NCAA Basketball: Detroit Mercy and Virginia Tech headline Players of the Week
By Bryan Mauro
Mid-Major Player of the Week – Antoine Davis
The super senior from Detroit Mercy finds himself on this list yet again as he had a vintage week for him. The Titans are currently 11-16 and a middle-of-the-pack Horizon League team but their star guard, who also happens to be the coach’s son, is anything but a middle-of-the-pack player. Davis is the best scorer in college basketball and when he is going off like he did last week Detroit Mercy is really hard to beat. In a loss to Milwaukee, the guard scored 42 points with 5 rebounds and 4 assists. In a win over Green Bay, the guard scored 41 points with 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Those were the third and fourth 40-point games the guard has recorded this year.
What about Davis makes him so special? Interesting that you ask, heading into play this week the guard only needs 186 points to become the all-time leading scorer in NCAA College Basketball history. He would pass the legendary Pete Maravich who holds the record at 3,667 points scored over his entire career. The record has stood since 1970. That would mean the guard would have to average 36 points per game the rest of the way to even have a chance at the record. I will say that he gets it and the reason why is that the Titans win the Horizon League tournament or bust and while they are trying to win games they are going to feed the ball to their best player every time down the floor.
In the five seasons that the point guard has been on campus, the Titans have never made an NCAA tournament and it doesnt appear this year is going to be any different either. The Horizon League is always a one bid league but the Titans are not going to be a top seed and that makes the climb that much harder. However, if Davis has another week like he did last week the Titans can do anything.
To further analyze the games of the point guard is extremely impressive. The guard made a total of 24 overall shots and 15 of those makes were three-pointers. Davis gets fouled a ton and spends so much time at the line. Over the last week, the guard made 20-23 free throws to go with his shooting ability makes him a very scary player and one who has and can carry his team by himself.
Normally I would say that the pace at which Davis is playing at is unsustainable but over the last two games, the Detroit Mercy guard looks like he wants that record and is playing at a level some of us have never seen. If the guard keeps up this scoring pace he will break the record easily. Congratulations to Davis. Watch the guard play and you will not be disappointed.