With a large portion of last year's roster headed to other schools and All-SEC guard Iverson Molinar headed to the pros, Mississippi State needed to go out and find a point guard, and they may have found their guy in Dashawn Davis.
The 6'2" guard had a long path to get to Mississippi State. A native of The Bronx, Davis committed to head across the Hudson River to play at Seton Hall as a high school senior but ended up at Trinity Valley C.C. in Texas instead. After an All-American sophomore season in junior college, Davis headed out west to Oregon State.
Davis was a bright spot on a struggling Beavers team during his lone season in Corvallis, and he became the first Oregon State player to lead the Pac-12 in assists since Hall of Famer Gary Payton in 1990 as he dished out 5.5 per game. Davis also scored 10.9 points per game and added 1.4 steals.
Davis is expected to take on most of the ball-handling duties on a revamped Mississippi State team under Chris Jans. The senior's athleticism in getting to the rim and playmaking ability could make him a good fit to lead the Bulldogs' offense.
"He needs to be the head of our snake," Jans said. "He's got a lot of tools. He's strong for his position. He's got a competitive edge to him. He can defend the ball. He can get the ball out in transition and not only make others better - he averaged 5.5 assists per game and led the Pac-12 in assists last year - but he can score for himself as well."
The biggest question in Davis' game is his shooting, as he shot just 18% from three-point range last season. While making nine of his 48 attempts on the season is unimpressive, Jans thinks that Dashawn has the ability to improve in that facet based on what he's seen from him in practice and how he shot in junior college, where he shot 39.1% on 5.4 attempts per game during his two seasons with Trinity Valley.
"The knock on him was that he shot a low percentage from three last year - 18% over the course of the season," Jans said. "Certainly, that's not up to snuff for a guard at any level, but structurally it looks good, and he shot much better than that in junior college. We rolled the dice a little bit with him that way, but he's been shooting it fine for us in practice. He's a big key. He's pivotal for us and our success this year."
The talent that Davis possesses was shown during a double-overtime upset over #16 USC where Davis scored 31 points on 14-24 shooting. Davis' clutch gene was in full effect that night as he scored 19 points without missing a shot in the final 6:19 of regulation, but he also got others involved dishing out seven assists in the 94-91 win.
With Davis running the show and Jans bringing in a new system, it could be a completely different look than what we saw under Ben Howland when State takes the court at Humphrey Coliseum in two weeks. Davis is at his best when pushing the ball in transition, and with athletic wings like D.J. Jeffries and Cameron Matthews next to him, it could make for some memorable fast breaks this season.
