MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard admitted he was being diplomatic last month, saying he’ll sit down with star sophomore Johnny Davis to discuss the next steps in his decision-making process. Truthfully, those detailed talks about the NBA came prior to the season, so the conversations leading into Davis’s announcement Thursday that he'd be declaring for the 2022 NBA Draft were brief.
There was no real debate about what Davis was going to do, and Gard had no desire to stop him.
“All I said was unless you really, really, really, really love me coaching you again, which got him laughing,” Gard said. “I told him the same thing Coach (Bo) Ryan told Devin (Harris), you got to go. I know it’s a life-long dream of his. There wasn’t hesitancy on my part. I support guys chasing their dreams.”
The fact that Gard, Davis, his twin brother Jordan Davis, and their parents took a private plane to New Orleans for the announcement of the Naismith Trophy at the 2022 Final Four showcases how good Davis was in leading Wisconsin to a Big Ten title, 25 wins, and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Davis led the Badgers in both scoring (19.7) and rebounds (8.2) but was even better when the competition was at its peak. Davis led all major conference players averaging 24.1 points against ranked teams, helping him earn consensus All-American honors and the Big Ten Player of the Year distinction.
In their interactions since the season ended, both the Davis camp and Gard compared information they had farmed from league sources, team executives, and the league office. They matched up: Davis is viewed as a lottery pick when the NBA Draft is held in Brooklyn this June.
“The position he’s in, it’s pretty much a no-brainer,” Gard said.
Gard believed Davis was good enough to play in the NBA last season, something not many saw after he averaged 7.0 points in 31 games as a reserve freshman. But after Davis was selected to participate for Team USA in the FIBA U-19 World Cup, leaving Wisconsin early became a real possibility.
By early January, after Davis’s hot start rocketed higher following his 37-point performance in Wisconsin’s win at No.3 Purdue, becoming the first player to lead a team in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocks, and steals in a road win over an AP Top 5 team since Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan (in front of 16 NBA scouts no less), Gard knew where things were trending.
“We both left (the NBA talk) alone during the season, but in the conversations I had with people at that level, the ascension he was on in their minds was pretty clear of what he was trending towards,” Gard said. “I am happy as hell for him and his family for him to have this opportunity.”
A slam dunk to be the first Wisconsin player selected in the first round since 2015, as well as possibly the first UW player drafted in the top 10 since Frank Kaminsky in 2015, Davis joins Harris (fifth overall in 2004) and Sam Dekker (18th overall in 2015) as players who have declared for the draft prior to their senior year.
With only five players drafted since 1997, Wisconsin has dealt with a stigma that its program wasn’t conducive to developing NBA talent. That narrative became prevalent when Greenfield Whitnall guard Tyler Herro de-committed shortly before the early signing period for the 2018 class, later revealing he wanted to go to a program that could better feature his skill set for NBA scouts and being critical of UW's offensive system. He eventually committed to Kentucky, was named the SEC Rookie of the Year, declared after one season, and was selected 13th overall in the 2019 NBA Draft.
The result of Davis’s season was evidence that the argument no longer holds water, that Wisconsin is willing to tweak its offense to feature the strength of an individual player, giving them the chance to reach the pinnacle of the sport.
“It’s a dream of a lot of guys (to play in the NBA), but most guys don’t get a crack at it,” Gard said. “Everybody wants to be in the NBA. They don’t realize how hard it is and how good you have to be to get there, and then it’s about trying to stick and make it a career.
“You have to be so good to go early. That’s what maybe gets lost sometimes. The NBA has 450 players that are the best in the world. When you face reality of how hard it is to get there, and how hard it is to stay there with the talent that comes in every year, there’s sometimes an unrealistic viewpoint that it’s going to be easy.
“Did Johnny help obliterate that stigma? Yeah, but I’ve never believed in that anyway. If you’re good enough, you’ll get there, and he’s good enough.”
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