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Thanks to everyone who participated in our inaugural Banners on the Parkway postseason player report cards. We'll be breaking down each player's grades for the rest of this week and on into next week, where we'll reveal the top three finishers according to the community. We'll also be assigning and explaining our own grades of each player. We'll start with the player who got the lowest community ranking and work our way up to the MVP. If you've missed any of the previous players, check them out in our Season in Review section.
| Dee Davis | ||
|---|---|---|
| A | 116 | 68.2% |
| B | 51 | 30.0% |
| C | 3 | 1.8% |
| D | 0.0% | |
| F | 0.0% | |
| Community GPA 3.66 |
The community as a whole was delighted with Dee's play this year. He is one of only two players to get at least 2/3rds of the voters to give him an A and the only player who did not get a single vote below a C. Only three voters thought Dee was worth less than a B; he left almost everyone with a favorable final impression when he took off the Xavier uniform for the final time.
Offense: A
The knocks on Dee's offense have always circled around his decision-making, but he shot a career-best 45.8% from inside the arc and had a career-best 22.6% TO% this season. You could rightly point out that neither of those numbers is sterling, but they show how Dee peaked as a senior. He also ranked 43rd in the country with a 33.5% assist rate and was the only Muskie to play more than 70% of the team's minutes, coming in at 80.7%. His three-point percentage of 32.1% wasn't great, but that's just four more attempts and four fewer makes than his 37.1% of last year. He also had it when he needed it, shooting 15-37 (43.2%) from deep in Xavier's final 11 games. Dee was everything you want out of a senior point guard this year.
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Defense: B
Like most Musketeers, Dee struggled with on-ball defense this year. That was largely tied to the size disadvantage he experienced against Big East backcourts. He was a hound off the ball and played tough on it in stretches, but he often found himself giving up three or four inches and twenty or thirty pounds to his man. He was an acceptable defensive rebounder and good but not great at forcing turnovers. Nobody on Xavier earned a great defensive grade this year, but Dee was often one of the stronger links in a fairly weak chain.
Overall: A
When the chips were down, Dee answered the bell for Xavier this year. He was one of the best pure point guards in a league with a lot of backcourt talent, he was on the floor for every big moment - and most of the small ones - in the second half of the season, and he etched his name permanently in Xavier lore by almost single-handedly winning the Crosstown Shootout. That performance alone merits an A, but a Big East Tournament final and another Sweet 16 appearance capped a great year for the Musketeers' senior guard.