STARKVILLE — Jacoby Davis became the first signed prospect Wednesday for new Mississippi State University men’s basketball coach Rick Ray.
The 6-foot-1, 192-pound Davis, who turns 20 May 20, will come to MSU in the fall after spending the past year at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield, Wis., where he averaged 21 points and five assists a game.
“He’s exactly the type of quality person we are looking for in this basketball program,” Ray said in a university release. “I think he’ll be a great addition to our team because he’s a winner and he cares about the team. Jacoby will be a valuable asset to our team because he is a true point guard that can set up his teammates, but he’s also a good shooter and will take pressure off of his teammates with his ability to knock down shots.”
St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy prep school coach Brian Richert said Wednesday that Davis was a guard who can score and who has worked in the past year to improve his floor skills and his game as a point guard.
“He can fill it up when you need it, but here was our situation: We had six Division I signees on our team this year, so I told him we don’t need him to score 30 (and that) he (wouldn’t) have the opportunity to do so,” Richert said.
Richert coached former University of Wisconsin and former All-America honorable mention selection Trevon Hughes at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy. He said there are a lot of similarities in Hughes’ game to Davis’ game.
“I spoke with coach Ray about how much film review we did this year with Jacoby and everything we talked about was how to run a team,” Richert said. “We did the same thing with Trevon, and (Wisconsin coach) Bo Ryan told me after he got him in camp Trevon was prepared to play at that level immediately.”
After not being able to qualify at North Florida University, where he verbally committed out of high school, Richert received a call he thought was best to help Davis meet his goal of playing college basketball at a large school.
“We would go through each game and talk about all the time about what he did in certain sequences in terms of decision-making,” Richert said. “The idea was to make him a more complete basketball player and make him for valuable on both ends of the floor. One of the things I noticed was he tended to settle for a (3-pointer) way too much early, but then started to appreciate the importance of a good shot.”
However, Davis’ inability to speak up as a leader forced some tough love from Richert early on.
“If you don’t do exactly what I ask out of you on a given day, I’ll kick you out of practice immediately,” Richert said. “Jacoby is a very humble, quiet kid that doesn’t like to talk because he doesn’t think he should be heard. That’s not leadership, so I remember early on I had to kick him out of practice twice for not talking to his teammates during practice. Can you believe that? Kicking a kid out of practice for what he won’t say? Nice problem to have with a kid, huh?”
In high school, Davis led West Charlotte (28-2) to the 2011 Class 4A championship as a senior. In the 78-69 win against Millbrook (Raleigh) in the title game, Davis scored 13 points and had four steals. He averaged 17.5 points and 5.3 assists for the season.
“I am a big competitor,” Davis said. “I am the kind of player that will come in and work my butt off and earn the chance to play and start. Coach Ray was very open about what. He said it would not be easy, but if I come in and work hard the chance to play and play early is there. He said MSU would be running a full-court press on defense. He said the offense would be a motion offense, but we would push the ball and run at every chance. We won’t be a run-and-gun team, but we will run every chance we get and look to hit the open man for an easy shot.”
Davis was a member of The 2011 Charlotte Observer’s All-Region team, which recognizes the top 15 players from 127 schools in North Carolina and South Carolina. He also was an All-State performer as a junior and as a senior.
“There have been a lot of great point guards at Mississippi State, and hopefully I can come in and continue that tradition,” Davis said. “This is a dream come true.”
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