2024 PG Daquan Davis to Florida State

[Demo]

13 hours ago, Hardwood83 said:

SI.com story

That's ok, I would just ask to add a very good shooter from the portal too.

Thanks for posting this. I hadn’t caught that Davis transferred back to St Frances, his original high school with Queen. Been waiting for OTE’s season to start. Turns out that Davis’s 1st game this year is next Friday against none other than Boogie Fland and Archbishop Stepinac. That’s a must watch. It’ll be broadcast on NFHS for anyone interested who subscribes.

Little side note: You know Malik Mack, the leading freshman scorer in the country and the kid who just dropped 26 on IU in AH? He played last year at St John’s in DC and his backcourt partner was…..Daquan Davis. 1 of them was the Catholic League POY last year, and it wasn’t Mack. Haven’t watched him so I can’t judge him, but Davis has gotten it done with and against some of the best competition in the country. 

[Stuhoo]

26 minutes ago, Demo said:

Thanks for posting this. I hadn’t caught that Davis transferred back to St Frances, his original high school with Queen. Been waiting for OTE’s season to start. Turns out that Davis’s 1st game this year is next Friday against none other than Boogie Fland and Archbishop Stepinac. That’s a must watch. It’ll be broadcast on NFHS for anyone interested who subscribes.

Little side note: You know Malik Mack, the leading freshman scorer in the country and the kid who just dropped 26 on IU in AH? He played last year at St John’s in DC and his backcourt partner was…..Daquan Davis. 1 of them was the Catholic League POY last year, and it wasn’t Mack. Haven’t watched him so I can’t judge him, but Davis has gotten it done with and against some of the best competition in the country. 

I feel like the telling stat when questioning whether small point guards can get the job done is rebounding. At 6'0" DaQuan Davis is averaging almost 5 rebounds per game at OTE. To me that means he is a physical 'dog' of a player. Add some good shooting stats and he seems to be an excellent pickup. And if he helps with DQueen? All the better.

Two other things: on his most recent highlight video he easily slams it on an unguarded breakaway and some of his three point makes are waaaay behind the arc (and fairly effortless from long distance).

[bigrod]

11 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

I feel like the telling stat when questioning whether small point guards can get the job done is rebounding. At 6'0" DaQuan Davis is averaging almost 5 rebounds per game at OTE. To me that means he is a physical 'dog' of a player. Add some good shooting stats and he seems to be an excellent pickup. And if he helps with DQueen? All the better.

Two other things: on his most recent highlight video he easily slams it on an unguarded breakaway and some of his three point makes are waaaay behind the arc (and fairly effortless from long distance).

We consistently get burned by players who "aren't good enough" to get an IU offer, but many continue to default to the rankings. Personally, I think its a lazy way to evaluate players. Seriously, does anyone think the same person looks at all top 100 players? I'd love to see the algorithm used to determine level of skill, competition, player drive, intangibles, mental acuity, gym time, etc. How do you really determine that the 28th ranked player will be more successful than the 33rd ranked player? It's fun for fans, but I really don't put much more value in it than that.

[hoosierbgh]

3 hours ago, IU_FanClub said:

The fact that Woody can take a look at his current roster and the 2024 class and he still hasn't decided if he wants to recruit this kid or not is going to make my head explode. The recruiting strategy needs to change if we are ever going to be a consistently elite team.

The fact that Woody hasn't immediately made a snap decision on this kid, could possibly mean he's a coach doing his due diligence and carefully considering offers instead of a fan overreacting into knee jerk offers. You know, the same kind of desperate,  knee jerk offers that many of us fans complained about previous coaches handing out?

Or

As has been suggested by at least one source, IU is just slow rolling this in public to avoid the appearance of tampering. 

[Stuhoo]

3 minutes ago, bigrod said:

We consistently get burned by players who "aren't good enough" to get an IU offer, but many continue to default to the rankings. Personally, I think its a lazy way to evaluate players. Seriously, does anyone think the same person looks at all top 100 players? I'd love to see the algorithm used to determine level of skill, competition, player drive, intangibles, mental acuity, gym time, etc. How do you really determine that the 28th ranked player will be more successful than the 33rd ranked player? It's fun for fans, but I really don't put much more value in it than that.

It's an age-old message board question.

