Atlantic 10 Basketball: Breaking down each program’s 2018 recruiting class

Davidson Wildcats

Davidson took a hit with the graduation of A10 co-Player of the Year (PoTY) Peyton Aldridge, who averaged 21.2 points per game last season. They didn’t lose any other stars, but they did see the departure of rotational players like Will Margarita (5.7 points per game), Oskar Michelson (5.5 ppg), and Rusty Reigel (3.8 ppg). Losing four players doesn’t sound like the end of the world, but depth was already a concern for the Wildcats. Without those guys around, Davidson’s bench will be sorely tested.

In terms of filling in the gaps, Coach McKillop is bringing in four new players from around the world (he loves international players – he’s the A10’s Greg Popovich). For help in the backcourt and on the wing, he’s recruited David Czerapowicz and Michael Jones. Czerapowicz is a lights-out 3-point shooting guard from Sweden, and Jones is long and athletic wing who can be thrown into multiple positions when needed. Reminiscent of a smaller Peyton Aldridge, he can score from all over the floor and post-up on smaller defenders .

Czerapowicz won’t get called on to start, as Davidson has the best backcourt in the conference between Kellan Grady and Jon-Axel Gudmundsson, but you can count on him for relief duty if the aforementioned are cold or in foul trouble. KiShawn Pritchett should be the starting small forward, but Jones, along with redshirt freshman Luke Frampton, should get plenty of opportunities off of the bench.

To round out the class, Austrian center Luka Brajkovic and English forward Nelson Boachie-Yiadom will help out in Davidson’s abysmally thin frontcourt. Outside of Junior Dusan Kovacevic and Sophomore Bates Jones (who averaged a meager 0.2 points per game), Bragdovic and NBY will be all McKillop has to work with in the post. Look for NBY (captain of the British U-18 team) to start because of his shot-blocking and rebounding abilities, but for Brajkovic to see significant minutes as well.