HOUSTON, Texas - Only once since grade school has Mike Davis not spent the winter either playing basketball or teaching it. Cut by the Milwaukee Bucks in training camp before the 1983 NBA season, Davis opted to put his basketball career on hold a few months in order to finish his degree.
"That was like torture," Davis said. "I've been around basketball all my life. That experience taught me I can't be doing nothing during basketball season."
Memories of that miserable winter fueled Davis' efforts to find a new coaching gig this offseason after UAB fired him in March. Even though he'll receive $625,000 from UAB this year because he had one season left on his contract, the 52-year-old Alabama native insists he'd have coached a high school or junior high team before he took a full year off from basketball.
Texas Southern spared Davis from a return to the youth ranks in August when athletic director Dr. Charles McClelland hired him as the school's interim coach. It surprised many in basketball circles that a SWAC school could land a man who led UAB to four straight 20-win seasons and took Indiana to the 2002 national title game, but Davis found the job attractive for many reasons.
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