http://www.gopack.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=41959&SPID=3731&DB_OEM_ID=9200&ATCLID=748988

Quote :

"TIM PEELER: Davis Has Nerve to Play Hoops Courtesy: NC State Release: 01/18/2007 RALEIGH – Darrell Davis had one thought running through his mind as he sat in his apartment on Nov. 27, watching NC State’s basketball team play Michigan in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. “I could help these guys,” the redshirt freshman wide receiver from Dade City, Fla., told one of his roommates. Not long after that, Davis was getting his lunch at the Case Athletic Center, when he saw assistant basketball coach Pete Strickland. Davis had just read in Technician, the NC State student newspaper, the basketball team would be holding open try-outs to add to its thin roster. “I heard you guys need some basketball players,” Davis told the coach, less than a week after the Wolfpack finished its football season. “I want to come work out for you.” So Strickland invited Davis, the Pasco (Fla.) County high school basketball player of the year and an honorable mention all-state selection, to sit and have lunch with him and Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe. The only trouble was that Davis, who was a member of the football scout squad while sitting out as a red-shirt, was in a little bit of limbo. Football coach Chuck Amato had been released from his contract, and Tom O’Brien had not yet been hired. He got permission from senior associate athletics director David Horning, the chief administrator for football, to try out for the team. After working out for several weeks to get a limited knowledge of Lowe’s offense and to get into basketball shape, Davis played a key six minutes in the Wolfpack’s victory last Saturday at Wake Forest. Lowe has promised that Davis will see more action as he becomes more familiar with his responsibilities and assignments, perhaps this weekend when the Wolfpack hosts Duke, a 3:30 p.m. game that will be televised nationally on ABC. By playing against Wake Forest, Davis became the first Wolfpack athlete in nearly three decades to see action in both football and basketball for the Wolfpack. (Football defensive back Dovonte Edwards was on the basketball roster in 2000-01, but never saw action in a game.) In the earliest days of intercollegiate athletics, there was a long history of multi-sport athletes who competed for football and basketball, including guys like Norm Sloan and Connie Mack Berry, but during the ACC era it’s been rare that an athlete has competed for both at NC State. The last person to play for both teams was Fred Sherrill, who was a walk-on member of the basketball team in 1977, seeing action in seven games and scoring three points. He left the team the following year after a falling out with then-Wolfpack basketball coach Norm Sloan. But he had a similar experience as Davis in joining another team. Sherrill was with All-America basketball player Hawkeye Whitney one day when they bumped into then-Wolfpack assistant coach Chuck Amato, who asked what Sherrill was up to. Sherrill, a Durham native and graduate of Jordan High School, went out for spring practice and after only three weeks, because of some injuries, he was listed as the Wolfpack’s starting tight end. Sherrill played in all 11 games in 1978, making five catches for 74 yards with one touchdown on the season, as the primary backup to future All-America tight end Lin Dawson. However, it was his only season with the Wolfpack football team. He now lives in Texas. For Davis, joining the basketball program returns him to his first love. He’s been playing basketball since he was 5 and wanted to continue his career in college. After averaging 25 points and nine rebounds per game as a senior, he had offers from several smaller schools, as well as Division I programs Gardner-Webb and Florida International. “I just recently started playing football, in the 10th grade,” said the 6-foot-5 receiver/forward. “I broke my wrist playing in the ninth grade, so I really didn’t play that year. The 10th grade was really my first year of organized football. I went to a couple of camps and got recognized. Obviously, I got more scholarship offers for football.” But here’s the funny part: one of the few schools that recruited Davis to play football and basketball was the ACC’s newest member, Boston College. He was scheduled to take a recruiting visit for football the week after he visited NC State to meet with the coaching staff. But he ended up committing to the Wolfpack while he was in Raleigh and cancelled his visit to Chestnut Hill. So when O’Brien was hired to lead the Wolfpack football team in early December, Davis wasn’t sure how he might be received by his new coach. “I was really nervous because everything was really kind of hanging in the balance,” Davis said. “Coach Lowe told me I could play because I had been showing him what I could do on the basketball court, but he said I would have to wait and see what Coach O’Brien said. “I think it was the first day he was in his office in the Murphy Center. I probably was the football player he talked to, and I had the nerve to go in there and ask him if I could keep playing basketball. I told him that I knew I could help the basketball team.” Davis knew he was asking a lot, especially of someone he had previously rejected in recruiting. “He said he wouldn’t have a problem with it,” Davis said. “Coach Lowe had told him I could help the team. He said it was OK.” And even though Davis didn’t contribute in the 2006 football season, he is looking forward to the contributions he can make in the future. “My goals for football is to be a Calvin Johnson type guy, someone who can stretch the field, who can catch short passes and break tackles and turn them into long receptions,” Davis said. “I want to be the big-name wide receiver here at NC State. I know we haven’t had one here in a while, so that is my goal. I want to break 1,000 yards on the year. I want to break 12 touchdowns on the year. Those are my goals that I have posted on my door at College Inn. “In basketball, I didn’t really have any goals. I just wanted to come in and show some intensity and get some rebounds. Now, I want to keep doing it and get more minutes, help keep Ben (McCauley) and Brandon (Costner) fresh.” The fact that he has this opportunity has blown Davis away. “This is actually the best opportunity that could happen for me at any school I could have gone to,” Davis said. You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu"

this is a good article to find out more about darrell davis, and how he came about playing basketball. i'm pleasantly suprised to learn the kid was a pretty decent high school player. he did some dumb things in his few minutes in the wake game (like a stupid pass), but he also did some good things (good defense, hustled, and intensity). i hope he gets more playing time as he learns and develops, because i appreciate him helping the basketball team.

