The preseason scrimmage against Kansas was the first sign something was up.
Johnell Davis arrived at Arkansas in the summer as one of the most high-profile players in the transfer portal. Indeed, the sheer promise of his move, and the impact it could have on pretty much any program in the country, had been discussed in college hoops circles at length since the middle of the 2022-23 season, when he and his Florida Atlantic teammates blitzed the sport en route to the Final Four. His coach at FAU, Dusty May, pulled off the miraculous trick of keeping his group together after that deep tournament run, convincing the kids to follow his lead and forestall their own inevitable paydays in favor of one more ride together. After a second straight tournament appearance, no small feat at FAU, May was hired at Michigan. Davis, Alijah Martin and Vlad Goldin were destined to go their own high-major ways.
Davis explored the NBA draft, but was lured back to college basketball, and to Arkansas specifically, by a reported NIL offer in excess of $1 million. The number was a validation of his status in the game, and his importance to Calipari’s first team, and his sheer presence in Fayetteville was a significant reason for Arkansas’s lofty 2024-25 preseason expectations.
Then, in the first really high-profile moment of his vastly hyped career as a Razorback, Davis … didn’t crack the starting lineup.
It was easy to write off at the time, as was his performance. (Five points, 3-of-15 from the field, a couple of steals and three turnovers in 25 minutes.) It’s preseason, after all. Calipari is trying stuff! Guys play odd runs in preseason games. It wasn’t hard to imagine Cal selling Davis the same idea he once sold Devin Booker and Tyler Ulis and Reed Sheppard: you’ll play a lot, you’ll look good, don’t worry. Maybe there was some longer-term plan for squad cohesion involved. But it was just as easy to assume Calipari was just scribbling out different looks before the real games came, safe in the knowledge that his proven, elite, fifth-year transfer star would be fine either way.
That was October. It’s January now. After a couple of disastrous months in the starting lineup, Davis is once again coming off the bench. He’s anything but fine. He’s hardly even Johnell Davis anymore.
Indeed, he might be the saddest single figure of the 2024-25 college basketball season — a cautionary tale of what can happen to a fantastically watchable player’s career when he takes the wrong offer at the wrong place at the wrong time.
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