Michigan Basketball: How Austin Davis suddenly disappeared at center

The Tale of Austin Davis, Michigan basketball’s missing center and a look at why he hasn’t made a bigger impact with the Wolverines. 

Center Austin Davis came to the Michigan basketball program as a highly touted recruit and three years later, he’s more of an afterthought.

Davis came to Ann Arbor from a small city located an hour southwest from the university, where he was averaging over 20 points and 14 rebounds a game during his senior year in high school.

Upon arriving at his new school, head coach John Beilein decided to redshirt Davis, most likely to have the 6-foot-10 big man mature physically.

Austin finally began his playing career with the maize and blue on November 11th, 2017, when Michigan basketball faced North Florida. The minutes weren’t memorable but it was playing time nonetheless.

As the season went on, Davis’ time fluctuated and peaked on December 21st of that year against Alabama A&M. Austin accounted for four points, shooting 2-fo-3, and logged 12 minutes on the court, arguably his best performance in college.

Despite the uptick in production, Beilein cut Davis’s minutes significantly following the game. Although, it gave Michigan fans hope the basketball team could have a solid one-two punch at center next season with Jon Teske and Davis.

However, this season was not any different, much to the surprise of the Wolverine faithful. This year was supposed to highlight our big men, instead, Teske’s downtime is filled mostly by freshmen Brandon Johns Jr, with Davis and freshman Colin Castleton battling for garbage time.

Bad Performance or Injury?

MLive.com provided a potential knowledge bomb about Davis’ progression. Way back in May, Mlive’s Andrew Kahn wrote, “Davis usually knew where he was supposed to be, just a split second too late.” Kahn also spoke about a drill where Davis was second late closing on Moe Wagner who hit a three-pointer.

“Have you watched Moe play? Then you might want to close out with some urgency.” Assistant Coach Luke Yaklich remarked and in doing so added to the accuracy of Kahn suspicions.

Could it be Davis is a second late to the party? Austin did suffer an ankle injury earlier in the year which could be a contributing factor.

Freshman Taking the Lead

The fact of the matter is Austin Davis is healthy now and is seldom used. Moe Wagner left a big hole for Michigan basketball which is being filled by Teske and the freshman Johns Jr.

Daniel Plocher from MaizenBrew commented on Johns Jr.’s impressive play against Indiana where Brandon tallied eight points and eight rebounds against one of Indiana’s best, Juwan Morgan.

“For the first time this season, Johns looked comfortable in the offense.” Plocher said of Johns Jr’s performance “He was setting good screens and rolling hard to the basket.”

Whether its injury, his performance, or the performance of others, it’s become clear Austin Davis is sitting third or maybe fourth in the depth chart and hasn’t stepped foot on the court since the loss to Iowa earlier this month.