FAYETTEVILLE -- Cincinnati Coach Wes Miller said he loved coaching Jeremiah Davenport.
Eric Musselman, the University of Arkansas men's coach, can relate.
"God, I love Jeremiah Davenport," Miller told The Athletic last March for a profile on Davenport chronicling his four years with the Bearcats. "I love them all, but I love him.
"When he takes the floor, he just wants Cincinnati to win basketball games.
"If they were all like that every day, coaching is pretty easy. And he's fun to coach."
Musselman said much the same about Davenport -- a 6-6 guard who transferred to Arkansas for his fifth season of eligibility -- last week after the Razorbacks beat LSU 94-83 on Senior Night at Walton Arena.
"You always want a spirit in practice and you always want a spirit about you in games, and he has a really positive, uplifting spirit," Musselman said when asked about Davenport. "Personally, when I go down to coach practice, I'm looking forward to coaching J.D., because he brings energy and he brings enthusiasm.
"Even when he's not playing well, he has a great disposition about himself."
Davenport's positive energy and enthusiasm has been needed this season with the Razorbacks (15-16, 6-12) under .500 going into their SEC Tournament opener against Vanderbilt (22-9, 4-14) at 6 p.m. Central on Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
"I think the greatest compliment that a coach can say about a player is that you love going down on the floor and coaching somebody, and that's how I feel about him," Musselman said. "I'm not taking a deep breath walking down coaching him. I'm energetic and a magnet to go coach him.
"Even pre-practice, I like walking to his basket because of his disposition."
Davenport shows plenty of emotion when he's on the court -- or on the bench.
After some tough losses this season, Davenport has been the Razorback to talk with members of the media. Even in those situations, he's done his best to stay upbeat and answer questions thoughtfully.
Davenport had a solid performance March 6 at Walton Arena against LSU with 5 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 blocked shot in a season-high 28 minutes. Immediately after the game, Davenport was among the seniors honored and presented with his framed jersey. Then he got to talk with the media about a 94-83 victory
"Shoutout to the guys," Davenport said of his teammates helping make sure he could enjoy the postgame ceremony. "They made some big plays, not only for me, but for the team.
"I'm just an energetic guy. I love the game of basketball. This is my life, basically.
"I'll do anything to respect the game, to give the game my all, feed my family, if that makes sense.
"It's only right for me to go hard and give my all for my guys, my coaches, the fans, my family and God."
Khalif Battle is now Davenport's Arkansas teammate, but previously they played on opposing teams in the America Athletic Conference. Battle played at AAC member Temple, and Cincinnati was a conference rival before moving to the Big 12 this season.
"Last year we hated each other," Battle said with a smile, sitting next to Davenport after the LSU game. "Whenever we played Cincinnati, I wanted to make sure I was prepared because he used to talk so crazy to us.
"I used to get mad, and then when he committed here, I was the first person to text him. I was excited to have him here.
"We've been brothers since day one. We've hung out since day one and his energy never changes."
Battle said Davenport's energy rubs off on his teammates.
"He'll hype us up so much," Battle said. "We came a long way and this is my brother for life.
"I love sharing the floor with him, and who knows if we'll share the floor again after we're out of a Razorback jersey.
"You never know God's will, but it's just a blessing to play next to this guy and the rest of my teammates as well."
Davenport has struggled with his shooting much of the season after scoring 1,060 points in 109 games at Cincinnati -- a 9.7 average. He averaged a career-best 13.4 points during the 2021-22 season.
After shooting 34.7% on three-pointers (205 of 590) for the Bearcats, he's at 28.4% (27 of 95) as a Razorback.
But Davenport, who is averaging 5.2 points, 1.9 rebounds and 16.6 minutes in 28 games this season, has contributed in other ways to make sure he remains part of Musselman's playing rotation.
Over the past seven games, Davenport is averaging 6.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 22.1 minutes.
He scored a season-high 14 points in the Razorbacks' 111-102 loss at No. 9 Kentucky. The next game his four assists were a career-high in the victory over LSU.
In three of the past seven games, Davenport matched his season-high with five rebounds. He's hit 9 of 14 shots, including 6 of 11 three-pointers, the previous three games.
"He's doing a little bit of everything, which is what you want out of those guys that are 6-5 to 6-7," Musselman said. "You want those swing guys to be able to impact the box score in more than one way.
"He's starting to do that with the rebounding, the passing."
Musselman said the Razorbacks during his five seasons as coach have a history of effective players at the small forward spot, who also have the versatility to play shooting guard or power forward as well.
"Those guys have been players that can do a lot of different things -- the Au'Diese Toneys, the Stan Umudes, the Jordan Walshs," Musselman said. "It's been important for us for those guys to do multiple things while they're on the floor.
"J.D. is slightly undersized compared to those other guys, but he's the closest thing to them as far as a multi-positional guy that can play three different positions for us."
Davenport said he's happy to focus on rebounding and passing if that's what the team needs.
"It's what I do, it's how I was raised," he said. "Ever since I got the basketball in my hands.
"It felt good just to tap into that mode, just the guy that I am. I'm a team player, so I do whatever to get a win effort-wise. Just all around the board."
Arkansas sophomore forward Trevon Brazile said he hasn't been surprised by Davenport's ability to rebound.
"Coach tells him all the time to keep rebounding, and you see that out there," Brazile said. "He goes after every rebound, every loose ball."
Musselman, talking to the media Monday to preview Arkansas' game against Vanderbilt, rattled off a list of things he loves about Davenport.
"Just super high energy, competitive, plays with emotion, practices with emotion," Musselman said. "Good teammate. Can accept different roles.
"He's got a positivity about himself. He's great on the bench when he's not in games. Willing to take on any defensive assignment regardless of position."