• Rankings are a sliding scale; we can all agree that the chances of a 400s player succeeding are far less than a top 50, but along the way there are many outliers
• This is just another reason why staff competence is ultimately the most important in accurately evaluating which players are best fits regardless of ranking. Archie threw tons of effort into the Lander recruitment - not a good choice.

[IU_FanClub]

13 minutes ago, hoosierbgh said:

The fact that Woody hasn't immediately made a snap decision on this kid, could possibly mean he's a coach doing his due diligence and carefully considering offers instead of a fan overreacting into knee jerk offers. You know, the same kind of desperate,  knee jerk offers that many of us fans complained about previous coaches handing out?

Or

As has been suggested by at least one source, IU is just slow rolling this in public to avoid the appearance of tampering. 

I am all for doing the due diligence but I think it is more than fair to say that at this point, the staff has been far too picky in recruiting and it has hurt our roster construction to an extent. I would just like to see some urgency given we have one commit for 2024 (who is awesome) that is not a guard and that is the biggest glaring hole on this roster now and going forward.

[hoosierbgh]

12 minutes ago, IU_FanClub said:

I am all for doing the due diligence but I think it is more than fair to say that at this point, the staff has been far too picky in recruiting and it has hurt our roster construction to an extent. I would just like to see some urgency given we have one commit for 2024 (who is awesome) that is not a guard and that is the biggest glaring hole on this roster now and going forward.

There's no point bringing a guard in just to get a benchwarmer if the coaches don't feel he'll be able to contribute and contribute relatively soon. Especially when we appear likely to only have two or three open schollies and one of those will almost certainly be held open for Queen. IMO, more care and consideration is needed not less. We don't just need a guard, we need a good guard that can contribute right away. I think Davis could very well be that guard but I don't think there is a reason to rush into anything here. 

 

[Scotty R]

14 hours ago, realTomCrean said:

Agree with that - really think getting a guy over 6’11 will be first priority in portal. Reneau, Mgbako, and even Queen if he commits, IU will still need a big-big. 

Still will have Sparks

[cthomas]

I'm not sure open scholarships matter all that much in the NIL era. If we really wanted a player we would find a way to make it happen.

[Home Jersey]

I think this is a great discussion... Not sure where some get the idea Davis is likely to be some kind of benchwarming scrub or that he NEEDS to be able to contribute right away to warrant a scholarship offer? Our spring 5 star has been struggling, so how much can you really project any freshman's ability to instantly contribute? If that's the criteria to get a fall scholarship offer, that's certainly a strategy.

His ranking (4 star, borderline top 100 player) is similar to Cupps, but of course stars and rankings don't mean anything. Obviously the staff needs to make that evaluation for themselves. That is true, always. If they make an offer, great! If they don't offer, curious why not, since there's so much smoke. For the sake of discussion... let's say he can contribute from day 1 at a roughly similar level to Cupps - is that not worth taking based on our current roster? Let's be clear... Davis is not Grant Gelon. He's not Jeremiah April. Tim Priller. 

Is it: 

Not being loosey goosey and giving away scholarship offers to everyone and their mother? ... Or ... could it be that the staff has a strong preference for the spring recruiting cycle and want to put him on the back burner until they can evaluate portal options first. They don't want him to feel like he's on the back burner so they sit on the offer to keep him engaged/build the relationship/continue evaluating, etc. 

If it's the latter, I think it's fair to question why, given the current roster construction (especially at a time where your starting PG is injured and you've got basically 0 backcourt depth), you'd not offer a player with a similar amount of talent as Gabe Cupps and then try to find a stud guard in the portal to play over him. We've got one open scholarship sitting unused right now and there's sure to be turnover in the offseason. We do not need to worry about hitting some sort of limit.

We do need to worry about having only 3/4 guards on next year's roster (does Leal come back / get mins... is that a good thing?). Newton is coming off an injury and hasn't played in basically what, 2 years? Gunn could transfer. It's not unrealistic at all that you wind up with only Cupps, Gallo and (hopefully) Newton on the roster after the season. How do you feel about running with no other guards?

So... if they don't offer - is it because the staff doesn't think he's their type of player/kid - they can't develop him/don't want to invest in him? That's perfectly valid and the right thing to do, obviously. Do they think he's got bust written all over him? If so, okay... maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. Something to keep an eye on.

