‘I don’t want to regret anything.’ Boise native gets unusual college hoops opportunity
Piper Davis thought she was done with basketball when Timberline wrapped up state tournament play last February.
Then an email in her inbox, which started as a jest, changed everything.
After a whirlwind week, the 2023 Timberline graduate is now suiting up for the short-handed TCU women’s basketball team as a college basketball walk-on. The Horned Frogs held open tryouts on campus in late January after a rash of injuries forced them to forfeit two Big 12 games. Davis was one of four students chosen to join the program for the remainder of the season.
“I have no expectations for playing or anything like that,” Davis said. “I am just here to help out the team. They’re kind of in a really tough spot. So I just take it day by day, like, ‘I’m gonna go to practice today, I’m going to be really competitive and I’m gonna make these girls better.’ I’m gonna do my best to fill whatever role they need me to fill.”
INJURIES RAVAGE HORNED FROGS
On Jan. 17, TCU announced that it would have to forfeit games against No. 2 Kansas State and then-No. 24 Iowa State to “ensure the health and safety of the program’s student-athletes.”
At the time, the Horned Frogs were down to six healthy scholarship players. It was a devastating blow for the program, which had started the season 14-0 and climbed as high as No. 23 in The Associated Press Top 25 in coach Mark Campbell’s first season at the helm.
A friend of Davis’ spotted the news article about the forfeitures and emailed it to her along with a question: “Time to come out of retirement?”
Davis, who is a freshman double-majoring in graphic design and business marketing, forwarded the article to her father.
“The first thing (my dad) said to me was: ‘Walk down there and introduce yourself to the coaches or whoever’s there,’” Davis said. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I can just walk in. Don’t you think they’re busy?’”
But Davis got up the nerve to do it, and found out while speaking to a secretary that the team was actually hosting open tryouts the next day on campus. Davis was then introduced to several assistant coaches and a player who were hanging up flyers about the tryout.
“After thinking about if for a while, I was like, it’s the Big 12. That’s awesome,” Davis said. “I don’t want to regret anything. And next year, if I look back, I don’t want to be like, ‘Wow, I really should have done that.’”
MAKING THE TEAM
Davis attended the first day of tryouts with about 20 other women. They did some shooting and dribbling drills, and then played against each other.
They were told there were two spots available.
“I was just like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go and be competitive and have fun playing something I thought was over (for me).’ I did that,” Davis said. “Then I got an email the next day asking me to come back for another tryout.”
A slightly larger group attended the second day of tryouts, and Davis felt she performed well.
A TCU assistant then reached out to Timberline coach Andy Jones to find out more about Davis. What did the program learn? She started every game for the Wolves’ 2022 5A state championship team and had averaged 8.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game as a senior.
“They wanted to know about her character and how she would affect their team culture. They were concerned with that,” said Jones, who has coached seven state championship teams. “I said, ‘Hey, Piper Davis, the only thing she could do is help your culture.’ She’s just gonna be a great teammate, she’s gonna work hard and she’s gonna do what’s asked.”
With the background check complete, Davis was called into meet with the coaches on Jan. 20, and they told her she made the team. It took the following Sunday and Monday to wade through all the paperwork for NCAA compliance, but Davis was cleared to join the team just in time for a home win over UCF on Jan. 23.
TCU added four players in all. Sarah Sylvester, who is a scholarship volleyball player, joined the squad on Jan. 21. Then Davis, freshman Ella Hamlin and sophomore Mekhayia Moore were selected from about 40 players who attended tryouts.
A ‘FULL-TIME JOB’
Once Davis was officially a part of the team, she had to sit down with an academic adviser to adjust her class schedule to accommodate the team’s practices.
The four walk-ons have been coming to practices earlier than the rest of the team to get up to speed and avoid slowing down the two-hour scheduled block for practice.
“It is a big-time commitment. I’ve noticed it’s a full-time job,” Davis said. “But it is really fun, and I really enjoy it. I really like the girls, and the facilities are just amazing. That’s all been super fun.”
Davis completed her first road trip with the team last weekend, as the Horned Frogs traveled to Lubbock, where they lost 71-65 to Texas Tech. TCU hosts Kansas at 5 p.m. Mountain time Saturday at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Davis’ dad, Jarrod Davis, will be in the stands Saturday. The elder Davis played for Gonzaga from 1989 to 1992, and he’s overjoyed to see his daughter on a college basketball roster.
“He always wanted me to play college basketball, like deep down,” Piper Davis said. “He would never tell me, but he always wanted me to be a basketball player because that was his thing.
“... So he’s been super supportive and really excited for me. I mean, nobody ever thought that I would be playing at a Big 12 school, so I think it’s kind of a dream come true for him.”
