35 Days To Purdue Basketball Rapheal Davis

My apologies for being late on this. Steve was supposed to grab it and I completely forgot to remind him. Yesterday marked Day 35 until the tipoff of Purdue's 2013-14 Men's Basketball season. That means it was Rapheal Davis Day.

Rapheal Davis - So.

Hometown: Fort Wayne, IN (La Lumiere HS)

Shooting Guard

6'5" 211 pounds

2013 prediction: Possible Starter

Davis is one of the hardest workers on the team and if you read his tweets, he put in a ton of work over the summer to get himself better as well as the team. It stands to reason that he will probably start a handful of games in the coming season at the three spot, rotating with Errick peck depending on matchups.

Ray D's freshman season was pretty solid. He averaged 5.7 points 3.9 rebounds, and just under one assist per game in about 19 minutes per night. His breakout game was the one against Notre Dame at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, where he had a career high 21 points and showed he could be a breakout scorer. That was his first night in double figures, and he would crack 10+ several times in Big Ten play against Penn State, Michigan (both games), Northwestern, and Minnesota. He added 16 in the win over West Virginia and 12 in the postseason win over Western Illinois.

Ray D. needs to be a spread-the-floor three this year with Terone Johnson and Ronnie Johnson at the guard spots. Last season he started to become an effective three-point threat late. He was only 10 of 33 from long range for the season, but nine of those came after Big Ten play started. His 10 makes from long range put him behind only TJ and D.J. Byrd on the team in made three-pointers.

I can see Ray D. seizing a full-time starters role by the time Big Ten play starts and turning into one of the team's top scorers. Both he and the Johnson brothers are Purdue's best pure scorers, but the addition of Sterling Carter will take some of the pressure off of them. Regardless, Ray D. will be one of Purdue's top players by the end of the season.