By Patrick Hayes

I had a friendly debate with a friend earlier this season about Mott Community College‘s Walter Davis and whether or not he was a likely Division I player.

Watching Davis, he’s a bit unconventional in that he was essentially a 6-foot-5 center for Mott this season, so needless to say, I didn’t find much support when I stated that I thought he could be a factor at that level. My reasoning is basically that Davis has a unique mix of skills and intelligence that should help him find a role. He was arguably the most athletic player in Michigan this past season and he’s a fantastic shot-blocker and rebounder. But unlike many athletic kids, Davis was a defensive presence and shot blocker for more reasons than just being able to jump really high.

He has incredible discipline on defense (he hardly ever bites on pump fakes), he has long arms and, although by default he ended up defending the opposing teams’ biggest player, he has the speed and footwork to step out and bother perimeter players if necessary. One of the things that has always bothered me in basketball analysis is that defense is often not treated as an elite ‘skill’ but rather the product of players simply putting in proper ‘effort.’ Effort is certainly important, but defensive instincts like those Davis possesses are incredibly rare and now that he has committed to Florida A&M University, I think he’ll get the opportunity to at the very least be a versatile situational defensive player for them and maybe more if he can add to his perimeter game offensively some.

Davis wasn’t asked to do a lot of scoring at Mott, but perhaps his best skill on offense is his ability to get on the offensive glass. He created a lot of extra possessions for Mott this season and got put-backs of his own.

Jared Field of Great Lakes Hoops noted an important non-basketball element to Davis’ makeup that makes him a good find for Florida A&M:

Schmidt calls Davis “the true definition of a student-athlete” and for good reason. He finished his career at Mott with a 3.4 grade point average.

Raw, athletic players with no clear position are always somewhat of a gamble, but they are much less risky if they possess the intelligence, maturity and work ethic that Davis showed at Mott. He battled bigger players effectively all season and his rim-protecting ability made Mott’s defense more ferocious because it allowed their quick guards more freedom to create turnovers and gamble in passing lanes, knowing that Davis was back to erase mistakes.