How do you get a struggling college basketball player to pull his head out of his you-know-what and starting making some shots? Take away his cell phone, apparently.
UMass point guard Trey Davis scored 40 points in a thrilling 103-95 overtime win over New Orleans Wednesday night. In the Minutemen’s previous three games, Davis had shot just 26.3 percent from the field. Then his mom shut off his cell phone data, and the youngster suddenly woke up.
“Man, my mom turned my phone off after the game we just lost,” Davis said, via Daniel Malone of MLive.com. “She was mad. Talking about my free throws and all this other stuff.
“She said ‘Why are you missing free throws and all these jump shots?’ So she just turned my phone off and she told me ‘Get it together.'”
And it worked. Davis’ 40 points were just one point shy of tying the program’s all-time mark. Former UMass coach John Calipari was being honored on Wednesday and UMass legend Marcus Camby was also in the building, so some wondered if that helped motivated Davis. In reality, he just missed being able to get his Instagram on.
“First I was mad, but then I just accepted it,” Davis said. “Now, she just texted me and the phone’s back on. We’re good now.”
We have heard of athletes getting advice from their moms via text message, but that has to be the first time we have heard of a 22-year-old coming out of a slump because his mom punished him like a high schooler. Trey’s mom deserves to be named an honorary captain for that one.
H/T Deadspin
