Davis’ offensive game surfaces after playing time grows
As he was asked Thursday about the improvement he has noticed this season from teammate Khameron Davis, a toothy and radiant smile flashed across Terrell Brown’s face.
“His confidence is at a different level,” the Pitt sophomore center said. “I can see it in the way he plays. I tell him this all the time — just go out there and ball. I know what you can do. We all know what you can do. None of these people do, so you might as well show them you’re not just a defensive stopper. You can get in the lane, you can score and you can shoot. There’s no reason to shy away from that. Do what you need to do.”
As of late, those words have materialized into actions from Davis. The player whom his teammates had seen glimpses of in practice and believed he could become has started to show that version of himself in games.
Something of an afterthought in the team’s first 10 games, a holdover from a previous coaching staff who was primarily tethered to the bench, Davis has emerged as a regular and reliable member of the Panthers’ rotation in ACC play. In the team’s four intra-conference games, he has
averaged 20.8 minutes per game; in the past seven games, he has averaged 18.9 minutes per game.
In that time, he has provided Pitt with the kind of strong defense that has come to define him as a player while also making some unexpected and needed offensive contributions, like his nine points on 3-of-3 shooting in a loss last Saturday at N.C. State. A player who was overlooked coming out of high school and remained that way to an extent heading into his sophomore season at Pitt is beginning to shed that label.
“I just understand the game a lot more,” Davis said. “I understand little things about basketball that I didn’t understand. Still, even to this day, I’m trying to continue to grow offensively. Even defense is a lot easier. I know when to make certain plays and when to do certain things. It’s really a mental game when you think about it.”
A 6-foot-4 guard with a 610 wingspan, Davis saw his role grow after an injury to graduate transfer Sidy N’Dir, who has missed nearly a month of action and whose absence forced Pitt to get more contributions from players like Davis.
There was a stretch not long before that when such consistent playing time wasn’t something upon which the Denver native could rely. Though first-year
head coach Jeff Capel routinely praised his game and work ethic, Davis averaged only 7.3 minutes per game in Pitt’s first 10 games. Only once did he play more than 12 minutes and in two of those games he didn’t play.
Undeterred, Davis continued his regular routine, putting forth the same effort in practice and away from it. He also found value in escaping the sport at times, doing things like going on walks outside and trying new foods and restaurants (he liked calamari). He had teammates and good friends like Brown, who wasn’t playing as well or as much as he is now, upon whom he could lean and talk.
Eventually, Davis got his chance and, over the past two weeks, he has taken advantage of it. While playing stout defense, he has become much more of a threat offensively, particularly from 3point range. He has made four of his past five threepoint attempts with seemingly all of those made shots coming from the corner, which has developed into a comfort zone for him.
“The way I see it, it’s just you and the rim,” Davis said. “There’s nothing behind the rim. All you can see is the rim right in front of you. It’s almost like a one-onone game. If you get it to the right spot every time, it’s going to go in.”
Defensively, he has found room to improve, too. Long regarded as a great on-ball defender, Davis said Capel has helped him with his offball defense, something he hadn’t previously understood or practiced much, particularly when it came to positioning and timing. That work has been evident. In non-conference play, Davis was perhaps Pitt’s best defender, as opposing teams averaged only 0.82 points per possession while he was on the court, down from the 0.87 they averaged while he was off the court (at the pace the Panthers play, it’s the difference between allowing 59 and 62 points in a game).
For a player who was on a 2017-18 Pitt team that went winless in conference games and lived through the uncertainty of a coaching search following that campaign, life and basketball is much more enjoyable as he tries to carve a well-defined niche on a squad that already has two ACC wins in four tries. Just don’t say he’s surprised by it.
“It was cool to win the first ACC game, don’t get me wrong,” Davis said. “It was exciting to get an upset. But I’m glad we got those out of the way because now it’s just basketball. We put in the work. We deserve this. We deserve to be here.”