(De)Committed to Kim: Daquan Davis
The Friars lose their top 2024 recruit
News started to leak over the weekend that four star recruit Daquan Davis, a 6’1 point guard originally out of Baltimore, MD, was starting to get squeamish about the idea of coming to Providence for the 2024-25 season. Davis scrubbed his Instagram of all Providence related content which in this day and age is akin to filing for divorce on the 6:00 news. This morning, the news was confirmed with Davis releasing a brief statement reopening his recruitment.
Obviously the first culprit here is expected to be NIL. It is my understanding that Davis’ family was asking for more NIL money than was originally agreed to when he first committed. Not necessarily surprising given his rise up the recruiting rankings. Even though Davis committed to Kim English and Co. back in June, several high major schools remained in contact with him including the University of Illinois and Maryland. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about either of those schools NIL situation, but given the size and enrollment of the flagship universities of the state of Illinois and Maryland, I would imagine it’s significant. Regardless, it doesn’t really matter where Davis ends up, he’s not coming to Providence. Where Kim English pivots to from here will be worth monitoring.
As for the impact on the roster, I don’t think this is that big of a deal. In the macro, NIL continues to be an issue for Providence College, but in the micro I won’t be losing sleep over Daquan Davis. Jayden Pierre and Corey Floyd Jr figure to be the stars of the show next season (with Bryce Hopkins, Garwey Dual and potentially Devin Carter making the jump to the professional ranks). If there was an area the Friars could afford to take a decommitment it was in the back court.
The big picture here doesn’t change much. We know Providence has work to do to continue to build out the NIL infrastructure, but if the worst thing that happens while we play catch up is a top 110 commit decides to not join the program, so be it. As if the stakes couldn’t get any higher, this reality does place a bigger committment on the on-court performance this season. You can have shit NIL and still be a top program, but you can’t suck on the court AND have shit NIL. 8 short days until we get some on the court answers.