Coleman and Davis played together at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas.
UMass freshman Trey Davis was teammates with incoming recruit Zach Coleman at Woodrow Wilson in Dallas.
AMHERST – University of Massachusetts freshman point guard Trey Davis says he talks to high school teammate Zach Coleman on the phone almost every day.
Next year, they won’t need a phone. They’ll likely be sharing a dorm room.
Coleman, and Seth Berger, both 6-7 forwards, were officially welcomed into the UMass basketball family Tuesday when the university processed their letters of intent.
Coleman and Davis have been friends since middle school, and were teammates at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas. Coleman had originally committed to Missouri in
May, but de-committed in August.
His first visit after that was to UMass, where Davis had shared with him his experiences playing for coach Derek Kellogg over the summer.
“I showed him a good time around, and he fell in love with the place,” Davis said. “I kept talking to him, kept telling him to come play with me ... It’s something we wanted to do since we were in high school.”
Davis said Coleman — ranked by ESPN as the No, 40 small forward and No. 23 player from Texas in the Class of 2013 — is a great shooter, while Kellogg touted more than that.
“He can score from three, but he can also get some baskets around the rim and defensive rebound,” Kellogg said. “I like his length and his athleticism, so I think if he works as hard as I think he will, I do think he has a chance to be a very good player for us.”
Berger, a Seattle native ranked as the No. 48 small forward and No. 5 player from Washington, was relatively unheralded until he turned heads at the Reebok Breakout Camp in Philadelphia this past July.
“He’s a kid that kind of came out of nowhere to prove himself,” Kellogg said. “Everybody you talk to, and everybody who has watched him play, feels like he has a great feel for the game and a natural IQ.”
Kellogg said both players project as forwards but that they could potentially play shooting guard.
“I actually think they’d be great together at some point,” Kellogg said.
This class marks the second straight that doesn’t include any local kids, something Kellogg – a Springfield native and UMass alum – said he isn’t consciously doing.
“We’re just looking for the best kids that we feel like we can get,” the coach said. ”If it means going to Seattle or Dallas, then we’ll do that, but we haven’t really turned our back on the local kids, we just haven’t really been in a position to get some of the ones that we wanted.”