Going back to late 2008, Tony Wroten Jr was the top rated high schooler in the 2011 Class as a sophomore. Then he sustained a horrific knee injury forcing him to miss his entire junior campaign. St. Patrick’s Michael Gilchrist then slid into the top spot for a majority of the class’ junior season. For the past year plus, Winter Park’s Austin Rivers has been staking his claim as the #1 ranked high school player in all the land until this past week. Enter Anthony Davis, who finishes his senior campaign at Perspectives Charter in Chicago as the top dog in the 2011 HS Class.
Davis completes a meteoric rise to the #1 spot after not even being ranked among the Top 150 players in the country prior to last Summer. As a high school junior, Davis was a skinny, wiry thin, 6’2 inch perimeter player with high hopes of playing somewhere, in fact anywhere in college in 2 years. Then came an unbelievable growth spurt which saw him add 7-8 inches all the way to his current height of nearly 6’10. Almost overnight, Davis went from being a skinny, anonymous combo guard from Chicago to one of the most versatile big men in America.
During the summer of 2010 while playing with Mean Streets on the AAU circuit, Davis cemented his standing in the world of amateur basketball. Because of his outstanding play that Summer came a lone scholarship offer from the rather smallish Cleveland State. As his skill set broadened to things like blocked shots and rebounding with authority, two traits that aren’t too important to guard-play, came Nike Skills Camp and NBA Camp invites. Suddenly every top Division I coach in America was showing up in tiny gymnasiums across the country to bear witness to Anthony Davis. It was at the King City Classic in late July, ironically held at Cleveland State University, where Davis really made a name for himself by dominating other elite prospects like Quincy Miller and Wayne Blackshear to generate some national buzz.
As you could imagine, like a shark to blood in the water, Kentucky coach John Calipari was one of the first to see the writing on the wall when it comes to Davis’ immense potential. Although Syracuse was reportedly the first major school to offer, albeit without even seeing him play, and after also considering offers from Ohio St, DePaul, Davis ultimately chose the Wildcats and will be playing alongside three other Top 20 recruits Michael Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, and Kyle Wiltjer next season.
As his highly scrutinized senior season came to an end on March 3rd during regional finals, he put a fitting end to a tremendous final season at Perspectives consisting of 32 points and 19 rebounds in a loss. Amazingly those numbers are slightly below his phenomenal season averages of 32 points, 22 rebounds, and 8 blocks per game.
After recently showing out at the McDonald’s All American Game and earning Co-MVP honors at the Jordan Brand Classic, there are many questions when it comes to Davis’ extra large frame and game. He’s currently 6-10 and still growing. How tall will he be by the time he arrives in Lexington? How tall will he be once he leaves Lexington? Will he be 7 feet when David Stern calls his name? How many players 7 feet tall in college or the NBA have the advanced PG skills of Davis? All viable questions and the scary part is most scouts feel he is hardly a finished product and won’t be for another 2-3 years. Enjoy him while you can Wildcat fans, he won’t be a resident in Kentucky for long.
Check out Anthony Davis’ official senior season mixtape(watch at the 0:37 mark where he splits a double team and dunks over another defender):
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
