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Bloomington Globetrotter
May 12, 2010
By Larry Watts For Jori Davis, her Super Bowl Sunday couldn't have been more super. First, the 5-foot-9 junior guard dropped in a game-high 23 points on Illinois during Indiana's 67-54 victory in women's basketball. Then she gathered with a number of friends to watch her New Orleans Saints rally to a 31-17 victory over Indianapolis in the Super Bowl. "I was enjoying life," Davis says with a laugh. "The only trouble is I'm down here in Indiana surrounded by Peyton Manning and Colts jerseys. Once the Saints won, I had to go into hiding because everyone wanted to kill me. I didn't want anyone to hurt me, so I had to celebrate quietly." Although Rochester, N.Y. is now her home, Davis was born in the Crescent City, where she resided for 14 years. She did spend her seventh grade year in Texas, when her mother married, but the family moved back to New Orleans. However, the return to her home only lasted one year because her stepfather, an engineer for Xerox, was assigned to work in England. "My mother and grandparents tell the story that I told them I wanted to be a basketball player when I was 3," she says. "But my mom was trying to make me a cheerleader and even had me going to cheer camp. I was going out and playing street ball whenever I could and by the time I was 9, my mother finally gave up and let me join my first AAU team -- the Lady Pride." However, while her AAU teammates were heading off to local high schools, Davis was on her way to England for her freshman year. "Being so young, that was a real culture shock," she says. "The kids in my school were more interested in going off to parties and I was playing basketball in a men's league and a women's league with many of the players 25 and older. But even though they were older, I felt I was a little more advanced." While in England for the one year, she joined the Spelthorne Acers and led the junior women's under-18 squad to the Final Four. She averaged 27 points and 12 rebounds for the Acers.
The following year, Davis and her parents settled in Rochester, N.Y., where she began a brilliant three-year career at Greece-Athena High School. By the time she was done, she had scored 1,352 career points and set a career record for free throws made (322). The two-time Monroe County Division II Player of the year averaged 22 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists as a senior and set a school record for points scored (502) as a junior. "It was fun being back in the United States again," she says. "Since I didn't play AAU ball the previous summer, no one knew me. I liked the idea of proving myself once again and playing a familiar style of basketball again." Before she left for England, California-Berkley had been showing a lot of interest in her. Although the Golden Bears dropped out of the recruiting picture, she soon started drawing interest from many other schools. "Just about everyone out East was making offers and I was also drawing a lot of interest from Indiana, West Virginia and Marquette," she says. She wound up taking visits to Syracuse, Indiana and Massachusetts. "Having such a technical mind, my stepfather made up a spreadsheet for me to grade everything about each school," she says. "I would rate them by such categories as the academics, the coach, the players, the school atmosphere and several other variables." Davis selected Indiana off "a gut feeling." "Other than what was on paper and the fact I was born the same year she started coaching, I really didn't know much about coach (Felisha) Legette-Jack," she says. "But what I really liked was the fact I was going to be part of her first recruiting class and there were five other players coming with me. "When I moved to Rochester, I was part of a core of five sophomores, so I liked the idea of trying to build something from the start. Hopefully, we could grow together by playing with each other." Davis quickly made an impression in her rookie season, averaging 6.8 and four rebounds in 21 games. She started 30 of 32 games last year, raising her scoring average to 11.8 and grabbed 3.9 rebounds per game. This year she is leading the Hoosiers with a 17.7 scoring average and has nearly doubled her rebounding totals to 6.7 per game. "I have worked very hard over the summers to increase my ability because I want to take my game to another level," she says. "The rebounding comes through pure effort. The coaches stay on me all the time to crash the boards. They don't care if I'm a guard. Six (rebounds) aren't enough for them; they think I should be averaging around 10." With a major in sports communication and a minor in sports marketing management, Davis was thinking about heading into broadcasting when she first started out at Indiana. However, now she is even thinking about public relations. "Broadcasting is always something you can do on the side," she says. "Right now my mind is going through many different things in the sports world and I might even become a coach. I really don't have a straight and narrow path as of yet." And at the rate she keeps improving, there could be basketball options awaiting her beyond her senior year. "That would depend on a lot of things and I still need a lot of work," she says. "You have to get the credentials to play in the WNBA or overseas. I know I have stood out on our team this year, but I really feel as though the sky is the limit if I keep working hard. I can only control what I can control, and the thing I can control the most is my work ethic." The thought of playing overseas is especially appealing to Davis. She and former teammate Amber Jackson even have their own little personal contest going. "Amber was a Navy brat and she lived in Thailand and Japan," she says. "Because she went with us on our trip to Italy last summer, she has me by one stamp in her passport. I've had my fair share of playing in England, but if I got a chance to play in France or Spain, I would take it. My family visited Paris while we lived in England and I loved it. Maybe I can go over there and find me a French husband." For now, Davis is content to be living in Bloomington, even if she is surrounded by Colts fans. "I really do love the culture Indiana has," she says. "This is a real college town and everyone loves basketball here. I really like the family atmosphere and this is a great place for networking. As graduation comes closer, I know there will be a lot of people who will have my back when I'm ready to go out in the work field." |
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