By Gary Lambrecht

Through the first 18 games of an intriguing men's basketball season developing in Annapolis, no one in the Navy locker room or coaching offices would dispute that junior guard Cam Davis has been the brightest, most consistent spark on the team.

Davis, formerly a pure shooting guard and a capable passer, has stepped in ably to man the point and run Navy's offense, following the graduation of three-year starter Hasan Abdullah.

Davis has also remained a potent scoring threat for the 11-7 Mids, who will try to win their fourth straight game and move to 6-2 in Patriot League play on Saturday when Navy renews its emotional rivalry with visiting Army (1:30 PM, Alumni Hall).  

The combo guard is doing it all for Navy in the midst of his third and best season.

Davis leads the Mids in scoring (16.2 ppg) – fifth-best in the Patriot League – and is averaging 2.8 assists, with nearly a 2-1, assist-to-turnover ratio. His three-point (.382) and free-throw (.769) shooting have been excellent. And he has generated crunch-time scoring to lift Navy to several close conference victories, most recently on Wednesday night at Boston University.

Davis scored 17 points in Navy's gritty, 60-58 overtime win, including a layup that tied the score at 51 with 42 seconds left in regulation and forced the extra period. In OT, he sank two foul shots to help the Mids rally from a four point deficit and his layup with 1:26 left gave Navy a lead it would not surrender.

Davis also made two baskets in the final 30 seconds of a 68-66 squeaker over Lafayette on January 18, including the game-winning, three-pointer with 10 seconds left. Ten days earlier at Bucknell, his three-pointer, defensive rebound and two made free throws in the closing seconds capped a 20-point night that produced a 60-56 win that snapped Navy's eight-year, 11-game losing streak at Sojka Pavilion.

"I'm still learning as much as everybody else is," Davis says. "Moving from the two [shooting guard spot] to the one [point] is different. I'm still figuring out how to get good shots while getting my teammates good shots. I'm starting to settle in [at point guard] and see things before they happen."

Navy head coach Ed DeChellis is decidedly less understated when sizing up the impact Davis is having this year at what is essentially a hybrid position.

DeChellis has always been a fan of Davis' competitive fire and serious approach to the grind of being a student-athlete at such a difficult school.

Davis majors in ocean engineering, has received academic honors in four semesters and was named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll in 2018-19. He spent tons of free time on campus last summer honing his shot and embracing the position change to point guard, while also becoming a more vocal leader on the floor.

"Cam was such a great competitor in high school and still is. I didn't want him to be bogged down [as a pass-first point guard]. It's hard to run things yourself and score the ball. We need Cam to score," DeChellis says. "He is adapting to this very well."

"[Davis] will bark at guys in practice now to get them into the right positions. He has taken this team on as his own," DeChellis says. "Cam has been impacting games since he was a freshman, earning every minute of playing time he got. He's gone to a whole new level [this year]. He is on top of the opponent's scouting report now."

"The one thing about [Davis] that trumps everything else is his level of passion – whether it's his faith, his schoolwork, his relationships or basketball," says senior center and team captain Evan Wieck, who counts Davis as his best friend.

"Cam has become the calm in the storm for us," adds Wieck, who sees Davis being voted as a team captain next season. "He's unafraid and level-headed, confident with a little bit of cockiness, and humble at the same time. He does not care about his stats. Helping this team win is what matters."

What many people don't know is that Davis, following a sophomore season in which he had started all but one game, averaged 9.8 points and led the Mids in scoring six times and in assists on five occasions, wondered last spring if he would continue playing the sport he loves most. Davis, a native of Battlefield, Missouri who came to Navy direct from Kickapoo High School, says he was feeling the exhausting weight of the entire Navy experience over his first two years in Annapolis.

He remembers the sleep deprivation and fatigue of his plebe year, and how he says it adversely affected his basketball performance as the season progressed.

Never mind that Davis led Navy freshman with 166 points and 17.2 minutes per game, played in all 32 games and started two of them and shot 46.4 percent from the floor. He felt he was falling short of his own standards.

"I remember as a plebe being so tired midway through the Patriot League season," Davis recalls.

"I wasn't in the best shape of my life. Mentally, it was even more exhausting, trying to stay locked in at practice and on scouting reports, with all of the other duties as a freshman. Last year I felt I was better, but my major is very demanding and I had doubts about how committed I could be [to the game] every day."

That bit of self-doubt did not last long. Davis resolved to recommit to the team and to the sport that has been his passion for many years.

Those years include the two Kickapoo High teams that he – along with future Xavier signee and current Missouri State forward Jared Ridder – led to Missouri's Class 5 final four in 2016 and 2017. Kickapoo lost narrowly in the state title game in '16.

Davis and Ridder also played AAU ball together for Mokan Elite, which won the 2016 Nike EYBL Peach Jam with a squad that featured future NBA forward Michael Porter, Jr. (Denver Nuggets) and guard Trae Young, who will represent the Atlanta Hawks and the Eastern Conference as a starter in next month's NBA All-Star Game.

Davis gave up a good chunk of his summer leave in 2019 to stay on the Yard, preparing for his point-guard transition by sharpening his strength and conditioning and his shooting and ball-handling.

"Every decision I made last summer has made me appreciate the game and fall in love with it again," Davis says. "I love basketball like I did in high school."

That sounds like the player Dick Rippee recalls, as the former coach at Kickapoo.

Rippee remembers how Davis, undersized and under-recruited – he is listed at Navy as 6-feet, 184 pounds – was passed over for Division I scholarship offers after taking unofficial visits to Southern Illinois, Evansville and Missouri State.

Once Navy assistant coach Emmett Davis started recruiting Davis, the Mids beat Army and Air Force to the punch for Cam Davis.

At Kickapoo, Davis was overshadowed by the 6-feet-7 Ridder. Not in Rippee's eyes, however.

"Cam kind of played second fiddle to one of his best friends [Ridder], but he is still one of the best basketball players to come through the Springfield [Mo.] public schools, not just at Kickapoo," Rippee says.

"Cam was a true leader on both of those [final four] teams, with his words and his work ethic," Rippee adds. "Some guys talk it but don't back it up. Cam backed it up before he talked it. He's very disciplined and dedicated. He's had his priorities straight for a long time."

Davis, whose mother, Chris, and father, Adrian, each played basketball at Missouri Science & Technology, says the idea of having a chance to play right away attracted him to Navy at first. But after his official visit to Annapolis, he was taken by the idea of serving his country.

"I never saw myself in the military, but I felt a calling to come to this place. It was really the first decision I made as a man," Davis says. "I wanted to sacrifice the things I would have had at a normal school to get a great education and be set for the next 40 years of my life.

"And I want to be a player that kids look up to when they come to watch Navy play," he adds. "This is about even more than doing whatever I can do to help this team win. It's about leaving an imprint for the guys who come after me."