One criticism I’ve seen of both Davis and Teske is that they are not good at boxing out. I’ve only seen their highlight footage, in which I think its more difficult to box out a dude who is 5 inches smaller and presumably quicker and hard to get a body on. How have these 2 fared rebounding against better and bigger competition? Is this a legitimate concern?
Thinking about him or Teske running the high hedge on D gives me hives. Of course, maybe that will go away now with Donlon coaching D.
Mind you early on when people were going off on him I think I said he’s the type of big I love and would expect to see at mich st. I thought he was a bit lumbering but not in a bad way if that makes sense like ostertag.i do agree he seems to have a nice shot/face up and pick and pop possibilyies. But I agree with Matt d that he may struggle rolling hard to the rim. I still maintain his footwork is by far his strongest suit.
He has better footwork then all our bigs already (although Wagner seems capable).also he used his body well and seeks out contact/positioning with the ball. I think ISO/getting nice looks for himself off his array of pivots would be best for him. I’m still tentatively a fan but he looked really slow and bad on Matt ds video.
Video is video. I saw Cain video that didn’t look too impressive, but people here are raving about him.
Davis has skills that the staff will be able to work with and develope. He has better hands and shooting and passing ability as good as any big on our roster, IMO. He is a natural center and doesn’t have to be converted from a four, plus he wants to play center and comes with a ready made body, for the most part. I don’t expect him to light things up from day one, but I think he has strong potential long term, especially given his intelligence, desire and work ethic.
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He has better shooting than Donnal in HS? He has ready made body? I really am missing something here. I’m not trying to be harsh, but some of these comments are really extreme. Of course, reasonable minds can differ though.
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I am curious, Champions. What things do you think Davis needs to work on? I see him as someone with nice size and some good skills but he lacks mobility. At bottom competitive sports involves moving your body around. Mobility is a pre-requisite.
From what I understand, Davis is an all around great kid and will be a great teammate. He’s a program player IMO. There’s nothing wrong with having one or two of these kinds of kids on your roster, assuming you’re core group of players are solid.
I’m with you, although the same could be said about the transfers. I mean, Doyle seemed to have a great work ethic and a competitive spirit (perhaps even more so than some players ahead of him in the rotation) but it just didn’t translate into much on the court. I also think back to Blake McLimans – always cheering for the team, always seemed truly happy to be a wolverine – but he added very little on the court. I’d like to think the days of recruiting guys like McLimans are well behind us. Since we’re already going to have under-the-radar late-pickups who fit that profile, I just think the staff needs to be more judicious (actually, more ambitious) about who gets offered early, focusing on winning recruiting battles instead of trying to woo guys who will commit on the spot.
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Yeah idk what people are talking about him being a great fit. He seems like the least mobile out of all our bigs, so he’ll struggle to cut to the paint fast enough on the pick and roll. And that’s all you need from a UM big on offense. Atleast he’ll catch and probably finish when he does get there fast enough though.
I’m a fan. I was touting his potential early on. I’m just saying I have reservations a about him/ how we will use him
He’s not chiseled but I think he will be able to bang down low with guys from day one. Nice big physicSl kid.
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To me I think that Davis is more athletic than people are giving him credit for. Yeah, he beat up on a bunch of smaller kids at his level so he had a tremendous physical advantage but remember he went through a tremendous physical transformation with cutting weight. I think he’s catching up to his new body. His legs are still thick and he’s going to tone out on a S&C program under Sandersons tutelage. that will allow him to improve some lateral and agility as well as his ability to get off the floor (which I think is pretty decent for this stage). I liked Ricky but Davis is going to be worlds better than him in every facet. Starting with the hands. Is he going to be Big Country, no. Not in this offense. But he’ll provide ability that JB will plug into this offense. JB can adapt it to take advantage of this kids skills.
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Sam Webb mentioned in a tweet he thought Davis would be a fine PnR/PnPop option. People tend to forget about that latter element, btw. And you can be a good finisher rolling to the basket too if you have good timing and finishing ability even if you’re not particularly fast.
