Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Two possessions enough to change an opinion on ’15 combo-guard Jon Davis?

39reebok_512x768

Jason Minick

PHILADELPHIA -- Jon Davis had put on a good performance through the first day and a half at the Reebok Breakout Classic, an elite camp structured around games for 100 or so of the nation’s elite prospects.

A 6-foot-2 combo-guard in the Class of 2015, Davis plays for the DC Assault and already holds offers from DePaul, Rutgers, Towson and Delaware. He’s hearing from the likes of VCU, Cincinnati and Xavier. He’s certainly not a secret.

But he’s not on the same level as Emmanuel Mudiay, the No. 3 prospect in the Class of 2014, according to Rivals, which is why what he did when his team squared off against Mudiay’s was impressive. Mudiay had singlehandedly erased a double-digit, fourth-quarter deficit by hitting four straight three-pointers, capping off what was the most dominant performance of the camp.

There was still more than two minutes left on the clock, however, and after Mudiay had given his team the lead, Davis answered by attacking him on the ensuing possession, hitting a pull-up 15-footer in Mudiay’s face. The next time down the floor, Davis switched onto Mudiay and forced him into a tough, fadeaway 19-footer, which Mudiay missed.

Now, Davis’ team ended up losing that game, partly due to a sprained ankle that Davis suffered in the final minute, but the young man had made a statement: not only was he not scared of going up against the best, he was capable of beating them, too.

“That’s what you gotta do,” Davis told NBCSports.com as he crutched himself out of the Philadelphia University gym. “I know he’s cooking and he’s in a zone, and it’s not to one-up him or to get in a one-on-one battle with him, it’s just to let him know that I’m there. That this is still a game, you’re not going to do whatever you want to do on defense and offense.”

If any coaches in the gym took notice, they’ll have to find Davis in a different spot next season. Not only did he reclassify down into the Class of 2015 -- he was young for his age and playing up a year -- but he made the decision to transfer from National Christian Academy to Clinton Christian Academy. Davis said that reclassifying has been good and bad for his recruitment, as some of the schools after him wanted him to enroll next fall, but overall he believes that it will help him find the right school for him.

And for Davis, the right school doesn’t necessarily mean the program with the highest profile.

“I just want somewhere that I can play as soon as I become a freshman,” Davis said, “and I know that I’m going to have to work for that, but I want the opportunity to play as a freshman. I don’t want to come in and sit the bench for two years before I start really playing.”

One school that has caught his interest of late is VCU. Davis went down to the campus for a team camp, and enjoyed the campus. He likes the style and the fact that he can play both guard positions -- “I can play on the ball, and I think I’m better off the ball right now.” -- but realizes just how tough it is to play for the Rams, citing the Navy SEAL training that he went through on the visit.

“VCU might as well be a high-major school,” he said. “They’ve got one of the best coaches int he country, they getting players. When I went down there, they told me they were sold out for 35 home games in a row.”

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.