Offseason Additions - Transfers

Davidson's transfer class has quite a lot in common:

1. All 4 come from a high academic background at their previous school.

2. All are rising juniors with 2 years of eligibility remaining.

The first commonality is no surprise. Davidson's academic profile can be a major selling point in the portal era if emphasized correctly, and it's good to see the staff take advantage of that with some really fun players. The second is ideal for the new era we're living in. As we've discussed on the pod, whether we like it or not, two year windows might just become the norm. The good news is that all of these players have serious versatility: Davidson can figure out what role they're best suited for this season, then go hard in the next offseason for what we need to get to the next level.

More than anything, though, it seems like the Cats are getting some great teammates and great dudes in general. I'm extremely excited to see the roles they carve for themselves both on and off the court this season. Let's dive in and see how it could all shake out.

Parker Friedrichsen

6'4" SG, Wake Forest

Friedrichsen was always the obvious first call of the cycle for the Cats. Davidson wanted him in his high school days in Oklahoma. They wanted him after he decommitted from his original commitment to Notre Dame. They wanted him even after he committed to Wake Forest. Well, the slipper still fit, and now the Cats have him after all this time.

After a rousing success of a first season in Winston, it seemed they would never have him, though. Friedrichsen entered as the four-star, #91 player in the nation per 247 Sports and largely delivered in his freshman season for Steve Forbes. He saw 18 minutes of action per game and shot 37% from deep for a team that came achingly close to the NCAA tournament.

Last year, though, saw an unravelling of Wake's offense. A legitimately great shooting team that was 41st in 3P% at 36.1% became a bottom ten outside shooting team in the nation. The Deacs connected on just 28.5% of their threes in 24-25: a very surprising reversal considering that, until then, Forbes never had a below average three point shooting team in his entire career at both ETSU and Wake.

Friedrichsen's numbers, naturally, suffered, along with Wake's other floor spacers. His 3P% fell to 26%. Hunter Salis's fell from 41% to just 27%. Cameron Hildreth's dropped from 35% to 31%. The why is more complicated, but a simple explanation is the addition of several non-shooters and the expanded role of others around what was a strong shooting core. A more complicated one is how that halted Wake's ability to generate quality looks on offense. The tape will tell you that PF did a lot of standing around and throwing up prayers, which, shockingly, limited the amount of quality looks for him.

So far, one overlooked aspect of Friedrichsen's fit seems to be his defensive prowess. As a freshman against ACC competition, he posted a solid Defensive Box Plus-Minus of 1.2. That number improved to a 2.0 in his sophomore season, which is well above average. What's especially promising is that in 17 games against top 100 teams, his DBPM was even higher at 4.3. Friedrichsen should thus be a high level defender in the A10 and is most primed of anyone on the roster to take the top assignment against quality competition.

Taking nearly 90% of his FGA attempts from deep has left the extent of Friedrichsen's playmaking ability a mystery. However, his offensive game entering college was already quite polished, and if his extremely low college TO% (8.0%) is any indication, PF can quickly become a high level secondary ball handler at the A10 level. However, I still expect PF to primarily serve as the Cats' go-to movement shooter. Another addition has almost certainly got the lead guard role locked down. As we at the Belk Report like to say, Davidson can never have enough 6'3-4" combo guards. PF has the chance to be one of the best we've seen recently.

Josh Scovens

6'6" W, Army

There were several reasons Army took a major leap into Patriot League contention in year 2 of former Cats Assistant Kevin Kuwik's tenure, but it's clear that Josh Scovens was one of the biggest. After winning PL Rookie of the Year Honors in his freshman season, Scovens leveled up his game against a tougher schedule in his sophomore season. He averaged 15.2 / 4.2 / 1.8 while also averaging more than a steal and a block per game as Army's tonesetter on defense. The Greensboro native prides himself on toughness and high IQ defensively, and he's the type of bouncy slasher that Matt McKillop has been searching for as he looks to build a new identity. Though last year's team felt in between worlds at times, Scovens feels like the blueprint for meshing Matt's desire for grittiness with Bob's love for movement and cutting. Kevin Kuwik's time as an assistant instilled a lot of toughness (especially on the glass) into Bob's later Cats teams; now a player developed heavily by Kuwik has the chance to do the same for Matt.

