Insider Report: A New Era

DURHAM, N.H. – Christian Moore, a guard and sophomore-to-be on the University of New Hampshire men's basketball team, did not sleep particularly well last Thursday night.

"I got up early this morning because hearing about a new coach is like Christmas morning," Moore said after a gathering in the Service Credit Union Victory Club in Wildcat Stadium early Friday afternoon. "The night before you can't sleep. This morning I got up and looked on Twitter and saw his name pop up, Nathan Davis, and thought, 'Oh, that's a name I hadn't heard before.' When he came in and talked to us, it made sense why his name came up."

Nathan Davis - who has had loads of success in his previous stops, most recently at Bucknell University of the Patriot League – was introduced as the 21^st head coach in the long history of UNH basketball on Friday by director of athletics Allison Rich.

Davis met with his new team at 10 a.m. that day and at 1 p.m. was introduced to members of the athletics department and the press.

Rich excitedly talked about a new era of UNH basketball in announcing her first head coaching hire since becoming AD last summer.

Moore and Jaxson Baker, a grad student and forward for the Wildcats, loved what they heard from their new coach in the team meeting that was followed by individual meetings.

"I think the energy is there, the positivity is there," Baker said. "Obviously he's very excited to be here and that's all we look for as players: wanting to be here, being excited. I think building the relationship is what we've got to do now."

Moore likes the way the new coach's thoughts match up with those of the players.

"His ideas are really in line with what we want to do as a program, elevate us to get to the next level," Moore said. "I don't know too much about Bucknell, but they've had really good success in the past with coach Davis at the helm: Going to NCAA tournaments, winning games against big teams, just living up to the hype behind the Bucknell name."

Most recently, Davis spent eight years as the head coach at Bucknell, winning back-to-back Patriot League championships in 2017 and 2018, leading to consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament.

He was the head coach at his alma mater, Division III Randolph-Macon, from 2009-15 and was highly successful there as well, highlighted by several deep runs in the NCAA tournament.

Before that, Davis was the top assistant at Bucknell and helped put together teams that not only won Patriot League titles and made consecutive NCAA appearances, but won first-round NCAA games, stunning No. 3 seed Kansas in 2005 and Arkansas in 2006.

Her first order of business when she started the search for a new coach, Rich said, was to meet with the team.

"I asked them what they were looking for in a head coach and what would be important to them, important characteristics, things that would really get them excited about staying here and being Wildcats for the remainder of their careers," Rich said. "I took that very seriously and we talked about it again this morning when we met with coach Davis and I told them, 'Here's a list of everything you told me about: That's this guy.'"

For his part, Davis said he jumped at the chance to get involved with the UNH search.

"I was very excited," he said. "I thought, 'It's a great league, it's a great location. I think with the success a lot of the programs have had over the years, it was an opportunity to come in and hopefully do something special. With the commitment that was being made to basketball, it was exciting to me."

The something special, of course, would include but not be limited to, playing in the America East championship game – which the basketball program has never done – and getting to the NCAA tournament, which also has never been done at the school.

"One of the things I said to the players when we met was there's nothing that brings a community together like an NCAA (basketball) tournament," Davis said. "I've seen it. There's nothing like it. You've got the opportunity here to become legends. At some point, someone from New Hampshire is going to go to the NCAA tournament. And if it's you, you're going to be a legend. Forever."

It's a tall task.

"That's our goal," Davis told the team. "We'll work day in and day out to get you as good as you can be. You've got to commit to it. You've got to work hard. We've got to stay together. We've got to bring in good players. We've got to coach you up the best you can be. If you do that, we have a chance to have a group of legendary guys in here."

The Wildcats have a few players of their own in the transfer portal and trying to get them to stay with the program is a high priority, as is getting into high schools and the portal and recruiting overall, along with building relationships with the current team and within the community, Davis said.

Rich hopes to build on the excitement of the last home game in Lundholm Gymnasium this year, when UNH knocked off Bryant in the America East quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals.

"We had that game in a snowstorm and it was packed with people and it was so loud and the atmosphere was amazing," she said. "I want that every game for our kids. I want them to be able to experience that because it truly is the sixth man off the bench. We want to build on that, have a great experience for our kids and then have a great experience for our alumni and fans who come to the games. . . . Let's make it a great spectacle."

Davis is getting right back at it with UNH. After 26, 25 and 21 seasons and the NCAA appearances through 2018-19, Bucknell's record slipped the last few years and he was let go after this past season.

"At the end of the day there are things you can control and there are things you can't," Davis said. "You don't want to sit here and dwell on them, but institutionally Bucknell has a philosophy that undergraduate is what it's all about. We didn't really have fifth year options. Guys had an extra year, the transfer rules changed where you could be eligible right away and so when we lost guys it was hard to replace them without the players being young freshmen."

Bucknell lost a player who went on to start at Kentucky. COVID hurt, too, and a player went off to Ohio State, others to College of Charleston, Grand Canyon, and Penn State.

"It's hard to win in any league when you're playing young freshmen," Davis said. "It was what it was. There are certainly things I wish I'd done a little better. But there were things that were out of my control and I'm looking forward. I'm a much better coach now than I was four years ago."

He's excited to show it and has hit the ground running. He's working on putting together a staff. He's jumped into recruiting and building relationships.

Brad Walker, the commissioner of America East, was on hand for the introduction and came away impressed.

"I think with Nathan's background coming from Bucknell, I think he's going to be a really good fit here, particularly recruiting kids with similar backgrounds to those he recruited at Bucknell," Walker said. "He's had some success coming in and Nathan seems to have a heckuva presence. I think that's going to bode well for the team. I'm excited."

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