Winthrop head men’s basketball coach Pat Kelsey announced the hiring of veteran coach Dave Davis as associate head coach for men’s basketball Friday afternoon, with a start date of July 1.
Davis has 28 years of experience as a head coach and comes to the Eagles after nine seasons at the helm of Newberry College in Newberry, S.C. The longtime coach has 486 career wins and during his nine seasons with Newberry the team led the South Atlantic Conference in scoring seven times.
“There is not a more respected and well-liked college coach in America than Dave Davis, especially in the southeast,” said Kelsey. “His relationships with coaches at all levels is amazing as is the tree of coaches that he has developed under him. It is very difficult in our profession to be as successful as Dave and have no enemies. That’s why he is special. He has over 450 wins at the collegiate level and is one of the most innovative basketball minds I know. His hire is a coup for our program.”
In his tenure at Newberry Davis posted five of the top six win totals in program history, which included seven-consecutive winning seasons from 2011-12 until 2017-18. In addition to leading the SAC in scoring seven times in nine years his teams ranked in the top-10 nationally in scoring all nine seasons. In his nine seasons Davis had 17 players earn All-South Atlantic Conference honors. He has mentored three SAC Freshmen of the Year, four SAC Scholar-Athletes of the Year for Men’s Basketball (all in the last five years) and an Academic All-American.
Prior to Newberry, Davis enjoyed a successful stint as head men’s basketball coach of Pfeiffer University. In 14 seasons at Pfeiffer, Davis accumulated a record of 284-124 (.696) including 21 championships, NCAA Division II Sweet Sixteen appearances in 2000 and 2004, and an NCAA Elite Eight appearance in 2004. Davis’ Pfeiffer teams averaged over 20 wins per season and rank in the top five in wins since 1990 in all of NCAA Division II basketball. Davis was named the CVAC Coach of the Year in 1998, 1999 and 2004. He was also named the NCAA East Regional Coach of the Year in 2004.
Davis’ 2009-10 Pfeiffer team finished as the highest scoring team in Division II at 103.1 points per game and his teams led the country, Division I and II in scoring five times. They scored 66 second half points vs. North Carolina in the Dean Dome, the most points scored against the Tar Heels in one half in the history of their program. The Falcons scored 50 vs Duke in the second half, 56 vs Purdue in the first half and scored an amazing 146 points in a conference game vs Barton in 2010.
Over Davis’ career he has coached 19 All-Americans and has had 64 former players sign professional contracts, including Danny Huffor, Dondray Walker, Aegir Steinarsson, Tony Davis and Mitch Riggs from Newberry.
Davis has an impressive list of former assistant coaches and players who have excelled at the college and professional levels, headlined by Buffalo Bills General Manager Brandon Beane, Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter, Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Michael Longabardi, Connecticut Associate Head Coach Raphael Chellious andNorth Carolina State Assistant Rob Moxley, as well as five Division I head coaches, 16 Division I assistant coaches, nine Division II head coaches, five junior college head coaches, two college athletic directors and five professional general managers, coaches or scouts.
Kelsey Announces Dave Davis As Associate Head Coach at Winthrop
