Johnell Davis withdraws from 2024 NBA Draft, will play for Arkansas in 2024-25 season
Johnell Davis withdrew from the 2024 NBA Draft and will play for Arkansas for the 2024-25 college basketball season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Davis originally entered the NCAA transfer portal in early April and committed to Arkansas at the end of the month. However, he tested the NBA waters.
Davis played at Florida Atlantic before entering the portal and testing his draft stock. In 34 games last year, Davis finished with 18.2 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, 2.9 assists per game, shot 48.3% from the floor and 41.4% from three-point range.
As a member of the Class of 2020, Davis was not ranked, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He played his high school basketball in Gary (Ind.) at 21st Century Charter.
Earlier in May, Davis reportedly turned down an invite to the pre-draft G League Elite Camp and conducted private workouts instead.
Johnell Davis commits to John Calipari at Arkansas
In addition to new head coach John Calipari landing Davis out of the portal, he added to his new Razorbacks’ staff. Former Louisville coach Kenny Payne is now on the bench as an assistant.
In his introduction, Calipari let the Arkansas faithful know that he’s not going to change the way he treats his players, obviously that’ll now include Davis.
“I’m always gonna be a players’ first coach. I’m sorry. It’s about the players,” Calipari said to applause from the crowd in attendance. “I know for some reason people think you can’t really be a coach that wants to win if you’re about the players. No. You can do both. “Every decision I will make will be is this the best decision for these guys. Not me as a staff. Is it the best decision for them? When we’re doing things. How we’re doing things.
“You saw my team this year. We played totally different. Why? It was the best way for that team to play. We couldn’t guard as well as we needed to, but we could really score. But it was how they had to play. And all I can tell you is I won’t change that.”
Looks like Davis will get one more year, this time under Calipari, to get better for his eventual pro career. While Davis was a star at Florida Atlantic and put the Owls on the map, perhaps he can be a huge piece to what could be a great Year 1 for Coach Cal for the Razorbacks.