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The big guy, who really was a baby at the time, recalled meeting Collis Temple II for the first time.

Tyrus Thomas

“We all played in the same area and I was playing for the Monticello Bandits,” Glen Davis said. “Garrett (Temple) was playing for the Sports Academy Cubs and we had played them and I had scored 23. I saw this big, tall man come walking up and it was Mr. Temple.”

Davis, the one known as Big Baby, was about to have his life changed forever. Mr. Temple, Garrett’s father and the first African-American basketball player at LSU, was and is, simply put, the cog in the wheel of local basketball.

“Everybody was saying not to talk to that guy, but I figured I had nothing to lose,” Davis said. “So I ended up talking to him and I liked the guy and ended up playing for him.”

It changed the face of local hoops for years to come.

Tasmin Mitchell

Davis joined his friend Garrett Temple at University High, where they won the 2002 and 2003 Class 2A state championships. Both signed with LSU, where last season the 6-foot-9 Davis was the Southeastern Conference freshman of the year. Temple, who sat out last season as a redshirt, will be counted on in LSU’s backcourt this year.

What’s more, two of their other summertime teammates are also LSU Tigers: Freshman phenom Tasmin Mitchell of Denham Springs. Like Davis before him, he’s also a McDonald’s All-American and Louisiana player of the year. The fourth is Tyrus Thomas, a product of McKinley High who sat out last season with an injury. Both now are starters for the Tigers who have high NCAA Tournament aspirations in 2006.

Davis, Temple, Mitchell and Thomas first played together when they were 13.

LSU's Glenn Davis

“They were all going to come to LSU,” Collis Temple recalls. “Oh, yeah. It was by design. And Tyrus and Garrett, I’ve been bringing them here since they were 4-, 5-years old. On the court? Unreal chemistry. You can see it.”

That’s not all.

“Early Doucet, the wide receiver, he was the best player on that team,” Temple insists. “Tasmin and Doucet were the best players. Early Doucet was the number three player in America in that age group, at 11-, 12-, 13-years-old. He was big time.”

Even though Doucet chose the gridiron over hoops court, the four are relishing being together on the court again.