Aside from the incredible cultural fit, there are 2 other things that especially excite me about Scovens. The first is simply how much better Army was with him on the floor than without him. Scovens unfortunately dealt with an injury down the stretch in PL play, which caused him to miss Army's final 3 conference games and limited him to just 13 minutes in their conference tournament game against Colgate. With Scovens, the Black Knights were 10-5 in conference play; in those post-injury games, however, they went 0-4. The second is the way he elevated his game against better competition. In Army's 3 games against top 125 teams last year (Duke, George Washington, and Cornell), Scovens averaged 17.7 PPG and 5.3 RPG. He went a very solid 12/18 at the rim and 17/29 (58.3%) on all twos in these games, suggesting his slashing ability can indeed translate to the higher level of play in the A10.

The biggest question with Scovens is how his outside shot will develop next season-- and just how much that will actually matter. With Friedrichsen and Sam Brown, the 'Cats have two plus shooters in the backcourt, while Hunter Adam and Manie Joses showed an ability to knock down corner threes -- albeit on lower volume -- down the stretch last season. Davidson also has some other young guys who can shoot the 3 in Devin Brown, RJ Greer, and Roberts Blums, so Scovens could conceivably improve his career 31% mark from distance given a more catch-and-shoot heavy role. Only 76% of his made threes last year were assisted, suggesting he was taking his fair share of off the dribble jumpers. Those might not be necessary for the Cats offense. Even a small improvement to the 34/35 3P% range would do wonders for Scovens' ceiling at Davidson.

Overall, it's hard not to be excited about the Scovens fit. While there might be an adjustment period defensively due to the sheer jump in competition in the A10, the Scovens/Joses duo on the defensive wing gives Matt McKillop newfound versatility on that end of the floor. He's quick enough to guard most perimeter players in the A10 while being beefy enough to hang with a lot of bigger wings. Davidson will have serious switchability and tenacity thanks to him, and he's sure to rack up "stocks" (did I mention his block % last year was 4.6%? As a wing player!). Offensively, Scovens has a polished enough bag and more than enough above the rim burst to step right into a Kochera-esque slasher role. Simplest, and perhaps most important, of all, Scovens is a dog. The legend Kevin Kuwik recruited and developed him, and Sam Brown wanted to play with him. Their same day commitments should have us all quite excited about their potential chemistry.

Sam Brown

6'3" PG, Penn

Each piece of Davidson's "Triple Bang" was crucial, but the straw that stirred the drink for this offseason was always going to be a point guard. But the Cats had a lot of boxes to check: they needed a facilitator who could get downhill, but also shooter with great off ball ability who could transform the offense's spacing instantly. They found their man in Sam Brown.

Offfensively, Brown shows incredible polish. He does well going downhill and has great feel in the PnR. Expect him to hit a lot of excellent pocket passes and lobs. Brown is a true three level scorer. He shot 54% at the rim last season and gets there with confidence; however, he will also not hesitate to pull up from 24+ feet. And while Brown isn't an elite athlete, he can finish above the rim and will iso against weaker defenders. He displays a very smooth lefty layup package and excellent instincts in the paint.

Brown showed signs of a major leap in Ivy conference play last year, highlighted by a 42 point game against Columbia in which the Quakers needed every bucket. His career line of 12/3/2 jumped to 19/3/3 in conference games during his sophomore season with exceptional shooting splits of 49.5% / 43% / 89.5%. The Quakers often used Brown as more of a score first CG than a pure point, but he still registered a solid 16.8% AST % to an exceptional 11.2 TOV% in these games. The Cats will be able to use him as both an off the ball movement shooter and on ball downhill gaurd. It's been some time since we've seen a PG who could do both at a high level. Brown only scored off ball screens 7% of the time last year at Penn despite posting a scorching 1.25 points per possession in those actions. Considering Brown is a 74th percentile scorer in both spot up and catch and shoot situations, he absolutely has to get more of those touches next season for the Cats.

