CLEMSON – As the South Carolina spring air warmed in late March of 2025, two basketball players, each close to seven feet tall, strolled across a freshly-mowed Bowman Field and ducked through the front doors of Clemson’s Sikes Hall for the first time.

The players, Nick Davidson and Carter Welling, had both recently entered the transfer portal, and were headed to meet with former Tigers’ President Jim Clements on their first official visit to Clemson.

“We went into President Clements’ office, and then we were talking to him in there, and he told us to put our feet up on his desk,” Davidson told The Clemson Insider recently with a laugh. “So Carter and I, we both sat beside his chair and put our feet up on his desk and took a picture.”

The meeting, like most of the recruiting process at Clemson, went much further than one snapshot, however. In Clements’ office, shrouded in relics from a century of Clemson lore, Davidson and Welling, from California and Utah, respectively, were treated to a lengthy conversation with the school’s leader.

For Davidson, who played his first four years at Nevada and earned All-Mountain West honors, the tradition-soaked outing was a deciding factor in the call to pack up and make the cross-country move to the Upstate.

“(Clements) just kind of gave us a big brief history lesson,” Davidson said. “And the passion that he spoke with about his university is something that you don’t see very often in a president. Obviously, everyone’s crazy about their university, but you can tell this dude lives it, and his last name is dang near Clemson.”

 “I knew that this was a place that I could see myself in.”

That night, ahead of a program-sponsored dinner with his younger brother Blake–who also committed to Clemson last offseason–and his mom Kelly, Davidson’s head spun. There had to be a catch. Why was he feeling so passionate about a school thousands of miles from home that was barely on his radar mere weeks ago?

“I was sitting with my mom and brother like, ‘What’s wrong with this place?’” Davidson recalled. “‘This feels too good to be true, right?’ And my mom was like, ‘You know, things can be good. There’s no one trying to pull a fast one on you.’”

And while Davidson loved his visit to Clemson, there was uncertainty surrounding the program at the time. After the Tigers’ second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2025, several stars had graduated or transferred, leaving point guard Dillon Hunter as the lone returning player who notched meaningful playing time.

This was not a deal-breaker for Davidson, who knew that turnover rates were similar at every school, but when the he heard that forward R.J. Godfrey was coming back to Clemson for his senior season after a year away at Georgia in 2025, he was sold.

 “If this dude transferred away and then transferred back, I just know that there’s something special about (Clemson),” he said. “And then also, the coaches are patient enough to kind of give someone a second chance and kind of welcome them back in.”

Davidson committed to the Tigers on April 2. Two days later, Welling and Godfrey officially followed suit. Within months, all three players made their presence known to Clemson fans through their play at Littlejohn Coliseum.

The trio, along with Hunter, led Clemson to a 24-11 record and in a tie for fourth place in the ACC, after preseason projections predicted the Tigers to finish towards the bottom of the conference standings. Davison averaged 9.1 points and four rebounds per game, shooting 34.5 percent from beyond the arc.

After a second consecutive semifinal appearance in the ACC Tournament, the Tigers earned a No. 8 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, marking the third consecutive March Madness berth for head coach Brad Brownell’s squad and the first appearance for the majority of the team.

Ultimately, the Tigers were bested in the first round by No, 9 seed Iowa, who went on to an Elite Eight appearance and a victory over top-seed Florida. After weeks of preparation and a year of calling Clemson home, Davidson’s season, time as a Tiger, and college career ended with one resounding final buzzer.

“Obviously, we take everything, every opponent, seriously and every game, one game at a time,” Davidson said. “So, we really just all focused on Iowa, but we came up short. And then it kind of hit me in the locker room like, that’s it. Not only of the season, but my college career as I know it. So just, you know, real sad moment, but in March, the highs are high and the lows are low, seasons end quick and seasons are made.”

This spring, things look different for Davidson than they did a year ago. Instead of meeting with Clements, touring campuses, and making a big move, he now is back in California, spending his days working out and surfing as frequently as possible.

Though the avenue has changed, however, the focus is still extending his basketball career.

“What’s next is pretty much basketball,” he said. “I’m out here in California. I just signed with Excel sports agency, so I have been doing workouts there, on the court, and then in the weight room, getting treatments, and just kind of just staying ready for whoever calls and wherever the opportunity presents itself. And then we’ll see from there whether I play domestically, in the United States one way or another, or overseas.”

While the future is again uncertain, the California native is content with whatever comes next.

“I’m just eager to see what comes my way,” he said. “I’m playing with house money at this point, so I’m excited to just continue to play.”

Just over a year after committing to Clemson, Davidson now offers advice for the West Coast player unsure of his next move, hesitant to leave familiarity to come to Clemson, or maybe looking for the catch after a too-good-to-be-true tour.

“If you choose Clemson, be ready for it to be your forever home,” Davidson said. “You’re going to be drawn to it in one way or another, just its charm and the people that you meet there. Something that I’m never going to take for granted, in my not even a year, eleven months, being there, I made so many lifelong relationships and connections with people that if I had stayed the course in Nevada, I would have never met.” 

And to think, those connections all started with a walk across Bowman Field, into Sikes Hall, and with feet up on a desk.