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 1:11 PM. Reason : ]

1/19/2007 1:09:55 PM

He'll likely make some dumb mistakes. Its's to be expected when he's only been learning the system for a few weeks. We just need him to give a few minutes a game w/o any really bad fuck ups.

1/19/2007 1:18:09 PM

I like how you attempt to turn a positive story into a negative one with a subtle bash of O'Brien.

Davis sounds like a good kid and I'm glad we have him on the court and on the field. Easy to root for..

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 1:20 PM. Reason : x]

1/19/2007 1:20:15 PM

For real, I can't figure out the thread title.

1/19/2007 2:04:11 PM

http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=456754

Exhibit Q

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 2:07 PM. Reason : asdf]

1/19/2007 2:07:29 PM

dumb title to this thread

1/19/2007 2:12:07 PM

Yeah i thought he decided to stick to basketball when i read the title.

1/19/2007 2:13:55 PM

good read

who cares about the title

1/19/2007 2:17:19 PM

way to go superchevy
gay'n up the point of the read

1/19/2007 2:26:17 PM

didn't rusty larue play all 3?

baseball, basketball and fball?

1/19/2007 2:38:45 PM

Quote :

"My goals for football is to be a Calvin Johnson type guy"

I love modest players. Thinks he can start on the bball team and will be the best receiver in the NCAA.

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 2:55 PM. Reason : .]

1/19/2007 2:54:57 PM

There is a difference between "My goal is to be a Calvin Johnson type player" and "I am a Calvin Johnson type player"

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 3:00 PM. Reason : .]

1/19/2007 2:59:33 PM

^clearly.

1/19/2007 3:03:00 PM

he seems to be a very likable guy

i'd rather his goal to be like calvin johnson than to be jesse holley

1/19/2007 3:03:20 PM

wide receivers are supposed to be cocky anyway

1/19/2007 3:18:54 PM

so we can call them all prima donnas.

1/19/2007 3:20:15 PM

i mean they're team players but their job is usually to go up against a DB 1 on 1 or go through a zone...sure they have to block on runs and what not, but the WR position is fundamentally a more "selfish" position than many others in sports

1/19/2007 3:26:29 PM

Quote :

"I want to be the big-name wide receiver here at NC State. I know we haven’t had one here in a while, so that is my goal."

Was Jerricho Cotchery that long ago? We had Koren Roninson and Torry Holt immediately before that.

1/19/2007 3:29:55 PM

like 3 years.

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 3:31 PM. Reason : seems like forever tho']

1/19/2007 3:31:35 PM

quit being a bunch of fags. "waaaaaahhhh, why do you have to bash o'brien? waaaaaaahhhh!" regardless of whether or not you like the title, it still stands as truth and is relevant to the thread as it is a topic in the article.

i, for one, think it's a pretty interesting fact of the situation. i'm honestly glad that o'brien is cool enough to not hold a petty, asinine grudge against davis. it'd be further interesting to see how davis' football career pans out.

j-cotch wasn't big-time in the national sense. he didn't get the recognition of say... braylon edwards. i'm not saying that he didn't deserve the acclaim, because i think he did. i'm just saying he wasn't a national star. torry and koren most certainly were while they played at nc state. everyone knew who they were, and they were big names entering their draft. nobody, but nc state fans knew who the hell jerricho cotchery was until this season. even now, he's still a marginal star and an up-and-comer.

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 3:39 PM. Reason : ]

1/19/2007 3:36:29 PM

A WHOLE THREE SENTENCES.....wow...clearly the focal point of the article was how Davis rejected BC and O'Brien

1/19/2007 3:39:16 PM

did i say it is a focal point? no.

1/19/2007 3:40:15 PM

I guess you can say he 'rejected' O'Brien but that isn't being wholly truthful considering he never even visited the campus. Just like any other commit he chose to go to one school over another. It's not like he committed there and reneged on it.

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 3:42 PM. Reason : more directed at the article than superchevy since it says that in the article..]

1/19/2007 3:40:39 PM

oh, and it's much more than 3 sentences. the topic is about a 1/4th of the article.

tim peeler, the writer, also says davis rejected o'brien "in recruiting". when you ask/offer someone something, and they turn you down, that's a rejection. what's so hard to understand about that? why are y'all taking such an issue with this? coaches and players get rejected all the time. that comes with the territory. for example, one of our incoming o-line recruits rejected us and committed to another school. after some circumstances arose, he decommited and decided he would come to nc state as our offer was still there. are you going to whine about that rejection too?

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 3:46 PM. Reason : ]

1/19/2007 3:41:22 PM

Cotchery was NOT a "big-name receiver" when he was in college

1/19/2007 3:48:42 PM

he still isn't... yet.

1/19/2007 3:49:13 PM

Ask JETS fans if they agree with you.

1/19/2007 3:59:17 PM

hey, let's ask the pats fans who's the better qb: peyton or brady!

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 4:02 PM. Reason : ]

1/19/2007 4:02:26 PM

we all love cotchery and wish him well

but i think we can all agree that in college his name didnt ring anywhere near as loud as K-Rob or Torry

1/19/2007 4:13:23 PM

^^ that's not anywhere near analogous.

1/19/2007 4:14:19 PM

Good find on the article, even though you didn't have to look too hard.

1/19/2007 4:30:58 PM

I like this kid's attitude. I hope he has the work ethic and mentality to back up his goals in football.

1/19/2007 4:38:04 PM

Hellz Yeah!

1/19/2007 4:42:56 PM