The big question is just how representative Brown's midseason surge was of his development, as against a very difficult non-conference schedule his stats were slightly below his career average. However, I would argue that the Ivy is regularly a quite solid league, and I have the cherry picked stat to prove it: the A10 and Ivy league actually have the same number of NCAA Tournament wins since the Ivy league's 2020-2021 hiatus (3). The gap between the two -- especially the typically very good top 4 in the Ivy -- is smaller than you'd think. The other question is how Brown translates defensively. His metrics weren't great last year, but Penn's team defense ranked near the bottom of the country collectively. I think the defense is less of a concern with Brown than Penn's stats last year would suggest, though, as Davidson can realistically put him next to three plus perimeter defenders, such as in a lineup with Manie Joses, Josh Scovens, and Parker Friedrichsen.

A lot of high level programs had their eye on Brown. Northwestern, Notre Dame, and St. Joseph's were all after him at various points. It's a great sign that Sam picked Davidson, and he's the exact type of offensive talent Matt McKillop has been searching for to set the tone on that end.

JQ Roberts

6'8" F, Vanderbilt

Of Davidson's 3 "Triple Bang" commitments, JQ Roberts has the most intrigue. Despite never getting consistent playing time, JQ was a serious fan favorite at Vanderbilt for both his off the court generosity and on the court verticality.

Roberts showed flash in his freshman season for a Vanderbilt team in serious flux. He played 13 minutes a game and flashed some defensive chops to go with his off the charts athleticism, highlighted by a 2.6% block % and impressive 8.6 ORB %. He also demonstrated a willingness to shoot the three ball, shooting 27% on one attempt per game. Roberts stuck around at Vandy after a coaching change to play a year for new HC Mark Byington, but his role remained that of a hustle bench player for most of the season in Byington's more perimeter-centric system. Despite the decrease in consistent minutes, he still posted very solid rate stats, including a 15.2 DRB% and 4.8 BLK %.

He especially delivered on the road against Texas A&M, endearing himself to every Commodores fan even further in the process. In a game where Vanderbilt ran out of options at big, Roberts was forced to play significant minutes in the second half against a legit top 15 opponent. The result was an incredible performance on the defensive end to help the Dores all but lock up an NCAA berth with a HUGE road win -- one of the program's biggest in some time. Despite making and taking just one shot, Roberts was excellent on the boards and very phsyical against one of the toughest rebounding opponents in the nation. Vanderbilt may not have been in the tournament without him.

Davidson hopes JQ can bring that same hustle and physicality coming down a level to the A10. The big question with Roberts is just where the Cats want him to play -- he's definitely suited to the small ball 5, but could just easily play the 4 if he can continute developing his outside shot. On defense, his role is naturally much clearer. He could very well be Davidson's best rebounder, and he's going to sky for more than his fair share of rejections with his absolutely bonkers vertical. Putting him next to Manie Joses and Scovens gives the Cats tantalizing defensive potential and an opportunity to rack up "Stocks" like we haven't seen in recent memory.

Offensively, I think JQ's role depends more on the readiness of Sean Logan and Ian Platteeuw. However, his athleticism is so tantalizing it's hard to see him not carving out a role as a low volume, high efficiency, and high ORB % hustle man. If both Logan and Ian have an adjustment period at the start of the season, JQ will have a serious opportunity to establish himself as a small-ball, rim-running big in the noncon slate. Davidson can simplify his offensive role with dunks, screens, and occasional threes, while allowing him to provide blocks and energy on the defensive end. Perhaps the best thing about JQ is his unselfishness. He's not going to need more than a few rim attempts and a three a game to be a major positive for Davidson, given his defense and hustle. JQ Roberts may just go from anchoring down to anchoring down the best defense Davidson has had in qutie some time.