Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Four-star 2015 center Tyler Davis loses weight to transform game

Tyler Davis

(Nike)

Tyler Davis is on the cusp of being among the Class of 2015’s best big men. The native of Plano, Texas had a strong showing this July and in a class that is filled with five-star front-court players, Davis is sitting right in the next tier of players.

But after multiple big games at Peach Jam, Davis might be in the discussion thanks to his soft hands, developing post game and a good feel for the game. It also doesn’t hurt that the 6-foot-10 big man has put in a tremendous amount of work re-shaping his body with trainers from his Texas Titans grassroots program.

“I’ve lost about 70 pounds. We’ve got a great trainer on the Titans. And he just got on me and got my eating habits right and helped me put in a workout plan and get in the gym a lot more and work out every day,” Davis told NBCSports.com. “Spending more time in the gym obviously is going to help your play. So that’s helped me raise my level of play. The Titans, they have great coaches all around so they help me a lot.”

The work that Davis has put into the gym has definitely paid off. Elite schools from across the country are reaching out to Davis and right now he’s honing in on some visits that he would like to take. Davis mentioned, however, that with July being a focus for him that recruiting would come more into focus this month.

“I’ve been really focused on my game. I’ve had the Peach Jam and LeBron James Academy and Big Man Academy, so I haven’t really had time to talk it over with my family with what’s going on, but after July I’ll be sure to take the time to get that done,” Davis said. “My two biggest [offers] are Kansas and Arizona but I have Baylor, SMU; I’m open to everybody right now. I’ll focus on the recruiting stuff in August.”

Davis mentioned to NBCSports.com that Arizona and Kansas would likely receive official visits from him and he likes the way both programs use their big men. With both programs having recent pro-level talents playing in the front court, it’s easy to see why.

“Just the way they use their bigs. The high-low, obviously [at Kansas.] At Arizona, their bigs do everything, they have a complete offense, so that intrigues me,” Davis said. “College this year I watched Joel Embiid a lot. I watched how they worked with him. That was one big thing.”
MORE: Quotables Part I | Part II | Part III | All content from the 2014 July Live Period

Besides monitoring how certain programs use their big men, Davis is also focusing on some other factors in his recruitment as he has a couple of other things he’s looking for.

“Development, a great coaching staff and I want to have a good relationship with the coaches that are there,” Davis said. “And also, win. I want to win some games in college and possibly move on to the next level.”

Currently a four-star prospect, Davis said that he doesn’t pay too much attention to rankings, although he’s confident in his game and doesn’t shy away from playing big-name players. Rivals currently has Davis as the No. 35 overall player in the Class of 2015.

“Rankings, to me, don’t really mean anything. Whoever they think is up there, that’s fine. As long as I play my game and work hard. I think I can go somewhere,” Davis said. “I think I’m one of the best bigs in the country. So I just keep playing and if I play one of them, we’re going to go at it.”

Follow @phillipshoops