Amari Davis capped off his last dance with Trotwood-Madison by making school history in 2019.
Alongside Justin Stephens (Toledo Football), Malachi Matthews (Edison State) and 2020 standouts, Carl Blanton (Eastern Arizona) & Sammy Anderson (Cincinnati Football), the loaded rams team brought Trotwood their first division two state championship for basketball.
Davis finished out his senior year with not only a state championship, but also earned many individual accolades that we will cover throughout this article.
Davis’ state championship and stellar season wasn’t the end of the road for the division one prospect, but actually just the beginning of a new one. He would go onto commit to the University of Green-Bay Wisconsin.
Unlike most newcomers, Amari Davis stepped up as soon as he joined the phoenix. He showed that he can step up against top programs, having big performances against Wisconsin, UCF, and Purdue. Davis exceeded everyone’s expectations, earning Horizon League Freshman OTY. He is the first player in Green Bay’s history to earn that honor.
He was also named to the All-Horizon League Third Team, the leading vote-getting on the league’s all-freshman team, earned a record breaking 10 league freshman of the week honors, broke Green Bay’s all-time freshman scoring record, and was named to the league’s all tournament team.
Davis was rumored to be entering the transfer portal for his sophomore season, after university fired their head coach due to Green Bay’s under performance. Coach Darner was very high on Davis coming out of high school and during his time with Green Bay, so the firing definitely had an effect on Davis.
He put these transfer rumors to rest with a tweet stating, “Green Bay has been good to me . . . I told my brothers we’re going to eat no matter who’s coaching us . . . I respect everyone’s decisions on leaving . . . We lost a real one in Coach Darner, but we’ve got to move on . . . With that being said, I’m staying at Green Bay and looking forward to next season.”
With Davis’ return, he’s expected to be Green Bay’s first option offensively and be a front runner for conference player of the year.
Davis’ right hand man at Trotwood, Malachi Matthews, took his talents half an hour away to Edison State Community College.
While at Trotwood, Matthews proved to be one of the most elite shooters in the Dayton area, earning a 2nd team All-Conference selection.
He wasn’t the only Dayton native to commit to Edison State. Wayne‘s starting point guard, Ronnie Hampton, lit up the JUCO in his first season. Hampton put up a light 16.7 ppg on an efficient 48.4 fg%, 2.0 spg, 3.6 apg, and 5.1 rpg.
Matthews spent his freshman season as a redshirt, not seeing the floor at all during his first season. “It was a tough transition going from high school to college for me honestly . . . I wanted to really take a year off and develop my body more.”
Fortunately, if Edison State doesn’t suspend its 2020-2021 season, it looks like it’ll be a different type of season for the former ram, and we’re excited to see it.
Both prospects will be returning to the colleges they spent their freshman seasons at for their second year. We’re excited to see the results of both players receiving role increases, and we’ll be here to cover it.
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