Report: Davis to take coaching job at UAB

Former IU men's basketball coach Mike Davis has agreed in principle to become the next basketball coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the Birmingham News reported Thursday night. \nThe former IU basketball coach was in Birmingham Thursday night, meeting with UAB interim athletics director Richard Margison and other school officials to finalize a contract agreement. The News is reporting that a formal press conference is expected Friday. \nDavis, 45, is a native of Fayette, Ala., and played for the University of Alabama from 1979 to 1983. \nHis hiring will further invoke questions about the futures of IU sophomores Robert Vaden and D.J. White. At Davis' Feb. 17 resignation press conference, both players asserted they were "IU guys" and would be loyal to their embattled coach. \nWhite, like Davis, is also an Alabama native. The forward appeared at new IU coach Kelvin Sampson's introductory press conference March 29 and maintained that he was unsure of his future. \nVaden did not appear at the press conference and refused to answer questions when approached by IDS reporters. Davis has been connected to the UAB coaching vacancy since former coach Mike Anderson left to become head coach at Missouri. Davis was also rumored to have been interested in an open position at Arizona State University, but those rumors died after the initial hiring of ESPN analyst Rick Majerus. After Majerus failed a physical exam, former North Carolina State coach Herb Sendek took the job. \nDavis was the only coach in IU history to win more than 20 games in each of his first three seasons. He ended his six-year IU career with a 115-79 record.