Rasheen Davis feels fortunate to be alive. But there’s nothing fortunate about the Manhattan College assistant coach’s rapid ascension in the business — just a case of an honest and personable hard worker who always has treated his job as his most important, from the high school level on up.
An elite recruiter, improving coach and Bronx product, Davis has been vital to 13-4 Jaspers’ resurgence, because of his recruiting acumen and ability to mold talent.
He almost never made it to 21. Born with brain arteriovenous malformation, an abnormal connection between arteries and veins, Davis spent his childhood dealing with migraine headaches.
His junior year at St. Thomas Aquinas College, he was drilled by a screen in practice, and the migraines returned. He had a seizure for the first time, his body shaking uncontrollably, and a fever that wouldn’t go away.
“I was just dying,” he said.
Eventually doctors found the problem: His brain was hemorrhaging, a type of stroke, and he needed surgery immediately or it could become fatal.
The procedure was a success, and he has a large scar next to his left ear to prove it.
Davis, 34, doesn’t like talking about the operation, but he is not afraid to cut his hair short anymore, which he has done in the past to keep the scar hidden. When he sees it in the mirror, it brings back memories.
“It lets me know it’s a blessing to be alive, and every day you’re alive you have to take advantage,” Davis said. “If you’re living, you wake up and you’re healthy, your family is healthy, what more can you ask for?”
He drew inspiration from that life-altering experience. His playing career ended in the 12th game of his senior year at Aquinas — two years following his near brush with death — when he tore the MCL in his right knee. He didn’t pout or complain, however.
“I would come into my office [in the morning] and he would be making up game plans, he would be telling me what we needed to do,” former Aquinas coach Dennis O’Donnell recalled.
Davis got his first assistant coaching position four years ago at Xavier, eight years after he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant as St. Thomas Aquinas.
He joined the Jaspers for the 2012-13 season.
He already was prepared. He spent his formative years learning the ways of recruiting, how coaches went after his teammates — from the elite recruits to the Division II players.
“I learned, when you’re good, everyone knows you, and when you’re not, nobody knows you,” he said.
Davis used that knowledge at since-closed Rice High School in Harlem and the AAU dynamo New York Gauchos, where he recruited and coached top players such as Charlotte Bobcats point guard Kemba Walker and former University of Miami star Durand Scott.
“He knew where all the players were,” former Rice coach Moe Hicks said. “He was really good at being in the right place at the right time.”
Sam Davis — the father of Xavier guard Myles Davis, whom Rasheen Davis successfully recruited — described his style as “unique.”
Sam Davis said Rasheen, who is not related to Sam or Myles, is brutally honest, confident yet not cocky. He doesn’t make promises. He stresses academics, a prospect’s future, and looks to build relationships. He never talks about the NBA. Basketball comes last.
“Rasheen was different,” Sam Davis said. “He was a young guy with old-style ways.”
One player he takes enormous pride in, Manhattan sophomore sharpshooter Shane Richards, technically was not recruited by Davis, who still was with Xavier at the time.
Tipped off by the father of a former high school teammate who was frustrated by his lack of recruitment, Davis gave Richards a look. Richards wasn’t in Xavier’s class, but Davis gave Manhattan College coach Steve Masiello a call. Richards landed at Manhattan because of Davis’ endorsement. By the time Richards was earning MAAC Rookie
of the Year honors last season, Davis had joined the Jaspers staff.
Davis has recruited an impressive 2014 class for Manhattan and landed current freshman Rich Williams.
“I think he is the best recruiter in the country, and I say that because you can put him anywhere, with any school and any coach, and he’ll be successful,” Masiello said. “I say this all the time: There are people who recruit and people who get players. Rasheen gets players.”
It sounds trite, but Davis said he just wants to see kids get a chance to be successful. He grew up in the South Bronx, when crack cocaine was becoming popular, a place he refers to as the “wild, wild west.” He remains close with all of his former players, even kids he didn’t land.
“I never lose a relationship,” Davis said. “I’m always happy to see kids get a free education. I know for me, if I didn’t play basketball, I wouldn’t [have gone] to college. It’s that simple.”
Davis’ life could have gone in a variety of other directions. It nearly ended in college. There was the injury his senior year he used as a transition into coaching, rather than a deterrent. And the decision to head to Louisville as a program assistant for a meager-wages job, giving up a career as a guidance counselor.
“There’s been a few occasions in my life, I’m just like, ‘Wow, I have a purpose here,’ ” he said. “Every day I wake up, I just feel blessed.”