THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503180355
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTON, OHIO LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Arizona center Joseph Blair, on his way out of the NCAA playoffs, graciously left behind a warning for Virginia.
``Watch out for the guy with the hair,'' Blair said. ``Damn, he can play.''
``The guy with the hair . . . ''
Only those unfamiliar with the Miami of Ohio team that Virginia plays today in the Midwest Region second-round would not know ``the guy with the hair.''
He is Devin Davis, who would be something of an oddity in this middle-class part of the nation even if it were not for his distinctive locks.
Davis is a hard slice of the real Miami, in Florida.
Inner-city Miami, where drugs are hawked on street corners and foreigners fear to tread. Three times in the last decade his neighborhood was torched during riots.
But it is the hair that distinguishes Davis, a 6-foot-8 sophomore center, on the basketball court and the quiet Miami of Ohio campus.
His hair is shaved on the sides and twisted into 6-inch dreadlocks on top. The hair flops like a mop when he runs or jumps.
He also has three gold-tipped teeth bearing exclamation-point star designs. But it is the hair you will notice first when he runs across your television screen.
Virginia guard Curtis Staples, while talking about Miami on Friday, was asked if anyone stood out.
Staples smiled.
``Yeah,'' he said. ``The guy with the hair.''
``I wish people knew me for my game as much as they do my hair,'' Davis said after that subject dominated the Redskins' media session.
He does have a solid game.
His 24 points and 15 rebounds almost matched the sum of the entire Arizona front line in Thursday's 71-62 victory.
``He is sort of a combination of Joe Smith and Jerry Stackhouse,'' Virginia center Chris Alexander replied when asked to compare Davis to someone in the ACC.
Virginia coach Jeff Jones said he heard of Davis when he played at Miami High School.
Jones didn't recruit him but says now there is no question Davis could play in the ACC.
Davis wanted to stay in Florida, but neither the Gators nor the Seminoles wanted him. Miami of Florida showed a little interest.
A few schools indicated they would be interested if Davis cut his hair.
Instead, he cut them from his list.
``This is the way I wanted to wear my hair,'' Davis explained. ``It is unfortunate if someone looks at you only by how you dress or wear your hair.
``I wasn't going to cut it. I thought maybe if nobody harassed me about my hair I probably would cut it.''
Often he goes on the floor for warmups before his teammates, just to get the crowd going. When they jeer him, he gives them a golden smile.
Davis, who seldom watches basketball on television, said he knows little about Virginia, and didn't know much about Arizona before their first-round game.
It was apparent Arizona didn't know enough about ``the guy with the hair,'' either, until it was too late.
UNFAIR ADVANTAGE? Jones didn't bring up the subject, but had a strong opinion when asked about Miami of Ohio having a home-court advantage for today's NCAA Midwest Region second-round game.
Actually the game will be played on the University of Dayton court, but Miami is only 30 miles away and is a big crowd favorite.
``I'll say what I said earlier when asked about the possibility of playing Kansas in Kansas City next week: I do not think it is fair to give any team a home-court advantage, but I understand why the selection committee does it.''
He said the reasons are to create local interest, sell tickets, and keep teams in their home regions when possible.
NO KIDDING: It is not often Jones, 34, coaches against someone younger than him.
But that is the case today. Miami coach Herb Sendek is 32.
Jones blushed a bit when asked if this was the first time he was the old man on the sidelines.
``That is not something I keep up with,'' he said.
Sendek, a former assistant to Rick Pitino at Kentucky, is in his second year at Miami. by CNB