The scariest part about Anthony Davis isn’t his freakish athleticism or the fact that he can do this and this on a basketball court.
It has nothing to do with how well he can move for a college freshman that is 6-foot-11 or the fact that he is able to put the ball on the floor and attack the basket or step outside and knock down an 18-footer. As good as he is defensively, he’s not even the best shotblocker in the national title game. That honor goes to Jeff Withey, who leads the nation in block percentage.
No, what makes Anthony Davis so scary -- and what makes him so mouth-wateringly tantalizing for NBA scouts -- is that he is just starting to realize how good he is capable of being. Keep in mind that Davis has already won the major Player of the Year awards. So Davis is already the best player in college hoops, and he is just starting to learn how to assert his will on a game on both ends of the floor. From Dan Wetzel:They had come for Anthony Davis, come to drag him out of a Kentucky locker room still celebrating its 69-61 victory over Louisville. It was a game in which the freshman had delivered 18 points, 14 rebounds, five blocked shots and a one-handed exclamation point alley-oop.
They had come to say Anthony Davis was needed at the press conference. Davis had already taken his left sneaker off and slipped on a black Nike flip flop. He hadn’t yet removed his right sneaker, though.
The NCAA official said it was time to go however, so Davis went. Immediately. He walked out of the locker room, up a ramp and to a waiting golf cart with one shoe on and one shoe off.
“He doesn’t know to say, ‘Hold on, let me take off the other shoe,’ ” DeWayne Peevy, UK’s media relations director said later.
And that is what makes Davis such an elite prospect and player.
He blocks shots, he rebounds the ball, he dunks everything within five feet of the rim, he’s still got the perimeter skills from when he was a guard as a sophomore in high school and last night he knocked down three jump hooks -- two righty, one lefty -- on post-ups.
It’s a shame that by the time he learns to demand the ball, he’ll be playing for pay.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.