Davis Move to Stillwater Provides Environment Former Hog Needs Most

Nothing to do at Oklahoma State but focus on basketball, return to form

Former Arkansas guard Davonte Davis beats former Arkansas forward Trevon Brazile to the rim back when Brazile played for Missouri. / Nelson Chenault – USA TODAY Sports

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – As of yesterday, former Arkansas guard Davonte Davis is headed to Oklahoma State.

For a young man in need of a fresh start with as few distractions as possible, there's not be a better place he could have gone. There may not be a Division I college town on the planet with as few distractions as Stillwater, Oklahoma.

For anyone who has ever been, the list stops at three things for Davis to do outside of spending every available hour in a basketball gym working on his game. And to be clear, it rolls out in this specific order:
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1. Get on the list early to sit on the upper deck at Eskimo Joe's. Try to time it preferrably when the football stadium is lit up so there's something to look at while waiting and be sure to grab a stuffed Mojo on the way out to keep on the desk.
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2. Swing by the veterinary school barn and check out all the crazy contraptions they put farm animals in, especially at a time when students are trying to get them loaded into them.
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3. Grab some buddies, tear down the goal post at Boone Pickens Stadium and have a contest to see which members of the group can manage to fit the whole thing into the tiny pond in the middle of campus.

Back while helping my daughter consider various quality vet programs, OSU popped on the radar as a place to consider. During research, we picked the brain of a young man who worked at a nearby college athletics department who got his undergraduate from there.

"You sure you want to go there?" he asked. "It's a good vet school, but you've got to really love the school. Stillwater is there because of OSU, not the other way around. It's different. Kind of an acquired taste. You'll understand when you get there."

After a short stop at Oklahoma, we began the drive up to Stillwater thinking it would be a nice little interstate cruise from one college hub to the other. Nothing could be further from the truth. The interstate goes away quickly and it becomes small two-lane highway lined with rolling plains of nothing.

After driving this highway for what felt like 500 miles, a sign pointed left to Stillwater, which was just a few miles away. We pulled over and double-checked the map because there was nothing around at this intersection and no sign of a town could be seen in the distance. What's more is the road felt like the paved farm roads often seen in Arkansas that head to a small community church and enough houses for the 40 or so people who attend that church to live in scattered every few miles.

Eventually Stillwater just kind of happened and it wasn't nearly the jarring experience one might think. There was no college town oasis hidden over the hill on the backside of a cow pasture. Instead, it was a lot like driving into just about any South Arkansas town, only stretched out a little more.

For reference, Warren, Monticello, Star City or Hope will do, although for Hope you have to imagine the interstate doesn't run through the middle of it. Now, take everything outside of downtown in each of these towns, all the homes and small shops housed inside of what may have once been a skating rink, arcade, video rental store or old Tastee Freez, and copy and paste it a few times to make the area stretching out from downtown a little wider.

Take down the garland shaped Santas and candles still hanging on the light poles from Christmas, then shove an Arby's on one end of town and a Cane's chicken on the other and that's it. That's Stillwater.

Now, those places are wonderful areas to be raised. I happened to grow up in one and have no regrets. However, at no point did my buddies l start looking around and say, "You know what? If someone would just drop a massive, well-funded university from where the post office is over to where the old county high school used to be and give it a football stadium larger than our downtown, that would make perfect sense here in our three stoplight town where only one is necessary."

It is the oddest thing. Oklahoma State should be the Southern Arkansas University of the Sooner State, but because of Pickens, it's been put on steroids. And in all fairness to SAU, Magnolia has more going for it, so get cracking on generating a billionaire needing a good reason to spend money and maybe the Muleriders can build their way into the next super conference alignment.

People often ask why Warren produces so many Division I college athletes and NFL players in respect to how few people live in the tiny South Arkansas town that coincidentally wears orange and black just like OSU. It's because of a strong work ethic instilled by the community and a lack of anything else to do for entertainment besides play sports all day and night.

It's the perfect breeding ground for those guys. That also seems to be the explanation for why Oklahoma State often overachieves in football, baseball and basketball. There is nothing else to do but go play ball with the boys or hit the gym.

All the trappings of Fayetteville along with being able to hop in the car and drive back home to the Little Rock area are no longer there for Davis. After about the third time there, the cool factor of Eskimo Joe's wears off and it just becomes another place with an expensive burger and novelty t-shirts.

If Davis is going to find himself again and prove he's the guy who put a team on his back and willed it past No. 1 Kansas in the NCAA Tournament, Stillwater is the place. It's just him and the gym.

That's all he ever needed as a kid. There was no NIL, nor waves of overreaction flowing at him on social media. It was just a young man, a basketball and a metal ring to shoot it through.

If that's all he needs to find himself again, then this next year should be a time of great discovery and a renewal of passion that might have worn away under the relentless pressure of Eric Musselman and a demanding fan base.

There's nothing to do in Stillwater but get great again. There's even a chance he'll get to prove to his old team how effective the reboot turned out come tournament time.

And if he does, Kentucky, uh, I mean Arkansas, will be waiting to meet him.

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