Recruiting the Class of 2014

This may be crazy to talk about a basketball player for the recruiting class of 2014 but that is exactly what we are doing when we are talking about Adrian Davis of Mt. Rainier High School.

It is not often that I will drive 20 minutes, pay 8 dollars, sit by myself, and watch average AAU high school basketball just because, however, when I heard about a freshman phenom that is a local product, I needed to go check him out.

Adrian Davis is going into his sophomore year at Mt. Rainier in Des Moines, WA. He started on the varsity team as a freshman and averaged 17.7 points, 3 steals, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist a game according to MaxPreps.com. They also have him listed at 6’0, 160. Though after seeing him play yesterday, I would say he is 6’2, 170.

He projects best as a guard right now, however if he continues to grow, which most youth his age do, he could find himself playing much more small forward. He is very active and probably fits best at the 3 right now, because he loves getting into the paint to make plays and rebound, but he also has no probably on the wing. While his assist total from his high school season doesn’t show much in the passing column. That is the opposite of what I saw, I was impressed with his passes, they were crisp and on target. He has great court vision and is able to find his opponents even in tight spaces. There were a few passes that went off of his teammates hands because they weren’t expecting a ball so crisp and tight.

His most impressive ability is his ability to
penetrate and create contact, every basket he made, in the lane, there was a foul involved (whether it was called or not). That gave him the opportunity to create 3 point plays every time he penetrated.

I only watched him in this one game but many scouts are also impressed with his outside shooting ability, I didn’t see much opportunity for that in this game. However, in warmups he grabbed a ball from out of bounds, and set up and took a shot from there, swish. He was easily about 50-55 feet away from the basket.

After the game, he took off his jersey to reveal a UW basketball undershirt. He already has a favorite but said he has heard from Gonzaga, Cal, and Lorenzo Romar from UW. Keep an eye on this kid, he has the potential to be the real deal.

Other Notes:

I watched two other games before Adrian Davis’ game and here are a couple of athletes I noticed. I don’t have any more information about them besides what I saw in these games.

• Connor Morgan, from Victoria Prep in Canada, was making shots from everywhere. The SBBA couldn’t stop him. He is probably about 6’5 and doesn’t look like much of an athlete but was very productive. He was in on everything, had an amazing shot, a block, and even plenty of rebounds.
• Pierce Hudson from Eastside Basketball Club 2 is a bit raw but has a ton of potential. He is going into his senior year at Seattle Prep, probably about 6’7, 225. He was easily the biggest body out there and he controlled the paint with a very active motor. He was a team leader and was one of the only guys on his team that was really contesting shots. He had a huge block right at the end of the game. He had good foot work in the paint and was very productive rebounding the ball. His main improvement would be on finishing in the paint. He put up a few shots, just to get his own rebound and try again.