Entering his eighth season at LeTourneau University in 2012, Bob Davis has become known as one of the top coaches in the American Southwest Conference after turning around a program that had one winning season in 20 years into a program that competes for the conference title.
In his first season as head coach at LeTourneau University, Davis’ teaching expertise was put into practice as his team had a grand total of nine years' worth of college basketball playing experience. While eight wins might not normally qualify as a successful season, the 2005-06 campaign provided a definite building block for the future.
Davis’ LETU career began with a 3-0 start, the best start for the school since the 1978-79 season. In his first season, he coached two of the top freshmen in the American Southwest Conference, Dusty Evers and Dewones Smith. Evers was named the ASC East Division Freshman of the Year while Smith was honored on the ASC East All-Freshman Team. Both were named Honorable Mention ASC East.
Davis’ second season with the YellowJackets turned into the best season in the last 20 years. With a win on the final day of the season at Ozarks, the Jackets secured the #2 seed in the ASC East Division and their first ASC Playoff appearance. He led the team to their first winning season since 1996-97 and just the second winning season since the 1986-87 season. On February 1, 2007, Davis and his team upset #4 Mississippi College, the highest rated team ever beaten by LeTourneau, 64-62. On February 8, 2007, Davis picked up his 400th career college coaching victory in a 57-54 win at home against UT-Tyler.
For his efforts, Davis was named the ASC East Co-Head Coach of the Year. His players were also rewarded for their strong season. Jayme Bradley was named the ASC East Newcomer of the Year while Smith earned First Team honors, Evers earned Second Team honors, JJ Rockmore was named to the All-Freshman Team, and Marcus Coleman earned Honorable Mention and All-Defensive Team honors.
In his third season, Davis' program stalled a little. Despite a better result in nearly every major statistical category as compared to the 2006-07 season, the YellowJackets finished at 12-13 on year and missed the playoffs by one game. The team was snake-bitten as they lost seven conference games by five points or less. Smith earned First Team honors while Evers, Rockmore, and Marcel Louimeus earned Honorable Mention honors. Both Evers and Smith scored their 1,000th career points on the final day of the season.
During the 2009-10 season, Davis coached JJ Rockmore to an American Southwest Conference East Division First-Team honor as the team finished 10-15. During the season, Rockmore, who was a four-year player under Davis, surpassed the 1,000-point plateau.
The 2010-11 season saw a freshmen-heavy YellowJackets squad struggle to a 3-22 record; however, the team started to show improvement in the latter half of the season, which included a rivalry game victory over ASC Tournament-bound East Texas Baptist.
Davis came to LeTourneau from Liberty University and the NCAA Division I level where he was the associate coach for three seasons. His three seasons at Liberty were some of the best in school history. During the 2002-03 campaign, Liberty experienced the third best turnaround in the nation. In 2003-04, the team won the Big South Conference Championship and made the NCAA Tournament as a #16 seed.
Prior to coaching at Liberty, Davis was a 15-year head coach at Eastern Wyoming College, a junior college located in Torrington, WY. He is the winningest coach in the school’s history and averaged 21 wins per season. His teams were the Wyoming Conference Champions nine times and were Region IX Champions twice. Eight different times Davis has been named the Region IX or WCCAC Coach of the Year. He was also the National Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp basketball director at Wyoming for seven years.
Davis began his coaching career at the high school level in 1974 and quickly moved up the ladder. He coached the Chinese Junior Olympic Team for eight weeks at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center in 1979-80. He served as an assistant coach at Colorado State University and was a head coach for six years at Chadron State College.
