Monday afternoon the Austin Peay men’s basketball program announced that head coach Dave Loos was on the mend after undergoing surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his colon. According to the release it was discovered that the cancer had spread to one of Loos’ 23 lymph nodes in the area, which will require him to undergo chemotherapy.
While the school expects Loos to be back on the sidelines for his 27th season at the helm this fall, assistant coach Jay Bowen will run things on an interim basis while Loos chips in as his health allows. Bowen has been on Loos’ staff at Austin Peay on two different occasions, so there won’t be any confusion when it comes to how the head coach wants things done.
Loos led Austin Peay to the NCAA tournament this past season under difficult circumstances, as his five year old granddaughter Rhyan was (and still is) battling cancer during that period. Rhyan was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma last October, and her fight served as inspiration for an Austin Peay team that won the OVC’s automatic bid despite entering the OVC tournament as the eight-seed.