Davis pulls out of Southern Miss search

By AL JONES

HATTIESBURG - Kermit Davis Jr., has withdrawn his name from consideration as the next head basketball coach at Southern Miss, a story first reported Tuesday by sunherald.com.

Davis, a former Mississippi State and LSU assistant, called Southern Miss Athletics Director Richard Giannini on Monday night and informed him of his decision to remain the head coach at Middle Tennessee State.

"I mean this from the bottom of my heart," the Leakesville native said from his office Tuesday. "Southern Miss is an outstanding basketball opportunity and they are committed to winning.

"But I am fortunate to have a good job and my family is happy. The bottom line is loyalty to my players and the administration. I am committed to finishing what we started two years ago."

Before Davis took over the Middle Tennessee State job, the program had won 19 games. The past two years, the Blue Raiders posted 33 wins and home attendance increased by 3,000 while playing in the Sun Belt.

Davis said he met with Giannini in Atlanta during the opening day of the SEC Tournament. Since the initial meeting, the two spoke a couple more times on the phone and were scheduled to meet later this week for a final time. But Davis said Giannini told him he would not make a final decision until next week, a few days before the Final Four is set to begin in San Antonio.

<a href='http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/8261044.htm' target='_blank'>SUN HERALD: Kermit Davis takes his name out of the running</a>