Wisconsin basketball freshman player profile: Johnny Davis

While the official start date of the 2020-2021 college basketball season is still up for discussion, we here at Bucky’s 5th Quarter are champing at the bit for hoops to start and have decided to get our returning player profile series going again. Over the next two weeks we will profile all of the returning players and then the week after that we will profile all of the incoming freshmen on the team.

The next freshman up on our player profile series is freshman Johnny Davis.

Position: small forward/shooting guard

Height: 6-foot-4

Year: freshman

Hometown: La Crosse (La Crosse Central HS)

Recruiting info: class of 2020; 3-star recruit according to the 247 Composite; No. 467 in the nation, No. 86 SF, No. 6 in Wisconsin; had other offers from DePaul, Iowa, Minnesota, Marquette, UNLV, West Virginia, Northern Iowa, UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee before ultimately deciding to do a joint commitment to Wisconsin with his brother Jordan Davis.

Player overview: Johnny Davis comes into Wisconsin hoping to make a consistent run in the rotation for the Badgers this fall. With less depth in the back court, Davis should get some minutes at the shooting guard position. When he does, he’ll bring an athletic style of play that the Badgers could really use at the guard positions.

His ability to attack the rim will help the Badgers, but his strongest trait is his ability to create his own shot and find open space to score. Wisconsin runs a consistent swing offense, but sometimes that can run into trouble if you cant find the gaps. Davis has the ability to come off the bench and provide a spark to the offense if he can continue to create his space and score consistently. As a strong slasher Davis should be a nice offensive piece, but if he can knock down perimeter shots his game should really help Wisconsin this season.

Role on 2020-21 team: The forward position is pretty clogged up for the likes of Ben Carlson and Johnny’s brother Jordan, but the two guard position should have more minutes available. D’Mitrik Trice will run the offense at point guard, and Brad Davison will be the starter at shooting guard but who gets minutes behind them will be interesting to watch. Trevor Anderson is a nice player on both sides of the court, but his ability as a scorer is somewhat limited. Davis can score consistently, so you will likely see him get more minutes in that guard reserve role with the likes of freshman Lorne Bowman.