Virginia’s near-miss comes calling

When it comes to recruiting, almost every college basketball coach can lament about “the one that got away.” Even the Coach K’s and the Billy Donovans miss out on some of the best high school talent.
Still, when Ed Davis chose North Carolina over Virginia two summers ago, it was a particularly harsh blow to UVa coach Dave Leitao and his staff.
Davis, an in-state product — he played at Richmond’s Benedictine High — had been one of their top targets from the time they replaced former Virginia coach Pete Gillen four years ago.
“[It] was obviously disappointing,” Leitao said, “but at the same point in time — if you’re going to try to be the best in this business, you have to forget about it in all of about 10 seconds. You have to move on, and that’s what we did.”
But on Thursday night at John Paul Jones Arena, the staff will likely experience the kind of stinging pain that one feels after bumping into a good-looking ex-girlfriend — Davis and North Carolina will be in town.
This season, Davis — thanks to an injury to freshman 7-footer Tyler Zeller — has played more than expected. The 6-foot-10, 215-pound left-hander is leading the team in rebounding (7.8) and blocks (1.8).
Davis, who has started twice, is averaging 7.3 points in just over 20 minutes per game.
“He’s done a nice job for us,” said North Carolina coach Roy Williams, whose team is 0-2 in the ACC after a 92-89 loss to Wake Forest on Sunday night. “He’s been asked to step up and play a lot of minutes as a freshman and has really done a nice job defensively and rebounding-wise.
“We’ve got to work with him and he’s got to work to get more efficient on the offensive end, but we like what we have.”
Davis has been pretty much what Leitao and his staff envisioned.
“The few times I’ve gotten to see him play, he’s fit in really well,” Leitao said. “Everybody, including myself, expects him to have a terrific career. He’s a terrific prospect.”
Williams said he didn’t zero in on Davis until the spring of his sophomore year. It was then that he went to see him play in person. Williams liked Davis’ shot-blocking and rebounding prowess. He also liked his demeanor on the court.
“He didn’t get caught up in a lot of theatrics,” Williams recalled.
The more Williams watched, the more he liked.
“It was a great match for us,” Williams said, “because of the things he could do on the court and the kind of character he has.”
Since Williams and North Carolina didn’t become enamored until relatively late in the game, the Virginia staff thought they might have an edge since they had been recruiting Davis the longest.
Wahoo fans could practically see Davis, rated by one recruiting service as the second-best player in the country, in a Virginia uniform (along with Elliot Williams, a 5-star point guard who would later choose Duke over UVa).
But what nobody predicted was the influence of Ed’s father, Terry Davis, a former NBA player who had played his college ball at Virginia Union. Apparently, it had always been Terry’s dream to play for a program like UNC.
In addition, one of Terry’s good friends, Larry Drew, a former NBA player, was already sending his son to UNC.
“[Ed] liked Carolina from Day One. I liked Carolina from Day One,” Terry Davis told the Daily Progress last spring. “We’ve always liked the program and the tradition there.
“What really kind of put the icing on the cake [was] Larry Drew.”
By all accounts, Ed Davis certainly has the potential to follow in his father’s footsteps and play in the NBA. Most believe that Ed is much more talented than Terry, who played for four teams in a 10-year career.
Leitao, however, has to put those kinds of thoughts in the back of his mind. The way back.
“Over 20, 25 years you celebrate the guys that you get and you quickly forget about the ones that you don’t,” said Leitao, who has signed Tristan Spurlock (Woodbridge,) and Jontel Evans (Hampton) for his 2009 class. “Every coach in America can have an all ‘What-if team’ that would be as good as there is in the country.”
Some schools, however, seem to have far more “What-ifs” than others.