On Monday, Ole Miss Athletics Director Ross Bjork introduced Kermit Davis as the university’s 22nd men’s basketball coach. The announcement came just one month after the departure of longtime coach and Mississippi basketball legend Andy Kennedy. Davis, however, has already done plenty to cement his own basketball legacy, a legacy that will only continue to grow in Oxford.
Davis has been a part of the game since a young age. His father, Kermit Sr., coached at Mississippi State University in the ‘70s, and Davis Jr. himself played for the Bulldogs, albeit after his father’s tenure came to a close at the school. Though Davis was certainly an accomplished player, his main success with the game would come as a coach.
In 1988, Davis was announced as the head basketball coach at the University of Idaho, making him the youngest coach in the NCAA at the time; he was just 28. Behind a 50-12 record, Davis led the Vandals to two NCAA Tournament appearances in as many seasons before departing to Texas A&M, where his career took an unexpected turn for the worse.
After just one season with the Aggies, Davis resigned. His admittedly poor 8-21 record was not to blame; instead, the resignation was prompted by multiple rules violations (including utilizing a talent scout to attract a transferring student), which netted a probation for A&M and a show-cause penalty against Davis himself.
After a brief stint in the junior college ranks, Davis returned to Idaho, where he spent a year before jumping to LSU as an assistant. After five years in Baton Rouge, Davis was announced as head coach at Middle Tennessee State University in 2002. It was there that Davis would spend more than a decade and a half, honing his craft as a coach and gaining respect around the country.
After a relatively uninspiring 153-126 record during his first nine years at the university, Davis gradually turned the Lightning into a perennial postseason competitor. In 2013, Davis led Middle Tennessee to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 24 years – Davis’ first NCAA Tournament as head coach in 23 years himself. Three years later, Davis and the 15-seed Lightning shocked the nation by upsetting two-seed Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament – just the eighth victory by a 15 seed since the tournament’s expansion in 1985. The next year, Davis’ squad again pulled off an upset, beating five-seed Minnesota as a 12 seed. The Lightning’s 31-5 record during its 2016-17 campaign was the best of Davis’ career.
After Davis’ 2018 season in Murfreesboro came to a close, now with an overall record of 332-188, Davis decided it was in his best interest to come to Oxford. After a last-place SEC finish in 2018, Rebel basketball needed a breath of fresh air, and Davis offered just that.
Since the hire, many fans have wondered what to think of it. Would they be getting the scandalous Davis from Texas A&M, the middling Davis from the 2000s or the big-time Davis fans of recent years have grown to love? While only time will provide the true answer, one thing is sure: Davis’ experience and success should provide fans and players alike with renewed hope for the future of the program as a whole.
