Before Anthony Davis was winning the NBA All-Star Game MVP, making All-Defensive first teams and leading the NBA in blocks, he was swatting shots in the NCAA. The NBA champion played one season at Kentucky before his time in the pros, and he left a profound footprint on the Big Blue program.
As Team USA men's basketball attempts to win a fifth-straight gold, a look back at Davis' time with Kentucky. Here are five college facts that you may not know about Anthony Davis:
- Davis won National Player of the Year, the NCAA championship and NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player all within the same season as a freshman in 2012. Davis is one of only four freshmen to be named National Player of the Year and one of five players to win NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors as a freshman.
- Davis averaged 4.65 blocks per game in his lone season for the Wildcats. He ranks first in NCAA history for blocks in a season as a freshman with 186, which ranks fourth all-time in NCAA history for blocks in a season among all Division I players. Davis had eight games with seven or more rejections. In Kentucky's run in the NCAA tournament, Davis had 29 blocks, which is tied for second for blocks in an NCAA tournament.
- Davis was the fifth-leading shot taker on the 2011-12 Kentucky team. He averaged just over eight shots a game, but he still led the Wildcats in points per game at 14.2.
- Davis lost only two games in college. Kentucky went 38-2 in 2011-12. Davis and Kentucky's losses were to an Indiana team led by Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller, losing in the final seconds of play, and to Vanderbilt in the SEC championship game. After that loss, Kentucky would go on to win its eighth national championship.Â
- Davis put up only 20 shots from behind the arc in college. He made three of them. Davis, who is now known as an inside-out big man, hadn't yet developed his outside game during his collegiate career, but he didn't need to, as he shot 65 percent from 2-point land.
