Davis and Bair shine in tournament opener

Like I said in the last write-up on Marcel Davis and Quincy Bair, American Fork's team goes way deeper than just those two. They are indeed, a complete team. On top of Davis and Bair, the Cavemen have two other guys capable of taking over a game in Zac Hunter and Austin Waddoups.

Tuesday was Davis' takeover, but each of the other three were spectacular at times. The biggest thing about all of them though is their defense. West simply could never get into any kind of offensive flow as  the Cavemen smothered everything they tried to do. High-flying blocked shots and forced turnovers were almost too high to count. The end result was just 40 points allowed, which is the lowest total given up by the Cavemen all season.

The game started a little bit sloppy, but American Fork didn't take long in putting things together. Behind some vocal leadership from Waddoups and some offensive assertion from Davis, the Cavemen got things going full-throttle in the second quarter.

But let's get into the specifics.



MARCEL DAVIS
The last game I went to watch, Davis hardly scored. What he did do was rebound the ball and dish out assists like crazy. Today he was in much more of a scoring mode, which is encouraging to see the other side of his complete game.

Early in the game, Davis was trying like hell to get teammates involved and made a few ill-advised passes that led to turnovers. Maybe he was caught up in the excitement of things and tried to come out of the gate too fast, but he cut down the turnovers as the game went on. This side of things doesn't worry me much seeing as how USU's offense will often dictate where and when passes should be made.

When it came to scoring, Davis was absolutely killing it when he drove the ball inside to finish near the rim and when he shot from mid-range. Really he was unstoppable when he wanted to score. If he can bring even that kind of mid-range efficiency to USU with him, he should be able to capitalize on a lot of those same kinds of looks where Brockeith Pane has been reliable. By the end of the game, he had racked up a game-high 16 points.

Really if there's one word to describe Davis' game, "smooth" would be the ideal choice. He gets comfortable out there and just makes everything look easy. Adjusting to the speed of college basketball will probably be his biggest challenge next year, as well as having much taller defenders around the basket. You can really see why he's as highly rated as he is when you watch him though.

QUINCY BAIR
Bair's biggest strength right now is his defense. He can be absolutely lockdown in that department, which means Stew will probably love him. His instincts to come in on help defense for a big block are already solid, and will probably only get better with a coach like Stew helping him develop that.

Offensively, he was a consistent threat throughout the entire game Tuesday, with his scoring spread fairly evenly throughout the entire game. He's good at handling the ball in traffic and finishing around the rim. Tuesday, he was scoring almost exclusively from inside, but is plenty capable of scoring from further out.

On the whole, he didn't stand out as much as Davis did on Tuesday, but he still had a very good game. With his athleticism, shooting stroke and ability to handle the rock, Bair's potential is through the roof. He looks like he could turn out to be everything we ever thought Steven Thornton would be and then some.

OVERALL
Very few freshman come right in and make a major impact in Stew Morrill's system. These guys won't be any different. There's just so huge of a jump from high school to college and so much to learn along the way that eventually challenges will arise. Outside of Jaycee Carroll, Tyler Newbold and Tai Wesley, no other freshman have managed to start consistently for Stew.

Davis indeed might be the next guy to make that list, but both he and fans will need to be patient and keep their heads up as he adjusts. Luckily, he should have the benefit of coming in with what looks to be a pretty experienced team next year. And as Jared Quayle and Brockeith Pane have taught us, a new point guard with an experienced team can catch on quickly... only neither of them were freshman when they did it.

For Bair, he'll probably have the luxury to redshirt, which will be best for everyone. He's able to rely on his athleticism a lot to produce at the high school level, and that athleticism is part of what makes him such an exciting prospect, but with a year to refine his game with USU's coaching staff could have him contributing solid minutes when he sees the floor finally.

Like I said, both guys are great prospects, and if they buy into Stew's way of running things and keep their heads up through freshman struggles, they will be superstars. Just give them the time to go through that process.


*BONUS CONTENT*
It's not hard to see why Zac Hunter has earned a D-1 scholarship offer now too. The kid is talented, can score from all over and has some solid post moves. If he were 6'8, he'd probably be coveted by a whole lot of schools.

Then there's Austin Waddoups. If you didn't know, he's the leading scorer for American Fork on the year. Dude has got some grit! Early in the game when things were sloppy for the Cavement, Waddoups asserted himself as a vocal leader on the court. Safe to say, things didn't stay shaky for American Fork for long.

Waddoups is only about six feet tall and he's really skinny. Still, I see the "it" factor in the kid. Some coach somewhere has got to be smart enough to offer him a scholarship, even if it's only a junior college (paging Curtis Condie), but regardless, I think Stew should at least offer him a walk-on spot. Sure it's not a glamorous honor by any means, but I think he could make a solid addition to any team, especially one where two of his teammates are already going.