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Yesterday we kicked this little exercise off by looking at the freshman seasons of Trevon Bluiett and JP Macura. Now we're into the guys who have two years in Xavier blue, and the numbers indicate that one of them could be poised for an All-American type breakout year. The plot twist is that it's not Jalen Reynolds.
Myles Davis went to prep school, then he was ruled ineligible, so he was out of high school for two years by the time he was a freshman. Last season, he put up 10.6/2.4/2.1 on .394/.384/.872 shooting as a sophomore. He hit a shooting slump late in the year but rallied to hit 8-16 from beyond the arc in the NCAA tournament. Those solid numbers left him with some tantalizing comps:
The top performer: Jabari Brown, Missouri (944)
| Season | GP | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | FG% | 3FG% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshman | 2 | 25.5 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 27.3 | 14.3 | 41.7 |
| Sophomore | 25 | 32.7 | 13.7 | 3.4 | 1.4 | 40.4 | 36.6 | 78.5 |
| Junior | 35 | 37.0 | 19.9 | 4.4 | 1.9 | 46.7 | 41.0 | 79.7 |
Brown, like Myles, lost a year of eligibility after high school, though his came when he transferred from Oregon to Missouri. Then he was pretty doggone good as a sophomore before being amazing as a junior. Then he left for the pros. He scored inside the arc better than Myles does - thanks no doubt in part to being 3" taller - but he wasn't quite the shooter from deep or the line his sophomore year.
The other top performer: DaVonte Lacy, Washington State (910)
| Season | GP | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | FG% | 3FG% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshman | 37 | 26.6 | 8.5 | 2.3 | 1.9 | 38.9 | 34.7 | 73.3 |
| Sophomore | 25 | 29.5 | 10.5 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 41.1 | 37.7 | 68.8 |
| Junior | 23 | 34.2 | 19.4 | 4.2 | 1.4 | 42.9 | 39.0 | 83.5 |
| Senior | 31 | 32.4 | 16.9 | 2.6 | 2.1 | 40.6 | 33.0 | 77.0 |
Lacy was a bit more of a volume scorer. He couldn't score inside quite like Brown and he didn't shoot quite like Myles, but he was asked to do an awful lot on a team that didn't have a lot of other offensive options. Take a peek at that line he put up as a junior though; you can't tell me you wouldn't love to see that next to Myles's name.
The guy who was just okay: Trey Davis, UMass (912)
| Season | GP | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | FG% | 3FG% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshman | 32 | 9.5 | 3.3 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 40.0 | 44.4 | 74.4 |
| Sophomore | 33 | 23.3 | 9.2 | 2.6 | 2.5 | 39.5 | 37.7 | 76.7 |
| Junior | 32 | 30.7 | 10.8 | 2.8 | 3.8 | 38.2 | 30.5 | 82.3 |
Trey Davis's shooting line as a sophomore is really, really similar to Myles's. Trey is a couple of inches shorter but still scored inside the arc better than Myles currently does. He spent basically his entire junior year in a shooting slump, which isn't comforting when you consider Myles's own propensity for going stone cold from deep.
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So is Myles on tap for a monster year? I (obviously) honestly don't know. What I do know is that his closest statistical comp is getting paid by the Lakers now. Anecdotes about Myles's work ethic and leadership have been floating around during the off-season, and it didn't take a genius scout to see flashes of star potential at times last year. Consider this one more data point in the growing list that has us hyped for Myles's junior year.