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Cowboy nears happy ending to rocky trail

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- For Wyoming senior forward Josh Davis, the NCAA Tournament has a serendipitous quality.

The Cowboys opened in the West Region against a team he nearly chose to attend, Gonzaga. In today's second-round showdown at the Pit, he leads his unheralded team against No. 3-seeded Arizona, the team he had the first of his 30 double doubles against.

"This tournament has been full of ironies for me," Davis said.

But if his swan song is a bit strange, so, too, has been his career, especially this season.

Davis, 21, only the third player in school history to amass 1,400 points and 900 rebounds, didn't focus on basketball until the summer before his senior year at Salem (Ore.) Academy.

He always was sampling a smorgasbord of activities: swimming, soccer, baseball, gymnastics, piano and guitar lessons (he plays bass guitar with teammate Marcus Bailey in a local rock band, Alias), and even, for a brief time when he was about 5, ballet.

"They didn't want to pressure me into doing any one thing in particular," he said of his parents. "They wanted me to find my own path and find what I wanted to do in my life."

Once he realized basketball might be a means to a free college education, he got more serious about it. Then-Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt was the first to notice, and Davis never forgot that.

"I visited and liked the facilities," he said. "It looked like a program that needed a little rebuilding, and I felt I could contribute to that and step in early and get some things done."

Though Shyatt bolted for Clemson shortly after Davis signed with the Cowboys instead of Gonzaga, Davis did get the opportunity to be a cornerstone of a rebuilding job as promised.

A month into his collegiate career, an awe-struck Davis jostled for post position with touted Arizona freshman Michael Wright. Davis had 22 points and 13 rebounds in a 94-84 loss, a portent.

"When we played them, I was tremendously impressed with Josh," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "He was an outstanding freshman and he's developed into a very outstanding senior."

Strangely, the numbers don't bear that out.

The 6-8, 235-pound Davis averages 11.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks, fewest since his freshman year. After earning the Mountain West Conference player of the year award as a junior, he expected more of himself, and that caused some self-analysis by the psychology major.

"Over four years, he went from playing with a lot of role players to some very talented players," Wyoming coach Steve McClain said. "He went from having to do everything to how do I fit in on this team? He went from playing with a senior point guard to a freshman point guard (Jason Straight), so I think it has been a struggle at times."

At times?

Try for most of the Cowboys' first 29 games.

"Sometimes, you have to step back and let other people step up," Davis said.

He gradually redefined his role and accepted it. He embraced it Thursday night in the 73-66 upset of sixth-seeded and No. 6-ranked Gonzaga, the Cowboys' first NCAA Tournament win since 1987.

Davis had 11 points, tied for third on the team, but added a game-high 14 rebounds and a game-high 5 blocks. That included a dazzling, acrobatic block of a shot by All-America point guard Dan Dickau in the final minute that all but ensured the win. He and his coach agree it was his finest game of the season.

"I have to play each game like it's my last one because it could be my last one," he said. "I'm a senior. This is the first time I've had an opportunity to do this and it's going to be the last time I'll have the opportunity to do this."

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