Staff writer Seth Davis is known to millions of readers and viewers for his work as a college basketball and golf writer for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and SI.com and as a college basketball analyst for CBS Sports. Naturally, his favorite event to cover is the Final Four. "I love seeing the colors from the different fans in a huge dome for those Saturday night games," says Davis. "The NCAA has done a great job maintaining the purity of the event even while turning it into a multibillion-dollar business."

Davis cites his Feb. 4, 2002, piece on Illinois basketball player Brian Cook as his most memorable as an SI staffer. "The story was about his father, a former NBA first-round pick who had been hospitalized for paranoid schizophrenia," says Davis. "Brian and his family opened up some extremely painful memories to me. It is always humbling when people trust you like that."

A 1992 graduate of Duke University with a B.A. in Political Science, Davis joined SPORTS ILLUSTRATED in 1995 after working for 2½ years as a sports reporter at The New Haven Register. He has won a number of writing awards during his SI tenure, include 2003 first place honors from the Golf Writers Association for a profile of John Daly. He has twice been recognized by the US Basketball Writers Association and is the author of two books: Equinunk, Tell Your Story: My Return to Summer Camp (Chandler House Press, 2003), and When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball (Times Books, 2009).

Davis lives in Connecticut with his wife Melissa, and sons Zachary, five, and Noah, three. A political junkie, his father is Lanny Davis, the former special counsel to President Clinton and frequent guest on cable political shows. Says Seth: "That's obviously where I got my political jones."

EXTRA POINTS

• Favorite SI Vault story: "Anything written by Alex Wolff."
• Hobbies/interests: "Golf and politics"
• Writers who have inspired your work: "Alex Wolff, because of his eloquence, and because he usually writes about college basketball. John Steinbeck, a writing genius and storyteller who write with brilliant simplicity. Dick Schapp, who collected people."
• The greatest team you've seen in person: "Not a team, but when you've watched Tiger Woods play a round from inside the ropes, you've pretty much done all there is to do. One time I was so close to him while he was hitting out of the rough that his bag was resting on my feet.
• Non-sports websites regularly visited: "Talking Points Memo, Think Progress, and the site devoted to my favorite band, the Radiators."
• Favorite TV show character: "Jim Iganatowski from Taxi and Coach from Cheers. Those guys had an endearing obliviousness that I envy."
• Favorite book: "Of Mice and Men. Like I said of Steinbeck, there was brilliance in his simplicity."
• Hidden talent: "I play piano and sing. I also used to dabble in stand up comedy, but if I were any good at it, I'd still be doing it."

Updated 21 October 2009