Tania Davis added to Iowa women’s basketball staff

Former 1,000-point scorer, and a starting guard on Iowa’s Elite Eight team of 2018-19, she will succeed Kathryn Reynolds as director of player development

Jeff Linder

May. 24, 2023 11:10 am, Updated: May. 24, 2023 12:56 pm

Tania Davis is interviewed during media day in 2018. (The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — Tania Davis didn’t play hard-to-get.

When Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder offered Davis the job as director of player development, Davis “accepted on the spot.”

“That’s something I couldn’t resist,” Davis told The Gazette on Wednesday, shortly after the university announced her appointment.

Davis, 26, returns to Iowa City after helping lead the Hawkeyes, as point guard, to a Big Ten tournament championship and the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament in 2019.

She was an honorable-mention all-Big Ten selection as a senior as the Hawkeyes went 29-7. She scored 1,007 points at Iowa, and her 431 career assists ranks in a tie for fifth all-time.

Davis said she will “have an on-court voice in practice, and will work with players on NIL deals.

“I will help Caitlin (Clark) a lot with her stuff ... she gets a ton of stuff in the mail.”

And she’ll work with the 2023 consensus national player of the year in practice and game situations.

“I’m looking forward to that, man,” she said. “Working with somebody of that caliber, with her skills ... it’s going to make me a better coach, and I hope I can make her better as a player.”

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Davis will succeed Kathryn Reynolds, who was named the president/commissioner of Northwoods League Softball earlier this week.

“I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Tania back to Iowa City,” Bluder said Wednesday in a release. “Tania was a tremendous player who has now gained great coaching experience. It is so exciting to know she will now impact our program once again.

“She will be a pivotal piece in our day-to-day operation, mainly working with our players to assist them in becoming strong leaders and role models in the community.”

A native of Flint, Mich., Davis served as an assistant coach for Omaha from 2021 through 2023. Before that, she had a two-year stint as a women’s basketball graduate assistant at Clemson.

Davis received her bachelor's degree in health and human psychology at Iowa in 2019. She is a recent graduate of Clemson, where she finished her master's in athletic leadership.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com