A winding journey in basketball time
Point guard Marcel Davis returned for his senior season as the lone starter from Utah Valley University’s roster last season. Davis has been a steady hand leading the Wolverines this season, including posting his first career double-double against the San Diego Christian Hawks. Starting Western Athletic Conference play at the midpoint of his senior season, Davis expects more out of himself.
“It’s been fun,” said Davis. “I’m off to a good start. I feel like now conference is coming up I’ve got to continually get better and better every day. It’s been fun; I couldn’t expect any more out of my senior year.”
Before starring at UVU, Davis was a highly touted high school recruit who committed to Utah State during his sophomore season at American Fork High. As a prep star, Davis played on the AAU team, Utah Pump-N-Run, with fellow UVU guard Jaden Jackson.
Marcel Davis has been a consistent leader for the UVU men’s basketball team in its first year under Coach Mark Pope. Photo courtesy of Kyle McDonald.
“Probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing basketball,” Davis said. “It was with Jaden, with Jordan Loveridge who’s at the [University of Utah], we had a really good team, me and him played really well together. We just played really well in one tournament. We played against guys like Bishop Gorman, or Shabazz Muhammad, and all these big top-ranked guys and we beat them.”
Davis spent two seasons at Utah State, where he made a splash as a freshman by averaging 7.1 points, 3.3 assists, and 2.1 rebounds per game in 25 starts.
After his sophomore season, Davis decided to transfer to UVU to be closer to family in American Fork. Davis’ younger brother sustained third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body and had been receiving skin graft surgeries over the course of six years after the incident.
“In the summer that I was going to transfer, they cut one of [the] nerves in his leg and he lost the ability to use his leg, so I just transferred to UVU because it’s close to home so I could help out my parents,” Davis said. “They actually did a surgery so they were able to correct it, so he’s going to be ok.”
Davis has seen great success as the floor general of the Wolverines. He led the WAC in assists his junior season, and sits fourth in the conference averaging 4.5 assists per game. This season Davis has set new single-game highs for himself by scoring 28 points against SUU and recording nine assists against the UTRGV.
“He’s doing everything for us and he’s carrying a huge load, and he knew he was going to have to do that for us this year,” UVU head coach Mark Pope said. “And the trick for us to be competitive is that he’s got to up his game another level and I think he’s ready to do that.”
UVU has been ushered into a new era of Wolverine basketball under Coach Pope, and even with his duties off the court, the veteran Davis has taken the task of leading the team during the change.
I’m a Pacific Northwest guy who loves his Pacific Northwest sports. An amateur movie buff who prefers the disc to digital. Chasing the sports writing dream while I geek out on Assassin’s Creed.