
The sophomore sensation is garnering national attention, not just Big Ten honors.
After playing, and winning, three games last week, the Wisconsin Badgers were primed for a big move up in the polls, which they did, jumping up 10 spots to No. 13 in the newest AP Poll. One player in particular was also primed to receive some honors, and boy did he ever. Johnny Davis was named National Player of the Week by NCAA.com’s Andy Katz and co-Big Ten Player of the Week by, uh, the Big Ten Conference.
Weekly Awards from @TheAndyKatz!
Team of the Week: Miami
Player of the Week: @JohnnyDavis pic.twitter.com/4AT0mgh5FU— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) January 10, 2022
Davis helped the Badgers beat No. 3 Purdue (road), Iowa (home) and Maryland (road) last week while averaging 27.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 3.0 apg, 1.0 bpg and 1.0 spg. He shot 6-of-19 (31.5%) from deep 49.1% on field goals overall.
His clutch shot making and superior defense make him a strong candidate for Big Ten Player of the Year and anybody’s All-America team at the end of the season. Right now, though, he’s just trying to help Wisconsin move up the standings and get back to the top of the conference in what was supposed to be a “rebuilding” year.
In Wisconsin’s win over Purdue, he became the first player to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals in a road win over an AP top-five team since Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan in a 1997 win at No. 5 Maryland
Big Ten Co-Player of the Week @JohnnyDavis adds to his resume pic.twitter.com/tXqFfKpFtZ
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) January 10, 2022
This was Davis’ second career Big Ten Player of the Week award and the second POTW award for the Badgers in the past month of games with Brad Davison winning back on Dec. 6. Illinois big man Kofi Cockburn was the co-B1G POTW and Michigan State’s Max Christie and Ohio State’s Malaki Branham were named co-Freshmen of the Week for the conference.
UPDATE, 3:29 p.m. CT, 1/10/22:
After I scheduled this to publish, and thus forget all about it, Davis received one more national award for player of the week. It’s always good when the group that gives out the national player of the year award thinks you were the best player in a certain week.
Our @jerseymikes Naismith Men’s College Player of the Week is Johnny Davis
The sophomore guard (27.3pts, 10reb, 3ast, 1stl, 1blk) helped lead @BadgerMBB to a 3-0 record, including a huge win vs. #3 Purdue last week — 37 points/14 rebounds/3 assists/2 steals/2 blocks‼️ pic.twitter.com/9RSTmR1wdf
— The Naismith Trophy (@NaismithTrophy) January 10, 2022