A day after his team was snubbed from the NCAA Tournament, Middle Tennessee head coach Kermit Davis’ name has been linked to a power conference job. Davis is reported to be heading to Ole Miss to take over for Andy Kennedy, who stepped down from the job last month, as head coach of the Rebels basketball program.
From a really good source of @jimdunaway's: @OleMissMBB is 95 percent done with making Kermit Davis its next head coach. pic.twitter.com/rBmHsaypUf
— JOX Roundtable (@JOXRoundtable) March 12, 2018
This morning, Davis joined Darren & Daunic to discuss the Blue Raiders absence from the tournament. When asked whether he’d been contacted by University of Mississippi officials, Davis responded, “No, I can’t say at all [Darren], I cant say…I have to give you the canned answer that I’m the coach at Middle Tennessee and I’m going to do my darnedest to get this team to play the right way tomorrow night”.
Davis, a Leakesville, Mississippi native, played collegiately at Phillips County Community College before finishing his career at Mississippi State. Davis enjoyed head coaching stints at Idaho (twice) and Texas A&M before spending the past 16 seasons in Murfreesboro, leading the Blue Raiders to three NCAA appearances, five regular season titles and two conference tournament championships.
Middle Tennessee at No. 33 in the RPI was the highest rated team to be left out of the NCAA Tournament field. The Blue Raiders hopes of making the Big Dance were in doubt once they lost Thursday evening in the Conference USA tournament quarterfinals to Southern Mississippi. The Blue Raiders hoped that they’d be considered after winning 11 straight games until a Senior Night loss at home to Marshall but weren’t even named a part of the selection committee’s ‘First Four Out”. Instead, Middle Tennessee was selected in the NIT as a No. 3 seed.
The Blue Raiders will begin NIT play Tuesday evening at home against Vermont at 7:00 PM CT.
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