The Flag Has Been Planted – 2024 DMV PG Daquan Davis Commits to Providence, Coach Kim English

English has been touting his recruiting chops in the DMV since he was hired at Providence, and his activity on the recruiting trail certainly back up those words. The Friar coaching staff has sent out a bevvy of offers in the DMV area in the 2024 and 2025 class, waiting for the first shoe to drop.

That first shoe has dropped, in a big way. Daquan Davis, a 4 star Top 100 point guard from Maryland, has committed to the Providence Friars. Davis was long considered a heavy lean to the home state Maryland Terrapins, but English’s dogged pursuit of Davis has paid off. There was an early May official visit with a certain teammate of his (which we’ll discuss later in this article) that seems to have flipped the script on Davis staying home. With this commitment, Coach Kim English has thrown down the gauntlet to all DMV schools that Providence is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the geographic area. The commitment of Davis is massive in and of itself, but the importance of a top tier DMV recruit committing to Providence cannot be overstated. This is the first of many dominos to fall, and I believe it will be the start of an incredibly strong DMV – PC pipeline moving forward.

Below, we break down Daquan Davis, what he brings to the court, and what his commitment means for the Providence program.

Recruiting Profile of Daquan Davis

247 has Davis as the 77th overall player in the 2024 class. He is the 7th ranked point guard in his class behind some pretty talented names like Tahaad Pettiford, who is committed to Auburn. Davis played his first three years of high school ball at St. John’s in DC, but will be playing his senior year back in Maryland.

He is the second ranked player in the D.C. area behind Syracuse commit Donnie Freeman, who also plays at St. John’s. With his move back to Maryland for his senior year, he’d be ranked as the top player in the state as of the latest rankings on 247. If he were located in Virginia, he’d be behind a trio of Paul VI players in the 247 rankings, coming in at 4th overall. Thus, you can hopefully see how big of a commitment this is when doing an aggregated view of the DMV recruiting landscape.

Providence’s primary competition in this recruitment was Maryland; however, Davis had offers from Georgetown, Villanova, and Notre Dame, to name a few.

2024 4 ⭐️ G Daquan Davis has announced that he will be transferring back to @SFA_Basketball for his senior season.
— Colby Giacubeno (@ColbyGHoops) June 20, 2023

The Game of Daquan Davis – Offense

My first thought when watching him was that he was a carbon copy offensively of current UNC Combo Guard R.J. Davis. They can score with ease at all levels of the court and play bigger than their listed size. Daquan Davis is a marksman from deep and has the ability to hit the three ball coming off screens and off his own shot creation. He is going to be a nuisance for Big East foes simply because he has the ability to open up the offense entirely with his three point stroke. This will create more passing and cutting lanes and generally more spacing for the Friars, which is how the English offense ideally should operate.

Davis also has an incredibly tight handle and can blow by his defender with relative ease. The mid-range jumper is there and effective, which also brings me back to my comparison to RJ Davis.

While listed anywhere from 6’1 to 5’11, he doesn’t play as if somebody who is smaller than the opposition. He never seems to shy away from contact. He, at times, seems to initiate the contact, which is a sight for sore eyes.

Daquan Davis ELEVATES in transition for St. Frances. McNamara lead 55-52. 7:30 left in this one. pic.twitter.com/d1b6YJD0dM
— DMV Live (@DMVHoopsLive) June 23, 2023

Overall, I look at Davis offensively as a combo guard initially that develops into a purer point guard over time. I’d imagine English will primarily ask him to be a scoring threat early in his career as he rounds out the other components of his game.

We’ve long asked for players under Cooley that can create 1:1 and manufacture offense on their own. Davis is that guy and is somebody you can turn to as the shot clock winds down. He’s a bucket getter.

The Game of Daquan Davis – Defense

This is where the comparison to R.J. Davis ends. I see Davis as an exponentially better defender who is best described as a jitterbug or pest on the defensive end. He may not have the physical attributes of a Garwey Dual, or even Jayden Pierre, but I think his grit and “want to” make up for that. Simply put, he’s a guy who doesn’t take any plays off and knows the importance of playing consistently hard. He brings a bulldog type persona to the court every time he steps on.

There will be times where Davis is exposed in a half court set against bigger guards, which is to be expected. He’ll be at his best defensively marking a guard his size and using his grit and physicality to get into the jersey of the opposition.

The Game of Daquan Davis – Intangibles

We can talk all about his offensive and defensive game, but sometimes you just know when a kid is a winner. Davis is that. Again, he has this want-to and desire that you can’t quantify or measure. There’s an intangible where he doesn’t seem to back down and embraces competition. That’s a kid you want in your foxhole every day of the week.

He won his conference championship at St. John’s over St. Paul VI, a team that has a lot of Friar recruits. The kid is a ball player, but more importantly, a winner.

Impact of Landing Daquan Davis

Maryland fans will spin this however they want, but the fact is Coach Kim English came into their state and took one of the top players from them. This is a statement commitment and sends a message to all of the DMV players that Providence is a DMV-friendly program moving forward. Davis won the D.C. Player of the Year award last year, so all top end recruits know who he is in the area.

Daquan Davis is the 2022-23 MaxPreps Washington D.C. High School Basketball Player of the Year 🏀

✍️: https://t.co/TMLBpFwEDj pic.twitter.com/2LzU9044wO
— MaxPreps (@MaxPreps) April 10, 2023

It is no surprise that Providence needs big men after this year. Landing an elite guard like Davis helps make that sales pitch for Kim English that much easier. Patrick Ngonba, who is skyrocketing up the rankings, visited PC alongside Davis in early May. Landing Davis does nothing but help PC in its efforts to land the big from the DMV area. Even if Ngonba goes elsewhere, big men should be lining up to play alongside Dual, Pierre, Davis, Floyd Jr., etc. in the backcourt.

The great thing about the current state of the Friar program is that they do not need Davis to come in and immediately start. Garwey Dual is a blue chip recruit in his own right. We will see how things go his freshman year, but I’d anticipate him being at PC for 2 years. I expect Pierre to have a breakout year this year, but he strikes me as a 4 year player. Thus, Davis will have two vastly different lead guard types to learn from while he gets his feet wet at Providence. Then, he can take over the lead guard duties once Pierre and Dual move on. The cupboard is absolutely stocked at the lead guard position with this Davis commitment.

With the Davis commitment, Coach English has a ton of momentum right now on the trail and should use said momentum to get other elite players to visit Providence. This could be the start of a really nice recruiting run for the Friars.