My Words: I've seen it all, and wouldn’t change a thing

I was just a little guy, maybe 4 or so, when I first began thinking about being a basketball coach. I loved going to youth league games to watch my parents as they coached my two older sisters and their teams. I would sit on the bench with my own clipboard and marker, a whistle around my neck. During timeouts and at halftime I would run out onto the court and work on my shot. I’m pretty sure we have pictures, LOL.

One thing I remember from those games is the example my parents set. Cori and Jim were always concerned with helping their players, especially my sisters Stephanie and Angie, and coming alongside them when they needed support. It was always about more than basketball to my parents. From a very young age I learned that winning was more important than individual stats and that how you treat people is more important than winning.

Nearly 20 years have passed and basketball remains a huge part of my life story. It’s taken me on this great journey, from Maple Grove, Minnesota, to Madison, Wisconsin; from being a tag-along kid brother to being a soon-to-be-married college graduate; from taking halftime jumpers with a girls-sized ball all by myself to starting more than 150 games for one of the best Division I men’s programs in the country.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that, now more than ever, I want to be a college basketball coach at the highest level. When I came to play at Wisconsin in the fall of 2017, I had no desire to someday reach the NBA or even play professionally overseas. I just wanted to win as many games as possible with the Badgers, get my degree and start down the path toward having a program of my own.

I’ll be able to tell my players how to manage sorrow. 

UW assistant coach Howard Moore wasn’t involved with recruiting me, but we became very close when I came to Madison. We exchanged texts all the time. He was a brother in faith and our shared allegiance with God was the foundation of our relationship.

The lowest low in my time at UW will always be that late May day in 2019. I was fishing with family in northern Minnesota when I happened to check my phone and found 40 messages, six missed calls and a group chat with teammates that was blowing up. Coach Krabbenhoft has been like a brother to me, so that’s who I called. He told me about the car accident that killed Coach Moore’s wife and daughter, injured his son and nearly killed him. I went from being mad that I only caught a couple fish to being completely devastated. I just remember breaking down, trying to understand why. Why Coach Moore of all people? Why now?

It hurts to lose people you love and trust. One of the reasons I decided to come to Wisconsin was the relationship I’d built with Erik Helland, the strength and conditioning coach, and Henry Perez-Guerra, the athletic trainer. They’re like family to me. I spent countless hours with them when no one else was around, doing things that were challenging and painful. They saw me at my best and worst. Both left holes in my heart when they left UW.

I’ll be able to tell my players how to manage the critics.

One of the worst days of my life came in January of 2020 when I got a call from the Big Ten office informing me that I’d been suspended one game for a flagrant foul against Iowa. l can remember crying in my room. I called Pastor Matt Metzger, a great friend, and he came and picked me up and we drove around and talked for like an hour. We went back to his house and then Coach Krabbenhoft, Coach Helland, Coach Gard joined us. We all just sat in his living room, eating pizza, talking for hours about life and how unfair the situation was. Looking back now, that was also one of my favorite moments because they all came to be there for me.

Let’s face it, everyone has their own perception of who I am as a player. That burden has been hard to carry because it’s not something I’ve tried to embrace or something I’ve tried to become. I go out there and play as hard as I can and I try to help my team be successful in every way possible. I always put my team, my teammates and my coaches, first at all times.

I’ll be able to tell my players that I survived COVID … sort of.

When I came back to UW for summer conditioning in 2020 – the height of the pandemic – the first COVID test they had me take came back positive. I got sent to Eagle Heights – COVID quarantine – for 10 days of isolation. I never had a symptom. They wouldn’t let me retest because this was before we knew about the possibility of false positives. They told me I couldn’t work out because of the risk of heart issues, so I just sat there for 10 days with me, myself and I. My roommates brought me a fishing pole and a thing of worms and I’d go sit next to Picnic Point and Lake Mendota, listen to music and contemplate life waiting for my sentence to be over.

I know it’s a unique situation welcoming back a super senior, especially when I’ve had so much experience playing here and I’m coming back with guys who haven’t really had those experiences yet.

I’ve made a conscious decision at times that I don’t need to go first, I don’t need to lead through all the reps, I don’t need to say the last thing, I don’t need to be the voice always speaking and just let the guys step into that role. For me, it’s more like a mentor/coach role to come alongside them and help them. Just let them know how grateful I am for the opportunity to be on this journey with them and that we can do it together. I’ve enjoyed watching the guys develop and grow, not only as players, but as people as they’ve learned what this is all about.

When I look at this season, I see joy and gratitude. When you hang around a place long enough, you become numb to how much of a privilege and a blessing that all this is. I’m filled with gratitude toward everyone who helped me get here, everyone that helped me develop as a person and a player. I wouldn’t change anything about my time at Wisconsin, but I don’t think I’ve fulfilled everything because I think the best is yet to come for this team.

People always ask me, “What do you want your legacy to be?’’ I’ve always said that I want to leave the program and the jersey in a better place than when I became a part of it.

When I talk about legacy, deep down I really hope that when people think of Brad Davison or my time here, hopefully basketball isn’t the only thing they think about and hopefully it isn’t the first thing they think about. I really hope it’s an interaction we had after a game, whether it’s a hug or a high-five or a picture or an autograph or walking down the street. Those are interactions that I really value and cherish and try to make the most of. I hope Badger fans have a little piece of me that’s not only defined on the court. It’s more defined by the person I am, the values that I live by, the faith that I lead with.

My highest high? I don’t think I’ve felt it yet, but winning the Big Ten championship at Indiana my junior year and the fashion we did it for Coach Moore. Winning our last eight games, doing it on the road. That was possibly only topped here earlier this month against Purdue, winning at home, the white out, the court storming. I don’t know if that tops the first title because they’re so different, but those are my favorites.

I’ll cherish every one of my teammates. I’m going to remember winning games with them. I’m not going to remember the plays we ran or who scored, but just the memories and the moments. Bus rides. Locker rooms. Those are the things I’m going to hang onto the most.

Throughout my career here I’ve been surrounded by an amazing support system. I just get overwhelmed with gratitude for all those people that I’ve gotten a chance to do life with, not only here at Wisconsin, but going back to high school, middle school. All the people that put time into my development as a person and as a player in so many different ways. All the family and friends that have come to watch at the Kohl Center and elsewhere. All the people who sent congratulatory messages, saying they’re praying for me.

I’ll know my time at UW is really done when I show up at the Kohl Center for an early-morning shooting session and I find the key code has been changed. I’ve got all sorts of emotions about that. I’ve been doing that whenever I want, whenever my heart desires, almost every day for five years and the days are winding down.

It was very mundane, but it’s something I realize I really appreciate and really value. Then you start thinking about all the time you put in to the game of basketball. It just overwhelms you with gratitude because of where you are, but also because of the people you got to do it with. When you see the end of the book nearing, it fills you with so much emotion, but I also have so much to look forward to as well. Tyra and I are getting married in July. I’m in a good place mentally, physically, spiritually. I truly believe that the best is yet to come.

I know it’s all going to be good because I know the author of my story and I know He’s working out all the things for the best. I’m content with that.

Did you enjoy reading this? Read more My Words stories from the Badgers here.