Announced officially today.DETROIT (9/25/2018) -- Experience in the system and experience on the collegiate level will be all over the Titan sidelines as University of Detroit Mercy head men's basketball coach Mike Davis formally announced his coaching staff today.
Mike Davis Jr., Tracy Dildy and Keith LeGree have all been named assistant coaches for Detroit Mercy, while native Detroiter Tim Waller will be the Director of Basketball Operations, Will Finch the Video Coordinator and Eric Devendorf in the newly created Special Assistant to the Head Coach.
In addition, Kevin Brunfield and Nigel Ramsey will serve as graduate assistants.
The Titans will officially begin team practice for the 2018-19 season on Thursday.
Mike Davis Jr.
Someone who knows coach Davis more than anyone, Mike Davis Jr. learned the game from his dad and not only played under him at Indiana and UAB, but has been on the sidelines with him for six years.
Davis Jr. served as an assistant coach for the last six years at Texas Southern, where the Davis duo built the Tigers into a perennial power in the SWAC and a staple in the postseason.
During his six seasons, Texas Southern won four regular season and conference tournament championships and appeared in four NCAA Tournaments with one NIT bid. In 2018, the Tigers won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game, defeating North Carolina Central in the First Four match-up. He also helped TSU student-athletes earn 11 All-League honors and five were selected SWAC Players of the Year, three Defensive Player of the Year, two Newcomer of the Year and one Freshmen of the Year accolades.
His first collegiate coaching job was at Chipola Junior College in 2011-12. Prior to that, he worked on the AAU circuit with the Alabama Ice as an assistant coach from 2010-12.
Davis Jr. played collegiate basketball at Blackhawk Community College, Indiana and UAB, and saw action in 76 games at the Division I level.
Tracy Dildy
No stranger to the Midwest, Horizon League or coach Davis, Tracy Dildy worked with coach Davis at UAB in 2006-07 and also has coaching stops at Mississippi, Auburn, DePaul and Ball State before his recent assignment as head coach at Chicago State.
He was the head coach at Chicago State from 2010-2018 and also served as the athletic director in his final season. He guided the Cougars to their first-ever Division I postseason appearance as the team won the Great West Conference and earned a bid to the CIT in 2013.
He was named the top mid-major assistant by Hoop Scoop in 2008, one of the top 25 mid-major assistant by CollegeInsider.com in 2009 and one of Hoop Scoop's top 50 mid-major assistants in Basketball Times when he was at UIC from 2007-10.
He helped assemble a nationally-ranked recruiting class for the 2005-06 season at Mississippi that was rated as high as third by numerous recruiting publications and earned a spot on Rivals.com's list of the Top 25 recruiters in the nation in June 2005.
At DePaul from 1997-2002, he worked as an assistant coach, the associate head coach and even served as an acting head for a period in 2001 and helped the Blue Demons advance to the quarterfinals of the NIT in 2001 and reached the second round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament. He spearheaded four huge recruiting classes for DePaul which included the nation's top-ranked class in 2001 and the second-best class in the country in 1999, in addition to signing future NBA players Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons, Steven Hunter and Eddy Curry.
Keith LeGree
A two-sport start in college and a veteran in the coaching ranks, LeGree has been an assistant coach at the Division I level for over 10 years and has almost 20 years of coaching experience under his belt.
LeGree and coach Davis know each other well as he spent the last six seasons (2012-18) on staff at Texas Southern. He helped the program win four regular-season titles and four conference tournament championships along with advancing to five postseason tournaments, including four trips to the NCAA's.
He also has coaching stops at Chipola Junior College, Alabama Southern Community College and at his alma mater Cincinnati. LeGree was on staff under his college coach Bob Huggins at UC from 2000-05, helping the Bearcats to 123 wins, with a school record 31 in 2001-02, and five trips to the NCAA Tournament, including the Sweet 16 in 2000-01.
LeGree was a standout student-athlete on the hardwood at Cincinnati and Louisville and also played professional baseball, parlaying that into a seven-year playing career in the minor leagues and reaching the Triple A level before he entered the coaching profession.
