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Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Under rated!
Raleigh Durham, NC
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By: Lamonte Garrett
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Photo(s) By: Lamonte Garrett
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Josh Davis Battles for His Place in the Spotlight
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There is one player in particular that makes you wonder how in the world this guy got overlooked.
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When you look around the Triangle this season there is an abundance of high quality talent in basketball. Several players from the area have received offers to major and mid-major basketball programs, many coming prior to their senior season.
C.J. Leslie and John Wall of Word of God have received Div 1 offers, along with Garius Adams of Middle Creek. The list goes on.
There is one player in particular that makes you wonder how in the world this guy is getting overlooked. Senior Josh Davis of Athens Drive High School is poised to lead the Jaguars to compete for the Tri 8 conference championship, but it seems as if the big boys haven’t noticed yet.
Davis has the college guard size and handles the ball well. At 6’5”, he plays every position on the floor for the Jags and down the clutch you know who will have the rock in his hands.
Where does this lack of respect or should I say lack of attention come from? I mean, Josh led a pretty good Athens Drive team in scoring, and stuck out as the leader of the squad. He has also stepped up in the big game when facing other area “all stars”. Davis faced constant Box and One defenses all season long, so other coaches knew how crucial it was to slow this kid down.
The most noticeable omissions from the Josh Davis’ resume are invitations to some major invitationals. Most invitationals try to get “The Best” underclassmen in one place to see how they fair against each other. While scouts from every level will say that “we can’t see everyone all the time,” Davis’ absence from some invitationals ask the question “why?”
“It hurt a little,” said Davis. “I knew a lot of guys that played in a couple of the major invitationals. I’ll just use that as motivation all summer and going into the regular season. It made me look at myself and evaluate what I needed to work on. I have really been shooting the jumper a lot this summer. I definitely still respect the “Pro Scouts” opinions.
Lewis Owens, Middle Creek athletic director stated “When he came to our place he seemed unstoppable. He was giving our defense all it could handle from all over the floor”.
The Triangle’s local independent writer and owner of Trianglehoops.net, Kerry Smith, had this to say about Davis. “They are all warming up to Josh now. I thought he had the tools last year, but the majors hadn’t noticed due to lack of exposure.”
One reason I feel as if Davis did not receive the highest marks possible from the national recruiting sites is lack of AAU play. He did play AAU, but not on the so called “Allstar AAU squads”. While the theory makes sense for evaluating a lot of kids at once, it leaves the rest of the AAU talent in the dark and harder for scouts to notice them.
Over the summer Josh has been playing with the North Carolina Gators. This team should get him the exposure he needs to impress the big boys. The team not only features Josh Davis, but Zach Faircloth of Terry Sanford and Julius Brook of Greensboro Page.
Davis is a good player who doesn’t give off the “cocky athlete” vibe when he is around. It’s even evident in his choices of music. When I asked what was on his pregame MP3 playlist Davis responsed “I like to mellow out a little with Kanye West”.
In the 2007-08 season, Davis averaged 16points, 8rebounds, 5assists, and 2 blocks.
I feel while Josh is under rated now, he won’t be by the time basketball season is underway at Athens Drive in Raleigh.
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