

"The key is, our offense is pretty good, we're running real well, and everybody's getting out and we're getting easy baskets," Henderson said. "It's very fun, we're putting a lot of points on the board and we love it. We're doing five in, five out, and it gives everybody a chance at equal playing time."

Scott Sturm, a product of Cedar Rapids Xavier and Clinton Community College is at 9.4 points per game. Another big addition has been Josh Watznauer, a 6-7 junior from Yates City, Ill., who joined the Mustangs this season after two years at John Wood Community College in Illinois. Watznauer averages 8.3 points and 7.5 rebounds.

"I liked the situation. I could come in right away and play," Watznauer said. "I was talking to a few different schools in the same league and this seemed like a better fit with the guys and the overall program."

The Mustangs spent almost the entire month of December away from home, playing 11 straight games on the road. They finally returned to Hennessey Recreation Center on Jan. 6 and crushed MCC rival Viterbo, 84-67, then pounded Iowa Wesleyan, 97-53, on Jan. 9. It was their fifth straight win and eighth in their last nine games, and it upped their records to 14-3 overall and 3-1 in the MCC.

Mount Mercy was picked to finish third in the MCC in a preseason vote of league coaches, trailing powerful Grand View and William Penn. The Mustangs' only league loss through the first week of January was to St. Ambrose in Davenport on Dec. 5.

"On the basketball floor, there's one thing I always want, and that's a winning effort," Gavin said. "That may not be good enough to win every night, but I think if you have that on a consistent basis, you're going to win more than you're going to lose.  If after the game you can step away and say you out-worked, out-played your opponent … do the things that take a little extra energy."

Gavin, who graduated from Mount Mercy in 1988 and is also the school's golf coach, has had success at his alma mater. He led the program to a conference championship and a sweet 16 finish at the 1996 NAIA Division II national tournament, and after the win over Iowa Wesleyan, his career record was 276-270. This year's early success has the folks at the Hennessey Rec Center bubbling with anticipation.

"It's an exciting time and it's fun to watch," Athletics Director Scot Reisinger said. "It gives more students a chance to play, which is great, it's exciting for the fans to watch, and obviously it's been successful, so you can't complain about that."

The contributions of out-of-state players like Henderson and Watznauer are certainly welcomed and appreciated, but Gavin has made the Cedar Rapids/Marion Metro area his recruiting base. Former Cedar Rapids Jefferson players Chad Underwood, Sid Beck and Jordan Ask are listed on the roster, as are former Marion preps Marty Tope and Jake Cram. One of the team captains is 6-1 senior Yassin Deo, who prepped at Iowa City West.

The players like being close to home and are especially enjoying putting numbers in the win column on a consistent basis.

"Things are going well and we kind of expected to do well this year, but as things have kind of turned out we're actually starting to click a lot better than we thought we would," Deo said. "It's a great style of play and with the teammates that we have it makes it even more fun to give everyone a chance to play and showcase what we can all do."

Making sure he is minding his backyard first is a priority for Gavin.

"It shows with the fan support, the support from the family, the friends, the parents and so forth, and the media, as well," he said. "The more local kids and the more Eastern Iowa kids you have here that have had success, it's good for your program."

Gavin has also put together a quality staff, featuring former University of Iowa star James Moses, who served as an assistant to Rick Williams at Cedar Rapids Washington for many years, former Kirkwood Community College head coach Ted Oglesby, in his fifth year as a volunteer coach, and Scot Enright, a former standout at Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

Gavin got the head coaching job at Mount Mercy as a 25-year-old and said Oglesby was one of the first coaches to encourage him and offer support. Enright is in his second season as an assistant after previously filling that role in the mid-1990s. Moses just came on board this season.

"James has been a wonderful addition," Gavin said. "He is as positive a gentleman as I've been around and obviously loves to be around basketball. Scot, Ted and I are a lot alike, maybe not as connected with the players of today, where James can go back and forth and be a liason between the players and coaches. When he talks (the players) listen. A lot of times you get assistant coaches who might be yes-sir, no-sir guys, but he just jumped in with both feet and bought into what we're doing and has had a lot to do with our success."

Gavin's program, like all the other athletic programs at Mount Mercy, has benefitted greatly by the decision made by the school two years ago to begin awarding athletic scholarships. Gavin is now the benefactor of two recruiting classes that he was able to dangle some tuition money in front of.

"We're now able to talk to some players who, honestly, we had no business talking to before," Gavin said. "We're basically on an even playing field with everybody in our league now. It has increased our numbers and I think it has improved the quality of the student-athlete we bring in, both academically and athletically."

Every athletic program at Mount Mercy has benefitted, but the men's basketball team is showing the most positive early returns.

"We've always had great student-athletes here, we just have more of them now," Reisinger said. "In the two years we've had scholarships, our numbers have increased by about 50 students. Especially in the system Paul runs, it's crucial. He couldn't run that system without that depth and the scholarships really allow him to do that."

The games played in January and February will ultimately define this team. No one remembers December successes when March comes calling.

"I think we're capable of getting into the national tournament and at least making some noise when get there," Deo said. "We have a lot of athleticism and good team chemistry, so I think we can do a lot of big things."

For Gavin, it's about more than just this one season. He has invested his life's work into Mount Mercy and has no problem looking at himself in the mirror in the morning.

"I'm proud. I'm proud of what I do and where I work and I'm very loyal to the school," Gavin said. "There are a lot of people who don't enjoy what they do when they wake up in the morning and for me, this is not work. It's almost an extension of what I did as a player and I'm very fortunate to be able to do this."

Coach Thiessen would be proud.