JUCO basketball: Drawn back to DeKalb, Davis now leader of Kougars
Obstacles and personal relationships have helped Kishwaukee's Luke Davis to mature
MALTA – While Luke Davis may have wanted to start anew somewhere away from DeKalb after high school, home kept calling him back.
The Kishwaukee sophomore spent his freshman year of college at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville.
“I wanted to go away for college because I had been here the first 18 years of my life,” Davis said. “Getting away was just part of growing up. I just wanted to move on and [start] doing something on my own.”
His family was able to watch him a few times when he played for SWIC as a freshman, but not consistently. When his mother, Herilanda Thigpen, was stricken with ovarian cancer in 2017, Davis’ next move was made without hesitation.
“Being away, if there was … even a chance of losing her, I couldn’t be away with that on my mind,” Davis said. “I knew I had to be here because she has done everything for me since the day I’ve been born. She’s been my rock. It was my time to step up and be here for her.” Thankfully for his family, Thigpen has been cancer-free for nearly a year.
“It has just been a blessing to be here and watch her get her strength back, getting back to the woman that I know is just awesome,” Davis said. “When she was going through it, it was crazy. She lost so much weight, and she just didn’t look the same. She would tell me all the time, ‘I’m not feeling good; my hands are cold.’ Just being there for her, I know that’s something I had to do, to be there for my mom.”
When Davis originally made his decision to head to Southwestern Illinois College, he did so without running it by coach Jay Moore, a man who he has been close to since he played on the DeKalb High School freshman team. Moore was in his first year coaching the Barbs’ freshmen when Davis was a freshman.
Davis originally was hurt that he wasn’t told Moore was going to take an assistant job with Kishwaukee, and says to this day he would have been a Kougar if he had known Moore would take a job in Malta as assistant coach.
Moore was unhappy about the breakdown in communication between the two.
“I was like, ‘If you had just told me that you were coming here, I would have stayed, and I would have came to Kish and played my first two years here,’ ” Davis said. “That’s just how much me and him have that relationship together, and I have that much trust in him that I want to be around him 24/7.”
Faced with the desire to play basketball again after moving back to DeKalb, Davis made a call to Moore, who had finished his first season as an assistant to then-head coach Rob Buss, who had been with the program for 15 seasons.
The two hashed things out. They both meant too much to one another to not make it work.
“His dad and his mom reached out to me once he moved back and said he wanted to come to Kish and just said, ‘Take care of our boy,’ ” Moore said.
But the 2017-18 season didn’t go in storybook fashion for the returned Davis.
The Kougars slugged through a 6-25 campaign that was marred by injuries and players pulling away from the program in the middle of the season. Davis suffered his first concussion in November and didn’t play the rest of the season. He secured a medical redshirt as a result.
Davis explored his options after the season. He decided he was going to join defending NAIA Division I champions Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.
Davis was ready to go, having established relationships with coach Craig Doty and the defending national champions.
All that changed when Buss left the program, and Moore was named head coach at Kishwaukee.
“When I found out he was coach, there was no doubt in my mind that I just had to decommit from Graceland instantly,” Davis said.
But that didn’t automatically help him regain his spot with the Kougars.
“At first, I was on the fence about it, but him and I had some very difficult conversations,” Moore said.
Those conversations led to Moore asking more of Davis, demanding more work and a renewed maturity he knew Davis to be capable of.
“After the season was over with me and him, we really didn’t talk that much. I took it personal. I didn’t talk to him. I wasn’t a man about it,” Davis said. “I didn’t come up to him and ask him about it. I made assumptions, and that’s what you cannot do. After we sat down and chopped it up like real men do, we had a full understanding of what was going on and what we had to do to make it possible for me to come back and play.”
So back to work they went. When Davis came in to begin intensive work in August, he weighed 270 pounds. Moore and Davis spent more time than ever on the court, lifting weights, and talking to one another about goals and expectations. Davis is built like an NFL tight end now at 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds.
“His discipline and his maturity are his two things biggest things that really stand out to me,” Moore said. “The discipline [and] maturity that he has shown, last year that was not the case. A lot of coaches that I talked to from the high school ranks to the college ranks said this kid has made a 180-degree change.”
His supporters have been treated to standout performances.
As far as statistics are concerned, Davis leads National Junior College Athletic Association Division II in blocked shots as of Sunday with 62. He’s scoring 20.3 points a game, has been held under 15 points only once, and his 11.8 rebounds a game were the seventh-highest total in the country.
Kishwaukee defeated Carl Sandburg, 73-68, on Friday for the Kougars’ first Arrowhead Conference win since the 2016-17 season. Davis was held to 16 points, but still contributed 14 rebounds and six blocks.
“There’s no selfishness on this team. Last year, we had a few guys that were ‘me players.’ But there’s no ‘me’ on this team,” Davis said. “We’re one big team, one big family. Whatever we do, on and off the court, we doing it together.”
As much as any of the production David has brought to the Kougars’ lineup, Moore is even more thankful for the relationship they share.
“I just really believe some people come into your life for a reason,” Moore said. “I’ve been blessed enough and fortunate enough to coach a player like him and we don’t get players like that.”
“Hopefully, I’ve changed his life as much as he’s changed mine.”
Davis is seeking a professional career in basketball one day. Moore said two Division I programs have expressed interest in Davis, while a bevy of Division II and III programs have been on Kishwaukee’s door step inquiring about Davis. Moore keeps working with Davis on things ranging from the sophomore’s perimeter game, to his ball-handling.
Their personal relationship, forged with both in their first year of the DeKalb High School basketball program, has long resembled that of a close family member. Davis noted that it wasn’t “father-son, but more like big brother-little brother kind of to me.”
“It’s not always going to be peaches and cream,” Moore said. “There’s going to be difficult conversations, but at the end of the day, like I said, he knows I care about him. I do a lot. I give a lot to make sure he’s successful at basketball, and basketball is part of his life for a very, very long time.”
Davis is seeking a professional career in basketball one day. According to Moore, two Division I programs have expressed interest in Davis, while a bevy of Division II and III programs have been on Kishwaukee's door step inquiring about Davis. Moore keeps working with Davis on things ranging from the sophomore's perimeter game, to his ball-handling.
Their personal relationship, forged with both in their first year of the DeKalb High School basketball program, has long resembled that of a close family member. Davis noted that it wasn't "father-son, but more like big brother-little brother kind of to me."
“It’s not always going to be peaches and cream," Moore said. "There’s going to be difficult conversations, but at the end of the day, like I said, he knows I care about him. I do a lot. I give a lot to make sure he’s successful at basketball and basketball is part of his life for a very very long time.”