Rasheen Davis - Xavier Assistant

My second interview was with Xavier assistant Rasheen Davis.  Rasheen and I worked a year together at Louisville and have remained in contact over the past four years.  He has demonstrated the ability to grow in this business through networking and hard work.  I spoke with him about his past, working his way up the coaching ranks, and comparing styles between some of the coaches he's worked for.

To give a little background on Davis before Xavier - he played Division II ball and immediately began coaching on staff after graduation.  After three seasons in high school, he returned to the college game at Louisville as a Program Assistant then on to Pitt as the Video Coordinator for a couple seasons.  Rasheen's biggest strength is in the New York City area, with great connections in the recruiting world that he established while working with the legendary NY Gauchos AAU program.

AHT: Hey Ra, great to talk to you again.  First of all, tell me how you got into coaching.


Davis: I blew out my knee my senior year of college when I was playing for St. Thomas Aquinas.  It was then, in 2002, that I began to see things differently while on the sidelines.  I began to see the game from a coaching perspective.  After I graduated, I stayed on staff and worked there for 3 years.  It was a great opportunity to begin coaching right out of college.

AHT: Then you went to powerhouse Rice High School, right?


Davis: Ya, I went to Rice.  I'd played there for three years in high school, and always kept in touch in with Coach Mo Hicks.  He wanted a young guy on the staff and it worked out.  When I came in, Edgar (Sosa) and Curtis (Kelly) were both seniors, Kemba Walker was a sophomore, Durand Scott and "Momo" Jones were both freshman.  We had a great group of guys to work with.

AHT: Ya, that's an amazing high school team.  What did you take from working with guys that talented?


Davis: Well, I played with Elton Brand for 5 years in AAU growing up, so I've always been used to big time players like that.  It was all I knew.  It was great though, because Rice's practices were college level practices.  We did what places like Louisville did in practice.  People see how successful some of these coaches like Coach Pitino and their style, so they implement it into what they're doing at the high school level.

AHT: So what brought you from Rice back to the collegiate level?


Davis: My whole goal was to be a D1 assistant.  I chose to network and work at every camp I could when I easily could have gone on vacations.  (He begins to laugh on the phone, it's obvious he's immediately thinking back to friends inviting him to vacations that he sacrificed on along the way.  He laughs contently at the choices he's made, and thousands of hours working toward this goal.)

AHT: What's the best thing you've learned after nearly a decade in coaching basketball?


Davis: The best thing I've learned is to get better every day.  Right now as I'm coming into my second year here at Xavier, I'm working on becoming more vocal.  The terminology is different everywhere you go and now that I am a lot more comfortable with this system and program, I've really got to step up and become more vocal.

AHT: What about Coach Mack at Xavier?  Tell me a little about him.


Davis: He's different than both Coach Pitino and Coach Dixon.  He gives the players a lot of freedom on the court to create.  He's definitely a player's coach and the guys really like him.  When you look at Pitino, it's all about the press and speeding teams up, Dixon stresses rebounding at tough half-court defense, but Coach Mack is about executing our defensive scheme.  We have a unique shame on defense and we really focus on accomplishing that as a unit.

AHT: Sounds great, Ra.  I know Xavier is going to have another great season in the A-10.