Senior Series: Brandon Davies

Over the next couple of weeks I will be doing a series of pieces on the WCC's impactful outgoing seniors. There won't be any set style for the series. Some will be more biographical in nature. Some, like the Mike Hart piece I've been slowly building for the past month, will be long and awesome. Some will feature as much looking forward as looking back. To get things started I chose BYU's Brandon Davies, a perfect example of a player with a career worth looking back upon but a future worth looking forward to. Without further ado, here is the first installment in the Will's WCC Blog Senior Series: Brandon Davies.

While a student at Provo High School, Brandon Davies received interest from schools in sunny California (Cal and Santa Clara), a powerhouse school in Gonzaga and in state schools like Utah, Utah State and BYU. Davies chose the easiest trip. He chose to go, literally, across the street.

Brandon Davies, the versatile big man for the Cougars, ended his up, down and back up again career with a spot near the top of many BYU records. Davies was one game and one scandal from playing in every game of his career, a feat which would have set the all time record at BYU. Instead he finishes all the way down in third place on the games played list. Davies saw the floor in 135 of the 144 games BYU played during his career. He became the third and fourth (as a junior then a senior) Cougar to average at least one point, rebound, assist, steal and block per game.

Over the course of his career he helped lead the Cougars to a #3 ranking. He never played for a team that won less than 25 games. He played in two NCAA Tournaments. He played three games at Madison Square Garden. As a senior, he was a team captain.

During his freshman and sophomore years he was a complimentary player to guys like Jimmer Fredette, Noah Hartsock and Jackson Emery. As a junior he and Hartsock shared the lead. This season, as a senior, the Cougars were his team to lead. 

Taking part in nearly 30% of the Cougars' possessions, Davies led the team in usage%. He put up impressive statistics with that heavy work load. Davies contributed (rank on team in parentheses) 17.7 PPG (2), 8 RPG (1), 2.4 APG (2), 1.3 SPG (2), 1 BPG (1). He shot 52.2% from the field (3) and had an effective FG% of 52.7% (2).

In his senior year he played a smart game. Not only could he do good things for his team but he could cause opponents to do things detrimental to their team. Over the course of an average 40 minute game, he would draw seven fouls. That rate ranked 11th in the nation in fouls drawn per 40 minutes, which put him ahead of big names like Cody Zeller and Doug McDermott (guys who are expected to be drafted much higher than Davies, who isn't, er... wasn't, really expected to be drafted.).

He was more than just an efficient and stat-sheet-stuffing player. Davies had a flair for the dramatic as well. His dunks electrified the massive Marriott Center over the course of his career. The moment I'll remember most however, was just a lay-up. The fake pass before the lay-up made the play a SportsCenter Top-10 play of the night.

As I said earlier, Brandon Davies wasn't thought of as much of an NBA prospect by people outside of his circle. A lot has changed since the last game of his senior year, however.

Davies participated in the College All-Star game on April 5th at the Georgia Dome. He scored 12 points and helped lead the "East" team to victory. Yeah, he's from the West Coast Conference so playing for the "East" makes perfect sense.

More recently Davies had a breakout week at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in Portsmouth, Virginia. If you're unaware of the PIT, learn about it.

Davies played for K & D Round's Landscaping, alongside Villanova's Mouphataou Yarou, Kansas' Elijah Johnson, Arizona's (and Xavier's before that) Mark Lyons and Valparaiso's Ryan Broekhoff among others.

Davies led the team to a 3-0 record and the PIT Championship. His performance earned him all-PIT team honors as well as the PIT MVP award. 

Davies' Box Scores at the PIT, click for full size view.

The PIT is a tournament where scouts fill the stands and seniors try to impress them. It's no wonder then that Davies' MVP performance has indeed impressed the scouts. He was interviewed by many of the NBA teams at the event (every NBA team sent representatives). According to Coach Dave Rose, via Greg Wrubell, he's been invited to pre-draft workouts with a number of the NBA teams that interviewed him. 

He's become a trendy pick by draft prognosticators as a second round steal. If he's not drafted, which is entirely possible and would not be much of a surprise, he'll certainly be invited to summer league teams and/or training camps.

Davies was from the kid from across the street who's dream came true when he got to play for BYU. He became the player everybody in the country learned about when he was no longer allowed to play. In the two years since his suspension Davies finished off the unfortunately old-school four year college career. He's now one of the all-timers in BYU history. Next, who knows? For now next looks like the NBA, in some form or another.