 The Beat, 12th Man Productions' all-access look into Texas A&M Athletics, airs Wednesdays at 4 p.m. on FOX Sports Southwest and 6:30 p.m. locally in College Station on KBTX-TV. |
For Tyler Davis, taking care of his body hasn't always been a priority.
In middle school, he was built like an offensive lineman.
But his aspirations lied elsewhere.
"Well, when I moved to Texas, I was the biggest dude," Davis recalls. "I was probably 6-4, 350."
"He was playing basketball in middle school and high school as well while he was playing football," his mother, Yvette Rubio, says. "He told me, 'I really just want to play basketball'. My thoughts were, I don't about this basketball thing. You're pretty big. I don't know if you can run up and down the court as fast as everybody else. But if that's what you want to do…that's fine."
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Davis was picked up by an AAU team in the area called the Texas Titans. He was impressed by the staff, but the nutritionist really stood out.
"He was the first person to kind of show me different ways to eat and how that could benefit my body," Davis said. "So once I started to learn from him--and my mom picked things up too--I just started to really change my diet because I wanted to be as good as the guys on my team."
And from that moment forward, Tyler made a choice and a change.
In just a year, he lost 50 pounds—and college scouts started to take notice.
"With his weight loss and his ability to do so much more, he really got on the map that year," Rubio recalls. "There was so much more attention. In just one summer he was already the number six center in the region. Nobody knew who he was before that."
And it didn't take long for Texas A&M to get to know Tyler Davis.
"He came up one weekend unofficially with his mom and kind of fell in love with A&M," Aggie assistant Amir Abdur-Rahim said. "Obviously he liked the coaching staff, but I think his relationship with (strength and conditioning coach) Darby (Rich) was probably more important than anything. He knew Darby could continue to help him change his body and become the best player he could be."
For Davis, nutrition was a big deal. And it was critical in his college choice.
The Aggies had that area covered.
"Once I got with Darby, we just clicked," Davis said. "His level of work just kind of matches mine. I like to work extra. I like to do the extra things that make me better than other people who aren't doing the extra stuff. And that's what his mentality is. It's all about the extra work. It's all about how hard you're going."
For Rich, in his fifth season in Aggieland, the feeling was mutual.
"With Tyler, his mind is always churning," Rich said. "Those are the kind of guys you love. They're searching to get better and you're searching for ways to get them what they want."
Tyler has put a lot of extra work into his diet since he's been at A&M—a lot of the credit goes to the bond he's formed with team nutritionist Blair Hitchcock.
"She's always on me every meal I have," Davis says, smiling. "She's kind of looking over my shoulder seeing what I have. I can call her anytime if I don't know what to eat. (That's) just (one of) those little things that make a big difference so I can stay on track."
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Hitchcock says Davis has dropped about 20 to 25 pounds since arriving at A&M, but that's not the only change.
"He's a lot stronger, a lot better in shape," Hitchcock says. "Tyler is awesome in the sense that he always wants to learn and always wants to get better. You have to keep him on track sometimes, but he wants to get better and always wants to improve."
Peer pressure isn't always easy to overcome—but Davis deals with that, too.
"When someone has a birthday on the team or just at the gym they bring in a big cookie cake," says freshman teammate Robert Williams. "Everyone's cutting the cake and getting pieces, and Tyler's like, 'I'm passing'. He knows what he has to do. He has to stick to that strict routine that he has."
Davis says it's not always easy to keep that mental approach to nutrition, and admits to making mistakes from time to time and having a long way to go. He pushes a lot of the credit to the support given to him by people like Rich and Hitchcock.
That approach and discipline does not go unnoticed by those going to battle with him.
"Honestly, Tyler has one of the best work ethics I've ever seen in a person," Williams says. "And I don't think people know that. I don't think they see what goes on outside of the games. They don't see how hard he works. They don't see that he'll call me at 9 at night and say, 'Hey, can you take me to Reed so I can shoot free throws?' He has the best work ethic."
"You show me 6-10, 270-pound guys that can play with the energy he plays with night in and night out, whether it's practice or a game, and I'll show you a pro," Abdur-Rahim says. "I think one day, if he continues to create these good habits and stick to them and continues to get better, it'll be another guy from A&M that will play in the NBA for a long time."