It was not the first time we watched 6'7' sophomore Luke Davis play, but it was the most memorable time. Davis scored at all 3 levels in the NCHSAA 4A Eastern Finals, it was efficient and it was impressive.
South Central High School Coach Chris Cherry runs an incredibly successful program. Year after year he has players come through the program who are D1 caliber, some of them high major even, and they win a lot of games. Over the past 3 years, Coach Cherry is 73-10 … the scary part about it is that he returns the majority of his fire power for at least two more years.
Davis' performance in the Eastern Finals was a memorable one. Davis has great size, he made a 3 off the catch, he knocked down an 18 foot jump shot with ease and he finished high above the rim in traffic off a put back. As only a sophomore, playing at this level of North Carolina's largest public school classification, we were not sure what to expect from him.
Like with most of the top players in the state of North Carolina, Davis is an alum of the prestigious North Carolina Top 80. He quickly showed all in attendance that he belonged on that stage, one of our camp directors Kelvin Mills stated 'Davis is a very skilled forward who shows the ability to play outside/in. He has a smooth handle that allows him to get by his man from the perimeter, and be a secondary ball handler against pressure. He makes very good decisions with the ball and can deliver passes in traffic.'
One of Phenom Hoops two NCAA compliant National Scouting Analysts Jamie Shaw followed that up by saying, 'Davis does a little bit of everything from the power forward position. He has good length and bounce as he battles for rebounds. He can also stretch the floor and make shots off the catch or in pick and pop situations, from 18 feet to 22 feet. He is a player to watch closely.'
Davis is playing his travel ball this year with the Team Wall program, same as last year. This is the program, which is run by Washington Wizards point guard John Wall. High level players such as Jalen Harris (Arkansas), Kyran Bowman (Boston College) and others have come through this program in its three short years of existence.
With the likes of Davis and others, Wall continues to keep the pipeline running strong. After playing in our NC Phenom 150 exposure camp, Davis really showed out at a high level, 'Davis showed flashes of being a three-level scorer while controlling the paint with his post moves, Luke Davis. He is a big man that loves to lean on his righty hook and strong penetration ability, as he scored quite often when going to those looks. Davis is a high IQ player and it is especially evident on the defensive end, where he doesn't have to strain himself athletically in order to make plays. Next in his development process is continuing to build his off-hand, as it would make him able to attack both sides of the court on offense. Coach Moorman on Davis: 'Luke! He had a handful of crowd-moving dunks during camp. He shot the open looks well and rebounded at a nice rate. If he locks in on defense, I could see him playing D1 ball. Luke played hard and did a good job moving without the ball.' Davis still performed at a high level, able to finish with an average of 16.7 PPG during camp. We expect to hear his name again soon as he continues to put in work heading into summer play.'
As with the tenor of this entire article, Davis is a player who needs to be watched closely. With his size/length, his ball skills and his explosion he has a lot of tools that he will only continue to build on.
