By PAUL GOTHAM
Among Dayton Flyer starters, his scoring average trails that of his teammates. Advanced stats show he is the last option on the floor in Dayton’s offense. But when it comes to influence, Archie Miller knows Kyle Davis leads the Flyers.
“Kyle is really setting the tone in general for our team,” UD’s head coach said during his recent radio show. “I don’t look at the box score with him at the end of the game. I just have this feel that he dominated the game, and he didn’t score a basket, or he made so many little plays out there that got our team going that don’t show up in the stat sheet.”
Davis’s value can be partly measured in his 26.6 minutes per game (30 per over the last five contests).
“He gets us feeling good in terms of our effort, how hard that he plays,” Miller said while referring to a play early in the recent game against East Tennessee State when Davis dove on the floor for a loose ball. “He just blew the whole play up. Got on the floor first. Got on the ball. Tied it up. We got the ball and went down to the other end… Those type of contagious plays I think Kyle’s responsible for a lot of them.”
The senior guard leads the Flyers and is tied for 36th in the nation with 2.2 steals per game. His steal percentage (the percentage of opponent possessions ending in a steal by a specific player) is 4.5, but those numbers miss the overall effect Davis has when pressuring the ball or containing the opposing team’s top scorer.
“He’s that intangible guy,” Miller added. “You hate to say glue guy because he’s not really a guy that blends. He stands out when he’s making these plays. It’s really good to see. I think right now he’s put together a stretch of ball that he didn’t put together last year. He’s done it pretty much every day from the first day of practice. We’re going to need Kyle to play like this all the time.”
Miller leaned on Davis after Dayton’s two-game skid in late November. A mini-slump preceded by the loss of 6-foot-7 forward Josh Cunningham to a season-ending injury which caused the Flyers to redefine their approach.
“We really challenged him in Anaheim after our disappointing performance against Nebraska to be a guy to lead the way right out of the gates so to speak. Lead the charge. The fight takes the fight right to the other team immediately. He is absolutely spearheading our charge right now.”
Davis along with fellow seniors Kendall Pollard and Scoochie Smith are on track to be the the most successful senior class in program history. Through 115 games, they have won 85. The 2011 class of Chris Wright, Devin Searcy, Peter Zesterman and Logan Nourse won 97. Davis, Pollard and Smith are also looking to get Dayton back to the NCAA tournament for a fourth straight season – a possible first for UD men’s basketball.
Dayton (7-2) travels to Davis’s hometown to take on Northwestern (8-2) in the Chicago Legends on Saturday. A 7 pm tipoff is scheduled at the United Center. The Wildcats are led by Vic Law, Scottie Lindsey and Bryant McIntosh.
“I think they’ll be in the NCAA Tournament,” Miller said of the Wildcats which have never punched a ticket to the big dance. “They’re playing man-oriented protect-the-paint sort of defense. It’s going to be a really crowded floor for us. We’re going to have to make some shots. I’m more excited to watch our guys compete.”
The game is also a homecoming for Dayton big man Kendall Pollard.
“Kendall Pollard’s dream has been to play in the United Center.”
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