Middle Tennessee basketball coach Kermit Davis and his many superstitions

You don’t get to 400 wins as a Division I basketball coach or build a little-known mid-major into a Top 25 team without a little bit of luck.

In the case of 16th-year Middle Tennessee basketball coach Kermit Davis, it’s about creating his own luck through strong recruiting, relentless emphasis on practice, steadily raising expectations — and yes, through a healthy dose of superstition.

“I think all people that win have their little rituals that they go through,” Davis said. “Some may call them superstitions. Some may call them rituals. Others may call them game routine.

“I’ve got them all.”

Davis claims to have hundreds, though “I can’t give them all away,” he said.

Here are just a few.

Lucky watch

It was nearly a disaster.

MTSU (22-5, 14-1 Conference USA), which hosts UAB (17-11, 8-7) at 6 p.m. Saturday, hit the road to play Auburn, currently the No. 12 team in the AP poll, in Birmingham on Dec. 16. But Davis forgot his watch at home.

This was no ordinary watch — each member of the team received one for participating in the 2016 NCAA tournament.

“I asked, ‘Betty (his wife), can you call Danny (his friend)? Is there any way he can get in our house and get that watch?’” Davis recalled. “He drove like mad to come to the game to try to get me my watch.

“I got it right before tip off.”

As fate would have it, MTSU lost the game 76-70.

Davis hasn’t worn that watch since then.

“I'm back to another NCAA tournament watch,” Davis said.

That’s the thing with superstitions.

“They can change based on results of games,” Davis said. “We'll get to another superstition if something calls for it.”

Hotels on the road

MTSU stayed at the Holiday Inn in Huntington, W. Va., for its Jan. 18 game against Marshall. The Blue Raiders lost the game 73-63, their only road loss this season.

They will not be staying there again next year.

Director of basketball operations Kerry Hammonds II knows a road loss means a change in hotel.

“I know Coach likes Marriotts,” Hammonds said. “I’ll have to get to searching on that.”

It hasn’t been a huge deal of late with MTSU’s recent success on the road. The Blue Raiders lead the nation with 12 true road wins. During the 2016-17 season, they were 11-2. The season before that? 8-5.

Then again, there’s the Louisiana Tech situation. Before this season, MTSU had been 0-8 all-time when playing at the Bulldogs’ home venue.

“I’ve seen a lot of Ruston, Louisiana,” senior Ed Simpson said.

In fact, “we had about run out of places in Ruston,” Davis said. “Can’t remember if we stayed in Fairfield once (more than an hour away from the La. Tech campus).”

MTSU finally bucked the trend Saturday, when it earned its first win at La. Tech.

“One less thing to worry about (next year),” Hammonds said.

Pregame meal

Fried chicken. Some hot sauce. A salad.

Davis' pregame meal is another routine that has stuck for years.

Aramark, the campus dining service, “has the best fried chicken,” Davis said. “I get off my diet (for it),” but only for one piece per meal. The salad? Romaine with balsamic dressing.

Another superstition is seating for the pregame meal. Davis sits in the same seat at the Kennon Sports Hall of Fame, a short walk from Murphy Center.

“Everyone does,” Hammonds said.

Then there's the pre-meal prayer. After MTSU loses a game, a different player will recite it. MTSU first goes through its freshmen, then its sophomores, and so on.

With MTSU currently on a nine-game winning streak, freshman Davion Thomas has been reciting the pre-meal prayer for weeks now.

“I think he’s getting used to it,” Simpson said. “And I don’t think he’s changed up a word in the prayer for the last nine games.”

Attire

There are small fluctuations, but each is done with a lot of thought.

When MTSU is winning, Davis said he typically sticks with a two-suit, two-tie rotation for game days, though a sports jacket gets thrown into the mix with some regularity.

“I did wear a different tie the other day,” Davis said. “I kind of didn’t want to do it, but I think my wife gets on me about wearing the same stuff sometimes. She goes, ‘You've got some nice clothes. Wear them.’ So sometimes she'll talk me into them.”

It applies to players, too.

MTSU wore gray uniforms — a bringer of good fortune just a season ago — on Nov. 16, when it hosted and lost to Belmont 69-63. It was the Blue Raiders’ first loss of the season.

“Everybody was like, ‘Yeah, we’re not wearing those jerseys again for a while,’” Simpson said.

It's hard to argue with a 22-5 record this year and wins in each of the past two NCAA tournaments.

Said Simpson: "Whatever works."