NCAA Basketball: Coaching Carousel Update and Firings from early March

Detroit Mercy

After six seasons, the Titans are looking for a new head coach after the firing of Mike Davis. When he was brought aboard in 2018, there was certainly optimism that Detroit could do damage in the Horizon League in the coming years, but that did not come to pass. Davis’s teams finished below .500 in each of his six years, bottoming out this season with a 1-31 record.

This past year was a dreadful black eye on a head coaching career that has included both up’s and down’s for Davis. He succeeded Bob Knight as head coach of Indiana in 2000, leading the Hoosiers to the national title game just two seasons later. He would flame out with the Hoosiers and later at UAB before a successful six years at Texas Southern. Davis actually spent six years apiece at all four of his head coaching jobs, with his work in Detroit certainly the weakest.

The story in Detroit most recently was Antoine Davis, who finished just a few points shy of Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring record. Davis couldn’t even win with his son starring in this program, and the Titans haven’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2012 under former coach Ray McCallum. Detroit has had some nice seasons here and there, but that’s also their only trip to the Big Dance in the last quarter century.

This team can succeed in the Horizon League with the right leader, something that’s become evident at some of the other schools in this league. Making the right hire can do wonders for a program like Detroit, who have an interesting balance of attributes to offer their new head coach. This feels like the type of job to throw at a hungry young assistant, even if that didn’t work with predecessor Bacari Alexander.