Journey to Jadwin - Doug Davis

5/7/2020

Doug Davis ’12 scored 1,550 points at Princeton and is the Tigers' third-leading scorer of all-time, but his most remembered two points was his buzzer beater against Harvard in 2011 that sent Princeton to the NCAA Tournament. Throughout his Journey to Jadwin and to this day, Davis has been a winner and stepped up during the biggest of moments.

Davis has accumulated a long list of accolades in the game of basketball, however it was not his original sport of choice.

“Ironically, my first love was football,” said Davis. “My grandfather was a football coach so I wanted to play football and then I got hit really hard. I dove in the end zone and I got hit two different ways, right on my head then I realized that this probably isn’t the sport I want to play moving forward.”

Davis’ grandfather coached a rec team in Philadelphia called the Oakland Wildcats.

“We were from the Oakland section uptown,” said Davis. “He coached there forever and was a founding member, so much of my youth was through this organization, Simon’s Recreation Center.”

Football’s loss was basketball’s, and eventually Princeton’s gain.

Growing up in the 90’s, it was only right Davis idolized Michael Jordan. Along with Jordan, Davis grew up watching the Philadelphia 76ers.

“Being a kid and growing up in the 90’s, Jordan was that guy,” explained Davis. “My dad would cut my hair and give me a bald head so I’d look like him. Had the bald head then being from Philly, you see Iverson and try model your game after those guys. My dad is an old school basketball guy, an old school all-sports Philly guy. I’d watch old games of Maurice Cheeks and try to act like him... Being little, you look for all the little guys and try act like them and emulate them.”

Davis’ father, a soccer player in high school, was also influential in helping him develop a love of the game.

Davis’ high school career saw him make three different stops; Abbington Prep, Prep Charter and the Hun School. Just as he did at Princeton, he won championships at each school. The best fit for Davis ultimately ended up being the Hun School, just a short drive from Jadwin Gymnasium.

While Davis played two seasons of AAU, he chose to spend his other summers working out with legendary Philadelphia skills trainer John Hartnett. He worked out with Harnett from his sophomore year in high school until Harnett’s passing in Davis’ sophomore year of college. Davis learned valuable lessons during those summer workouts, harnessing skills that became staples of his game and gave defenders nightmares for years to come.

Taking it easy, playing the game in your mind and being cerebral with it. Not always going full speed; tempo was everything with him, know when to push it, when to relax and developing and controlling the tempo of the game from the little guy’s perspective. That was huge for me.

Doug Davis

Davis is thankful for the impact Hartnett had on his game and on his life.

"Those were those formative years where you’re figuring out where you’re going to go, how you’re going to model your game and he was really important at that stage,” he explained.

Growing up in Philadelphia and playing both with and against so much talent also helped elevate Davis’ game to an elite level.

“I knew I loved the game, in Philly you don’t really have a choice but to play the game of basketball and you have to be good,” explained Davis. “If you’re not good, then you just get clowned. I was on a Prep Charter championship team, two of the guys on the starting five were Markieff and Marcus Morris, who are playing in the NBA now. We had a guard, Josh Martin, 6’2, legend of Philly. We had Rodney Green, amazing player. Playing with Brad Wannamaker, who is with the Celtics. Scoop Jardine, Rick Jackson, Wayne Ellington, Gerald Henderson, those guys are awesome. Kyle Lowry."

Evidently, Princeton recognized the fact Davis was really good and he still remembers the exact moment he found out he was on the Tiger’s radar.

“The day I saw our old assistant coach, Tony Newsom in the gym, who is now at St. Luke’s coaching their high school team up in Connecticut,” said Davis. “He was in the gym watching us play pick-up and I didn’t know who he was there for because I didn’t really know Princeton was an option for me. I was just playing and one of my coaches came up to me and said Princeton was interested and I was like, oh okay. I didn’t really think anything of it. Later on, in my junior year then in my senior year, Princeton was a real option.”

It then came down to Princeton, Columbia and Howard, where his mother was an alumnus. Davis would eventually choose Princeton.

One of Davis’s strengths was controlling the tempo and pacing himself; the importance of doing those things was reinforced during a conditioning session early in his freshman year. The team would run four timed suicides with breaks in between each one.

“As a freshman you’re trying to prove yourself and I beat everyone thinking we only had to run one,” explained Davis. “I’m out, I’m speeding and I’m like I’m killing it. The guys are like yo, you ran that suicide and your time was unbelievable, keep going Doug! I was like keep going? We have more? We had rest in between but I was not ready for that at all."

By the time we got to that fourth one I was done, I couldn’t. I was jogging through because I went so hard in the beginning. All of the seniors and juniors are looking at me like this kid doesn’t know any better. That was a wake-up moment for me, but also a funny moment

Doug Davis

Davis clearly learned from his wake-up moment. Along with ranking second in games played in school history with 122 and sitting third in total points, Davis’ 276 made three-pointers rank second and his 545 made field goals rank fourth. He was an All-Ivy League honoree three times.

Davis accolades speak for themselves and he accumulated a lifetime of memories during his time at Princeton.

“Obviously the shot, but playing in the Tournament,” said Davis. “Playing in the Tournament is something I’ve always dreamed of and playing against Kentucky was awesome."

The bonds formed with his teammates and coaches are also deeply valued by Davis.

“Being an Ivy League student-athlete, there’s only a select group of people who know what that is like,” explained Davis.

Being a student-athlete at Princeton, there’s only a select group of people who know what that grind is like…. With the coaches, there’s nothing like a Princeton bond. A lot of the coaches I’ve been fortunate enough to play for did the same thing. Mitch and Sydney played at Princeton, Brian Earl played at Princeton

Doug Davis

Since graduating, Davis has gained experience in multiple fields. He played one season of professional basketball for the Walter Tigers in the German Bundesliga, worked in sales and marketing for the 76ers and for an insurance company.

Eventually he decided coaching was the route he wanted to go and took a position at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts. After two years there, he took the head coaching position at Princeton Day School in 2018, where he also works as a history teacher. It did not take long for him to make an impact with the Panthers, as he was selected as the Top Boys Coach in the area by the Town Topics, a local newspaper.

“It’s trying to build a program, which has been awesome,” said Davis

While Davis has his own unique coaching style, he remains heavily influenced by his previous coaches and mentors.

“I find myself sounding like Sydney Johnson,” said Davis. “I find myself sounding like Jon Stone (head coach at the Hun School). I find myself sounding like Mitch Henderson, all of the coaches I’ve had wrapped up into one. You try to find your own lane and your own voice, but my voice is so influenced by those guys its actually scary. I’ll say something then be like oh my god, that was Coach J or that was Coach Hartnett. That was Mitch, what am I doing?”

Davis owes much of his post-Princeton success to his time as a Tigers.

“Princeton prepared me for life,” explained Davis. “There’s a lot of challenges you deal with at Princeton, but when you had a professor, Professor Bender, he told me that if you can study and figure out how to succeed within the Princeton offense, knowing when to cut and when to go back door, you really can do anything. You’re able to compete at such a high level, you’re playing Harvard on a Saturday or Friday night then you’ve got to turn around and play Dartmouth. You’re on a bus reading. If you’re able to do that, there’s nothing you can’t do. That’s really helped me. He put it in perspective, you don’t really think about those things until you step back and take a couple of years to reflect on it."