Ed Davis is the man. Not only is he coming back, but he’s going to be awesome. Unfortunately, he is probably not a 4 year guy, which is a shame because he could easily break the shot blocking and possibly the rebounding record. But you never know what could happen.
Some people were worried when Alex Stepheson left last year because of family problems (wonder if he regrets transferring now), but I can’t say I was. We had Zeller and Davis coming in and 2 are better than 1, most of the time. Well, Davis easily did was Stepheson did and them some. If you remember Stepheson, he had good size – 6’9” and 250ish (I’m guessing a bit, but he was solid) – but he was not really an offensive threat. He was a good rebounder and ok shot blocker and he could have made a contribution, but Ed Davis was so much better.
Things I don’t like:
1. Free throw percentage. To his credit, he did improve, but he was down around 50% for awhile, so he didn’t have to work hard to go up. If he could get this up into the low 70’s, I would be very pleased.
2. Shot selection. Sometimes he forced shots, but his left hand jump hook is pretty sweet.
3. Tendency to foul. This seemed to be a problem late in the year, specifically the tournament. I remember in the Oklahoma game and championship game, he had 4 each. Some were dumb fouls, some were legit. I hope he can cut out the dumb fouls and give effective minutes next year.
Things I like:
1. Length. He has long arms and crazy hops. He blocked and altered lots of shots this year. It’s nice to have him back on defense because you know he causes guards to think twice about driving. He had some monster blocks this past year and he is really the first legitimate shot blocker in my watching era. Brandon Wright was ok too, but he didn’t have as many huge blocks, I think anyway.
2. Rebounding. He has excellent hands and the ball just seems to fit when he goes up. His rebounds per 40 minutes were probably out of this world!
3. Improvement on defense. Davis is not a big guy muscle wise, but I think he did a great job of being able to body up bigger guys like Blake Griffin. I also thought his perimeter defense improved quite a bit as the season progressed.
I think everyone knows Ed Davis is going to be a force next year. If he started this year, I think he would have gotten ACC Rookie of the Year, but it was nice that he came off the bench to help us out because our bench had good depth, but not good scoring. I wish he was going to stay around for 4 years, but I think Roy did a good job of keeping him a secret for this long.
Some people were worried when Alex Stepheson left last year because of family problems (wonder if he regrets transferring now), but I can’t say I was. We had Zeller and Davis coming in and 2 are better than 1, most of the time. Well, Davis easily did was Stepheson did and them some. If you remember Stepheson, he had good size – 6’9” and 250ish (I’m guessing a bit, but he was solid) – but he was not really an offensive threat. He was a good rebounder and ok shot blocker and he could have made a contribution, but Ed Davis was so much better.
Things I don’t like:
1. Free throw percentage. To his credit, he did improve, but he was down around 50% for awhile, so he didn’t have to work hard to go up. If he could get this up into the low 70’s, I would be very pleased.
2. Shot selection. Sometimes he forced shots, but his left hand jump hook is pretty sweet.
3. Tendency to foul. This seemed to be a problem late in the year, specifically the tournament. I remember in the Oklahoma game and championship game, he had 4 each. Some were dumb fouls, some were legit. I hope he can cut out the dumb fouls and give effective minutes next year.
Things I like:
1. Length. He has long arms and crazy hops. He blocked and altered lots of shots this year. It’s nice to have him back on defense because you know he causes guards to think twice about driving. He had some monster blocks this past year and he is really the first legitimate shot blocker in my watching era. Brandon Wright was ok too, but he didn’t have as many huge blocks, I think anyway.
2. Rebounding. He has excellent hands and the ball just seems to fit when he goes up. His rebounds per 40 minutes were probably out of this world!
3. Improvement on defense. Davis is not a big guy muscle wise, but I think he did a great job of being able to body up bigger guys like Blake Griffin. I also thought his perimeter defense improved quite a bit as the season progressed.
I think everyone knows Ed Davis is going to be a force next year. If he started this year, I think he would have gotten ACC Rookie of the Year, but it was nice that he came off the bench to help us out because our bench had good depth, but not good scoring. I wish he was going to stay around for 4 years, but I think Roy did a good job of keeping him a secret for this long.
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