Trotwood-Madison’s Davis ready for challenge of playing for Missouri

“They’re in a good conference,” Davis said Friday. “I like the way they play. They had some guards leave. That would open up a lot for me. I know they have a good fan base and a lot of fans. Hopefully, we start getting more fans in the arena, and I’ll be able to experience the real college atmosphere.”

According to a ranking of the 30 best transfers by ESPN’s Jeff Borzello earlier this month, Davis ranked 22nd. He averaged 17.2 points last season and was named to the All-Horizon League second team. That followed a freshman season in which he averaged 15.9 points and was named the Horizon League Freshman of the Year.

Green Bay finished 17-16 in Davis’ first season but then fired coach Linc Darner and hired Will Ryan. The team finished 8-17 in his first season, which ended Feb. 25 when Green Bay lost to Fort Wayne in the first round of the Horizon League tournament. Davis announced his decision to transfer the next day.

“It was hard at first,” Davis said. “I did a lot of stuff at Green Bay. I had a lot of accomplishments, met a lot of great people, was coached by some good coaches. At the end of the day, it’s all business.”

The chance to play at a higher level was the main reason Davis left. He left the nation’s 20th-ranked conference, according to the Ken Pomeroy ratings, for the Southeastern Conference, which ranks fourth. Green Bay has played in the NCAA tournament once in this century and not since 2016. Missouri has reached the tournament 11 times and twice in the past four years. Missouri averaged 9,134 fans in 2019-20, while Green Bay averaged 1,910.

“I’m really excited,” Davis said. “I just want to work on my body and get bigger because I know I’m going to be playing against bigger competition. I’m going to get myself ready for that. Hopefully, the stuff I did in the Horizon League can transfer over to the SEC.”

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Davis will join a Missouri program that lost 72-68 to Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA tournament last weekend. Missouri’s second-leading scorer, junior guard Xavier Pinson, entered the transfer portal earlier this week.

The chance to play for Missouri’s Cuonzo Martin, who’s entering his fifth season as head coach, was another reason Davis liked the program.

“When people heard I was being recruited by Missouri, the first thing I heard was how good of a coach he was,” Davis said. “I’ve been hearing that from a lot of credible sources. That kind of helped me feel a lot better about my decision. You can tell he’s a real good guy. He’s a Christian guy. He believes in God. You really can’t go bad with that.”