After appearing to make some serious headway in his bid to prove that he is an NBA caliber player with an outstanding tournament run thus far, Glen Davis was completely exposed against UCLA and might have damaged his stock beyond repair for this years draft.
Whether it was getting beat down the floor time after time by UCLAs big men, settling for fadeaway jump-shots or showing terrible touch around the rim with his non-existent back to the basket game, Davis was completely outplayed on both ends of the floor.
The most concerning part of this game was probably the complete lack of conditioning that the hefty Davis showed almost immediately after the opening whistle. Davis was clearly laboring as he lumbered up and down the floor already after the first 7 or 8 minutes, sucking wind uncontrollably and tugging on his shorts with his hands on his knees in every dead-ball. He could not open up his mouth wide enough to get enough oxygen in while shooting free throws, and missed numerous opportunities around the rim that he should have converted easily. Davis was completely neutralized by UCLAs either small or extremely skinny frontcourt players, all considered average prospects at best, bothered by their length and being rejected embarrassingly time after time at the rim. On the defensive end things were just as bad, not a surprise considering what weve seen all season long, as Davis could not stay in front of anyone when pulled out of the paint and made numerous mistakes by failing to rotate or being outhustled on the glass.
Davis helped his overall stat-line by scoring 9 points in his last 8 minutes on the floor, all in garbage time when the deficit had swelled in the 20s midway through the 2nd half, but the overall negative impression was just far too much to overcome. Tonight more than ever Davis showed that he has no shot of landing in the 1st round before he takes off significant weight in the form of 40-50 pounds, and also shows that he is able to keep that weight off.
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