“It’s a joy watching him play,” said Nick Irvin, coach of the Chicago-based Mac Irvin Fire. “He’s a one-man press. He’s all over the floor. He’s going to get you the big steal or big rebound or you can tell him, ‘Look, man, I need a basket. Can you get it? I don’t care how you get it – you’ve just got to get it.’ And he’s going to get it, even if it’s the hard way. That’s the type of player he is.”
Davis, who became the Flyers’ first recruit in the 2013 class Sunday night, averaged 25 points and seven assists for Hyde Park Academy as a junior last season before transferring to Morgan Park High School this year. The 6-foot lefty had scholarship offers from Marquette, Northwestern, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Xavier and Nebraska, according to Rivals.com.
He turned down a request from Butler to visit this week before committing to the Flyers.
Labeling him “a one-man press” is reminiscent of the tag given to another Chicago-area guard from several years ago, Dee Brown, who was nicknamed “the one-man fastbreak” when he played at Illinois.
“One-man press. One-man fastbreak. He’s going to be the fastest man on the court,” Irvin said. “He’s so fast and athletic, I’ve seen him dunk on a 6-foot-10 kid this summer. He dunked on a few 6-10 guys. He’s just that kind of player. You can throw ally-oops to him.”
Davis said he picked Dayton because of how hard he was recruited by coach Archie Miller and assistants Tom Ostrom and Allen Griffin. He visited UD on Aug 17-19 and wants to come back during the season.
“I’m going to definitely come down there to see a game,” he said. “I want to see how the fan base is. Everybody keeps telling me, but I have to see it for myself.”
Irvin, also the coach at Morgan Park, said Davis is comfortable at either guard spot.
“He’s a player where you just say, ‘Kyle, go out there and play,’ and he’s going to play the game — whether it’s the 2 guard, the point guard, whatever. He’s just got a will to win,” Irvin said. “He just rules everything out there.
“Plus, not only is he a basketball player, he’s a great kid. He smiles all the time on and off the court.”
Eric Bossi, a recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, has seen Davis play 15 or 20 times. And while he noted it’s hard to know how many of those offers from power-conference schools were still on the table, Bossi said: “As far as I’m concerned, he’s a high-major-level guard. The teams that are winning in the Atlantic 10 right now are high-major-level teams, so in order to compete with those guys, you have to get that type of player, and I think Dayton is doing that with him. A lot of teams in the Big Ten would do well to have gotten him.
“What I like about Kyle is he’s a competitor. He plays with a big chip on his shoulder. He’s not scared of anybody. … He’s just in your face, comes after you. He’s just a tough city kid that plays hard.”
Brian Snow of Scout.com also called Davis a great “get” for the Flyers.
“Kyle is a kid that’s really, really tough — one of the toughest kids you’ll ever see,” he said. “He’s athletic. He can play multiple positions, point guard or shooting guard. He’s right on the edge of our top-100 (nationally), someone I think who could be a big-time player and potentially an all-league player for the Flyers.
“Honestly — and Dayton fans will lose their minds when they hear this because of the politics of it — but he can be like (ex-Xavier star) Mark Lyons. He’s not quite the scorer Mark Lyons is, but in terms of toughness and what they bring with their size and ability to play two positions, I really think he can be the Flyers’ version of Mark Lyons.”
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