Kansas City duo Angelo Allegri, Tyreese Davis provide secret sauce to Eastern Washington’s success

Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, Angelo Allegri spent much of his free time roaming basketball courts in search of a game.

Tyreese Davis did, too. They didn’t go to the same school – Allegri attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kansas, whereas Davis went to Grandview about 16 miles away in Missouri.

But invariably, Allegri would show up somewhere, and, unplanned, he’d run into Davis.

“Like, I would go to a gym,” Allegri said, “not even text him or hit him up, and he would be there.”

They went on a college visit together. They played on the same AAU teams and, for a year after high school, teamed up at Link Prep in Branson, Missouri. In the fall of 2018 they went their separate ways, Allegri to UNC Greensboro, Davis to Jacksonville (Florida).

But since the start of last summer, their gym rendezvous are again a regular occurrence. And neither is surprised to see the other one there.

One year after Allegri transferred to Eastern Washington, Davis followed him to Cheney last spring. This season, the two have been significant contributors to an Eagles team off to a 4-0 start in Big Sky play, a record they will put on the line Saturday afternoon against the rival Idaho Vandals.

Allegri (11.9 points per game) and Davis (9.7) rank second and third on the team in scoring. They rank No. 1 and No. 2 in assists (58 for Allegri, 51 for Davis).

Both are playing top-three minutes and bring an added layer of experience to a team that graduated two key seniors from last year’s team that finished sixth in the Big Sky standings.

“(We) just have a lot of guys who are really experienced and have been a part of winning programs,” Davis said . “We’re all just meshing, and we’ve got depth. We’ve got guys on the bench that could be starting anywhere else.”

Davis did just that three of the past four seasons, when he played at Jacksonville University. He started 29 games as a true freshman in 2018 but was injured late in the year and missed all of the following year recovering. In 2020, he returned and started 51 games and averaged 10 points per game over the next two years.

But after four years in Jacksonville, Davis said he was ready for a change of scenery and a different role. He entered the transfer portal with two years of eligibility remaining (one because of the NCAA’s COVID-19 waiver), hoping to play point guard .

That’s when Davis’ conversations with Allegri accelerated. As they played “Call of Duty,” Allegri pitched Davis the merits of Eastern Washington basketball.

“You know I’m going to have your back,” Allegri said he told Davis. “You know I’m going to help you. You know you’re going to have somebody on and off the court (who is) really going to be in your ear and help you and guide you through the whole process.”

It helped, too, that at the time Roberto Bergersen – who later moved on to an assistant role at Boise State – was an assistant at Eastern. Bergersen, whose son Rylan played out his final year of eligibility for the Eagles last season, coached both Allegri and Davis during their season at Link Prep.

The Eagles were also looking for a point guard.

Davis said he was sold by coach David Riley’s passion and his belief that Davis could fill the role.

In the end, “it was a no-brainer,” Davis said.

Allegri, who is playing out his last year of eligibility, is happy to again share the court with Davis. The shared backgrounds matter, he said, and they bring out the best in each other during practices.

“It’s a guy that I know. We have a previous history,” he said. “We developed a really good relationship, so I know I can come at him (in practice) and he’s not going to hear my tone. He’s going to take what I’m saying, and it’s all love at the end of the day.”

Riley has turned that friendly intensity into an asset. On Mondays, for example, when the team runs intrasquad drills and scrimmages, Riley said he’s sure to keep Allegri and Davis on opposite teams, even though the split is supposedly random.

“They make our practices fun,” Riley said.

Though the transfer process does make reunions such as the one between Davis and Allegri easier, the idea that players have a hand in recruiting is nothing particularly new, Riley said.

“(Associate head) coach (Arturo Ormond) always says it: Players recruit players,” Riley said, “and at the end of the day we’ve done it in the past here at Eastern with the Australian pipeline, and when you look at the other guys who’ve played here, there’s always a reason.

“It’s not like we randomly go get a guy because we saw him in a gym. A lot of times it has to do with guys knowing each other.”

But opening up the transfer portal rules certainly makes it easier for players to rekindle previous playing relationships – even if the core pitch is not all that different from the one Riley described.

“Guys having friends that are in systems or situations where they have had success, they’re going to be able to trust their friend’s word,” Allegri said. “(They can say) ‘Man, you know, I trust him, and if he’s doing that, I know I can go there and do that, too.’ ”