Dayton Flyers recruit Jordan Davis described as a ‘gym rat’

Jordan Davis, the first player from the class of 2017 to verbally commit to the Dayton Flyers, has played varsity basketball at Dutch Fork High School since the eighth grade, his coach Matt Brown said Sunday.

“When I first got the job, he was in seventh grade and playing on a middle school team,” Brown said. “At that point, I was trying to put together a program, and we didn’t have a lot of strong players, and he was better than everybody else as an eighth grader. Now that he’s a senior, he has really progressed. His class, we have seven seniors on the varsity returning. It could be a very special year for us.”

Davis, a 6-foot-4, 170-pound shooting guard, visited UD on Saturday and announced his commitment that night. He flew home to Irmo, S.C., on Sunday. His hometown is 12 miles from the state capital, Columbia.

Davis played in half the varsity games as an eighth grader and moved into the starting lineup as a freshman, playing a big role for a team that reached the quarterfinals of the state tournament.

Davis passed the 1,000-point milestone early in his junior year, and Brown expects him to become the school’s all-time leading scorer this season. Davis averaged 22.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.0 steals per game last season. He was named the Class 4A Player of the Year.

“He’s a great kid, great student, very coachable,” said Brown, a native of Fort Wayne, Ind., whose sister lives in Troy, Ohio. “He’s all about the team. He’s not selfish at all. … He’s been with me for a while now. To see him progress, it’s been quite a ride. He can score on all three levels. He can play the point and the two. He has a great feel for the game. He has a really high IQ for a kid his age. People say he’s a gym rat, but coming from Indiana, I really kind of know what that is and he is a gym rat. He’s in the gym 24-7. He calls me all the time. He wears me out most of the time.”

Dayton started recruiting Davis in June or July, Brown said. Dayton assistant coach Allen Griffin was the main coach involved in the recruitment, Brown said. He also heard from Dayton head coach Archie Miller.

“Coach Miller has done an awesome job,” Brown said. “The coaches there have done a fantastic job recruiting him. They’ve been very open. Very often you don’t get the head coach calling you and talking to you. It’s been a good process.”

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