If in said hypothetical - they pass on him and he goes elsewhere, does nothing... no IU fan will ever notice/credit the staff for this, despite complaining about it at this moment in time.

If they're wrong, and he goes elsewhere and is able to contribute - only/just as much as Cupps is for us this year - or an impact player by his sophomore year... it's fair to question why the staff made their assessment. Is it their strategy/prioritization? Character related?

We'll never know the full story. That said, I'd hope a kid with DaQuan Davis' talent and accolades vs. the competition he has played with/against... would be a take for this staff assuming no character concerns (which we've got no reason to believe exist) when we're in as dire of a situation as we are in our backcourt. If they're not confident they can develop a kid with his talents, you've got to wonder why. 

He was committed to Providence so presumably no character/academic concerns that would disqualify him considering they're a small catholic school. This is a pretty long winded way for me to say... please offer the kid already Woody!

[Hardwood83]

6 hours ago, hoosierbgh said:

There's no point bringing a guard in just to get a benchwarmer if the coaches don't feel he'll be able to contribute and contribute relatively soon. Especially when we appear likely to only have two or three open schollies and one of those will almost certainly be held open for Queen. IMO, more care and consideration is needed not less. We don't just need a guard, we need a good guard that can contribute right away. I think Davis could very well be that guard but I don't think there is a reason to rush into anything here. 

 

True, there COULD only be 2-3 open scholarships. But I think that is unlikely. One is open, XJ & Walker are done no matter what, but there is also the possibility that Ware & Mbako (maybe not as likely as we hoped) go pro and then Leal &/or Galloway could decide 4yrs is enough and skip their COVID year. Of course could have 1-2 transfers too. Nothing is for certain, but there could realistically be 8 open too- with only Liam signed so far.

[HoosierTrav]

Just catching up on this kid. Definitely passes the eye test for me. I’d go as far as saying he would be our starting PG right now. Let’s get this kid. I’m hug on kids who have “that dog” in them. He checks that box. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

9 pre-season OTE         13.7p; 4.7r; 5.6a; .9s; .2b; 1.7t       41% FG; 32% on 3s; 83% FT 

Opening night in OTE.   21p; 4r; 7a; 3s; 0b; 2t.    8-19 FG; 3-7 on 3s; 2-2 FT.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Class of '66 Old Fart
Updated Stats

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

9 pre-season OTE         13.7p; 4.7r; 5.6a; .9s; .2b; 1.7t       41% FG; 32% on 3s; 83% FT 

Opening night in OTE.   21p; 4r; 7a; 3s; 0b; 2t.                    8-19 FG; 3-7 on 3s; 2-2 FT.

12.02.23                         13p; 5r; 6a; 1s; 0b; 7t                      4-15 FG; 0-6 on 3's; 5-6 FT

[Demo]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

9 pre-season OTE         13.7p; 4.7r; 5.6a; .9s; .2b; 1.7t       41% FG; 32% on 3s; 83% FT 

Opening night in OTE.   21p; 4r; 7a; 3s; 0b; 2t.                    8-19 FG; 3-7 on 3s; 2-2 FT.

12.02.23                         13p; 5r; 6a; 1s; 0b; 7t                      4-15 FG; 0-6 on 3's; 5-6 FT

So, he IS playing OTE? Ok then. A little disappointing. Really wanted to watch him against Fland.

[HoosierHoops1]

On 12/1/2023 at 8:31 AM, btownqb said:

Davis HAS to be that guy? Idk. We aren't desperate. I prefer the older players, renting them doesn't bother me. 

Davis may ease the needle of DQ ever-so-slightly our direction.

[8bucks]

On 12/2/2023 at 10:53 PM, Demo said:

So, he IS playing OTE? Ok then. A little disappointing. Really wanted to watch him against Fland.

Obviously i know but since others might not I will ask, what is OTE

[JSHoosier]

1 minute ago, 8bucks said:

Obviously i know but since others might not I will ask, what is OTE

I think he's referring to Overtime Elite, an 8 team Atlanta league.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

13 minutes ago, 8bucks said:

Obviously i know but since others might not I will ask, what is OTE

It's a basketball factory 

https://overtimeelite.com/

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

77-73 win for Davis and RWE.  20p; 8r; 2a; 4s; 0b; 1t in 35 min. of action.   6-18 FG; 4-9 on 3s; 4-6 FT.