Donnal was a good shooter in high school. I haven’t seen enough of Davis or any stats to know if he’s better. But Davis has good shooting ability and I would expect to see him shooting mid-range jumpers. I do think he could be used in the middle of the zone too because he does look to be a good passer. I didn’t mean to imply that he would only be used in PnR/PnPop, just that his skill set could take advantage of that action. More ways to score points off that than alley-oops - not that those are bad of course.
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From a physical/athletic standpoint, he’s just so far behind where he needs to be that its difficult to envision keeping up with B10 bigs. It’s one thing to be below average athletically, and have a nice skill set, but I think Davis has an average skill set with athleticism that is far below average. The guy just can’t move. It would be one thing if he had ridiculous motor to compensate, but he has trouble just making down the court at times. Great kid, lifelong UM fan, but he just has too many limitations to overcome to be anything more than a marginal role player IMO. Hopefully, I’m wrong.
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While I question the Davis commitment, it’s already happened. He’s going to be in Ann Arbor as long as he wants to. But since the time of commitment, he’s made changes to his body. He’s got the work ethic. I think he will get every ounce of his ability from himself. Will it be enough? We will see in 2-3 years.
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I think everything you’re saying is right, at least for what can be deciphered from scouting a HS player who played poor competition. But the beauty of our log jam at the 5 is that neither Teske nor Davis should be asked to do much this year, and (depending on Mark’s scholarship), not much the following season, either. Davis, like basically every other poster including you has said, is a hard worker and a good student. So, with 2 years to develop, a great strength and conditioning staff, and some drive, I am at least optimistic that Davis will make us regret wishing he didnt take up a scholarship.
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Frankly, I don’t think the kid is really much different (if at all) from Mike Peplowski, who ultimately became a very good college player. I also don’t see him being much different from that kid from Xavier in 2015 (can’t remember his name) who was a double figure scorer and had a very nice game against Arizona’s athletic, long front line. There have been a lot of players in college basketball over the years who have huge frames, are not super fast or agile, but have been able to use their bodies to create position and score. Big Country Reeves, Ostertag, and Cole Aldrich are all examples. I’m not saying Davis is as good as any of those guys, just that none of them were good athletes yet all used their size very effectively.
In our offense, if Davis has the hands everyone claims he does, he’ll be fine. He’s definitely no less agile than Doyle, and Doyle would have been fine in the pick and roll game if he could have simply caught the ball. Honestly, as a floor, Davis is probably Graham Brown, who was a solid player and probably would have been capable of scoring 8-10 a game in a good pick and roll offense.
I think Davis’ biggest challenge will be defense. He doesn’t seem very long, and it’s doubtful he’ll block many shots. I think he’ll be a solid rebounder, though.
As far as the video, I’d have to know when it was taken (looks like at least a year old). He’s lost a ton of weight and has improved his body a lot, so I’m not sure how relevant it is.
I’d also add he was a far superior high school player to Jordan Morgan, has two inches on him (at least), and J-Mo was a very solid player for us. So I’d say it’s way too early to draw any firm conclusions.
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According to spring 2015 article his wing span was 7’2" – not enormous for a 6’10" guy but also not a Kevin Willis deal. I agree that defense will be the bigger challenge. In addition to some physical improvement he’ll have to be a very smart defender to be effective.
I would think that this is somewhat similar to a kid that goes through a growth spurt. It often takes them awhile to get used to their new body. He will get better strength & conditioning training and agility coaching at UM then he did at Onsted (no offense intended). His speed and mobility should improve some.
He will now get to practice against players his own size and with similar skill level. I think he has a huge upside.
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There is video of him after his physical transformation (calling it that because regardless of his basketball ability what he did to reshape himself as a high schooler is impressive). For example, this one, in which, despite it being a ridiculous 2.5 minutes of him dunking on kids who are like 8 inches shorter, you can at least see him moving around. He’s never going to be an explosive athlete and he’s slow off the floor for any college player, but he no longer looks like he’s plodding around in concrete shoes like he did in 2014-1015.