Tim Waller
Waller is an experienced coach and administrator and has spent the last 35 years in the world of collegiate basketball. He is also no stranger to coach Davis, serving on his staff at Texas Southern and UAB.
Waller was the Texas Southern Executive Director of Operations for the last six seasons, handling team travel arrangements, scheduling and budgeting. Prior to that, he was the Director of Basketball Operations for three years at UAB. In his nine years working alongside coach Davis, the teams have made seven postseason appearances, including five trips to the NCAA Tournament.
In his career, he has been a part of 14 regular season and conference tournament championships at five NCAA Division I schools. A graduate of Western Michigan, he has also worked as an assistant coach at Central Michigan and WMU.
His career has seen him earn numerous roles in the coaching community serving as regional director of the Black Coaches Association (1988-90) and Chairman of the Assistant Coaches Committee (1989-90) of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Eric Devendorf
A basketball prodigy from Bay City, Michigan, who went on to an outstanding collegiate career at Syracuse before embarking on a seven-year professional career overseas and in the NBA D-League, Eric Devendorf will fill the role of Special Assistant to the Head Coach.
Devendorf comes to the Motor City after spending the last two years at his alma mater as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the basketball team as well as a mentor to the Orange guards.
His stops overseas included playing in the Ukraine, Israel, Greece and New Zealand. In 2010, he helped the Wellington Saints in the New Zealand NBL win a championship and he also led the league in scoring. He also played in the NBA D-League with the Reno Bighorns in 2009-10 and the Idaho Stampede in 2011-12.
In college, he starred for Syracuse from 2005-09 and tallied 1,680 career points, 14th in school history. In 116 career games, he averaged 14.3 points and is fourth in career 3-point baskets at Syracuse with 208, sixth in three-point attempts (550) and fifth in three-point percentage (.378). He also accumulated 372 assists, 170 steals and shot 43.8 percent from the field and 79.5 percent at the free throw line.
Will Finch
A former member of the Detroit Mercy men's basketball program, Finch has over 10 years of collegiate experience and has worked in a number of roles during his time.
Finch was the men's basketball Director of Basketball Operations under former head coach Ray McCallum in 2009-10. He was part of the largest turnaround in school history as Detroit Mercy went from 7-23 the previous year to 20-14 in 2009-10, ending with a run to the Horizon League semifinals.
More recently, he worked with 22Ft Basketball Academy at Shannon Forest Christian School from 2013-16 as a boy's assistant coach for varsity and a head coach for junior varsity. He was in charge of recruiting, workouts, practice sessions and day-to-day operations and he helped student-athletes secure 19 Division I scholarships.
He has also been on the coaching staffs at Marshall and Saint Catharine College and worked with Impact Basketball in Las Vegas. Finch started his career as a basketball manager at his alma mater Indiana.
Kevin Brumfield
Brumfield will serve as one of the new graduate assistant coaches for the Titans and knows coach Davis well after spending two seasons working as a student manager at Texas Southern from 2015-17.
Before arriving at Detroit Mercy, he was the Director of Basketball Operations for the Adidas Group/University Sports in Houston, Texas, where he managed over $300,000 in apparel and equipment for the programs in the Dallas region.
He was also a men's basketball graduate assistant at Alabama A&M from 2017-18.
He earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science from Victory University in 2011 and is currently pursuing his MBA at Detroit Mercy.
Nigel Ramsey
Ramsey will be one of the two new graduate assistant coaches for the Titans.
Last year, he was an assistant coach at Milwaukee Academy of Science and prior to that, he was the associate head coach at Scottsdale Community College in 2016-17.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, he has also been involved in youth basketball as a coach for the Birmingham Ice.
He played college basketball at Shelton State and at Ouachita Baptist and earned Honorable Mention All-GAC honors as a junior and was twice tabbed to the GAC All-Tournament team.
He graduated from Ouachita Baptist in 2014 with a degree in business and is currently pursuing his master in Cyber Security.