We are still a month away from the tip-off of the college basketball season this fall, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Delaware F Jyare Davis, who talked about making the NCAA tourney last March and his expectations for this season.
In 2018 you teamed up with Dudley Blackwell/Patrick McCaffery/Carson McCorkle to win the USA Basketball 3×3 U18 National Championship: could you have ever imagined that 4 years later you/Patrick had made the NCAA tourney while Dudley/Carson were playing at big-time schools like Iowa State/Virginia? For sure! We were all highly-recruited guys and had a lot of fun playing together. It is cool to see all of us living out our dreams now at the college level.
You began playing on the varsity at the Sanford School as an 8th grader and became the 1st player in Delaware high school history to be named 1st-team All-State 4 times: how were you able to dominate throughout your high school career, and what made you choose Providence? I enjoyed my time at Sanford. I had always played up against better/older competition and it was pretty cool to make some history . I thought that Providence would be a great fit for me.
After suffering a concussion you never played for the Friars: how serious was your injury, and why did you decide to transfer to Delaware? It was pretty serious and I was out for a while. If I did not have the concussion then I probably would not be at Delaware, but coming here was the best decision that I have ever made.
You play for Coach Martin Ingelsby: what makes him such a good coach, and what is the most important thing that you have learned from him so far? He believes in his players: you can feel when your staff has confidence in you and we feel comfortable out on the court.
Last year you were #6 in the conference with 60.1 FG% en route to being named conference ROY: what did it mean to you to receive such an outstanding honor? Going into every season you always have personal/team goals. My personal goal was to be ROY and our team goal was to make the NCAA tourney so it was great to achieve both of those things.
Take me through the 2022 postseason:
In the CAA tourney title game you scored 18 PTS in a 4-PT win over UNCW en route to being named tourney MVP: how were you able to play your best when it mattered the most, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? I put a lot of work in and believed in myself. Whatever is going to happen will happen so I just tried to take a step back and not get too emotionally-involved. To celebrate in the locker room was a lot of fun.
In the NCAA tourney you scored 17 PTS/7-10 FG in a loss to Villanova: what did you learn from that loss that will help you this year? It showed me that we can play with anybody. We had a couple of mishaps here and there but it increased my belief in myself and my teammates.
You lost several starters from last year including Ryan Allen/Kevin Anderson/Andrew Carr/Dylan Painter: how will you try to replace all of that offense/experience? Those are all my guys and it will be different without them but I believe in the guys we have now.
1 of your new additions is grad transfer LJ Owens, who has 115 games under his belt as a player at William & Mary/UMBC: what does he bring to the table? He is fitting in well and will be a great scoring option because he can really shoot it and get to the basket. He is a complete guard and will have a big impact for us throughout the season.
Your non-conference schedule includes a game at Duke in November: is it just another game on your schedule or are you excited about the chance to face 1 of the best teams in the nation? Anybody who says it is just another game is kidding themselves! However, every game is an opportunity for us to get better as a team because it is a long season.
What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? I want to repeat as CAA champs and get back to the NCAA tourney and then win some games this time around.