BearcatLair.com - Meet Assistant Coach Larry Davis

November 4, 2009

Ryan Pence
BearcatReport.com Staff Writer

You may know him as Mick Cronin's right hand man. Or, if you're a casual fan, you may not know him at all. But regardless of whether or not he gets the attention he deserves, Cincinnati men's basketball assistant coach Larry Davis has played just as an important role as anyone in helping to bring the Bearcats back into the national spotlight.

If you're a die hear fan, you may know him very well, and some of you may have even had the pleasure of meeting him. But if you've ever come across coach Davis at a time when he wasn't talking with a recruit, coaching a player, or racing to finish one of his countless other jobs to help the team, consider yourself lucky. While he may not be the most well-known member of the Bearcats' coaching staff, one could certainly argue that he is the busiest.

"Unlike football you kind of have to be a jack of all trades," said David when asked about his responsibilities with the team. "I do recruiting, scouting, practice planning; you name it, I do it. Sweep the floors. Basically just whatever whatever else needs to be done."

Davis is clearly involved with many areas of the program, but the area in which he is most known might just be recruiting. As mentioned earlier, if you come across Davis during the day and he isn't entertaining a potential recruit either by phone or in person, consider yourself lucky. And as far as who he recruits, Davis says it's more about who you know rather than covering a certain area.

"We're more of a relationship-based group, where we have a lot of relationships," said Davis. "I do more of the South just because I was there before coming here. I do a lot of the Southern Region recruiting, but if me or one of the other coaches know someone it doesn't really matter where they are."

With nearly a quarter century of coaching experience in the books, Davis has certainly seen the recruiting landscape change over time. Particularly because of technology and the emergence of text messaging and other social networking tools.

"It's changed a lot," said Davis. "Although you can't text-message guys anymore, you used to be able to. That's a rule that I wish they would bring back because quite frankly kids are more free and willing to speak through text. For whatever reason it just seems like kids these days would rather text than talk, but yeah it's changed a lot; just having to keep up with all the different stuff like Facebook and things like that."

Davis' journey to Cincinnati had plenty of pit stops along the way. After graduating from Ashbury in 1978, he became a graduate assistant at East Tennessee State. After three seasons with ETSU he became a head coach in the high school ranks, serving one year with Cloverport (Ky.) and two years with Oak Hill Academy in Virginia.

From there, he spent a year at Ball State (1993-94), four seasons at Wake Forest (1989-93), and four years at Delaware (1985-89) all as an assistant coach. Davis played a large role in turning around a Wake Forest team that finished last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1988, leading them to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1991 to 1993. While there, he coached the likes of long-time NBA star Rodney Rogers. From 1994-1997, he was an assistant coach at Minnesota.

Finally, after years of waiting, Davis finally got his shot at a head coaching position with the Furman University Paladins. From 1997-2004 he compiled a record of 124-139, a relatively good number considering the massive rebuilding project he encountered when he arrived.

With all those years of experience, Davis has been able to develop a coaching style all his own. But, as Davis will tell you, he has picked up a lot of his knowledge along the way, studying the numerous basketball minds he has encountered along his journey through the world of college basketball.

"I try to take the best of each guy that I've worked under, and obviously I've been a head coach myself," said Davis. "So I try to learn from my own experience and just take the best from each guy. I've worked with a lot of great guys. Every place I've been I've worked for really great people and guys who have great basketball minds. Each of them do it a little bit differently, but I try to take what I think is the best from each of them. Some things have worked and some things I've blended together and some things are taken straight from the person I learned them from."

Since taking over at Cincinnati, Davis has played a large role in bringing many top recruits to the Queen City -- something he probably doesn't get enough credit for. Now, it appears the fruits of his labor are about to show. The Bearcats have the talent to compete with anyone in the Big East, and Davis says having such an incredible amount of talent on the team is going to make everyone better.

"The competition level is much greater, and that makes for better practices which is going to make us a better team," said Davis. "Guys are fighting at every position for minutes on the floor. Anytime you have that competition level practices are going to be better and everyone is going to be a little more focused. So I think the talent level is going to benefit the team greatly."

Now, heading into his fourth year with the Bearcats, Davis is hoping to head back to a place he hasn't been since 1997 -- the NCAA tournament. Whether not the team will reach that goal is yet to be seen, but one thing's for sure -- assistant coach Larry Davis will be hard at work making sure his team is in the best position to make it happen.

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