Davison recently picked up a scholarship offer from South Dakota State.
Brad Davison, a 6-foot-2 rising sophomore point guard from Maple Grove (MN) High, is considered one of the Minnesota’s top players from the Class of 2017. Davison, who recently picked up his second offer, has shined this spring for the Howard Pulley AAU program.
Davison helped lead Maple Grove to a 19-9 mark this past season, losing to Osseo 55-43 in the second round of the Section 6, Class AAAA playoffs. He averaged 15.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 2.1 steals per game. Davison had 21 double figure games as a freshman with seven games of 20 or more points.
Gopher Hole recently caught up with Davison to learn the latest on his recruitment.
Gopher Hole: You picked up your second offer recently from South Dakota State. How pleased are you to be getting that type of attention so early?
Brad Davison: I am honored. It was really exciting. Just going to the Elite Camp and it was fun to see how Elite camps are run. Interacting with the coaching staff and everything. It was really cool. It was an honor to get the second offer.
Gopher Hole: What schools are you hearing from right now?
Brad Davison: South Dakota and South Dakota State are my two offers and I have heard from Minnesota, Wisconsin, UNI and North Dakota.
Gopher Hole: Have you thought about trying to visit some schools? I know that it is so early in the recruitment period being so young.
Brad Davison: I think that the only visits I’ll take are to the team camps, because my AAU team went to the UNI team camp, went to the Wisconsin one. My high school team went to Minnesota. I think that I will wait until I am a little older to go on some official visits.
Gopher Hole: I know that you lost a couple senior starters in Tyler Barker, Matthew Lindgren and Taylor Schott, but you have a lot of key players back like yourself, Reed Nikko and Jack Hutchinson. What are the expectations for the upcoming year?
Brad Davison: I think our goal should be to get to state and hopefully, make a run at it. Champlain Park (the defending Section top seed) should be really good, but I think that we have another year under our belt and we’ll be ready to go and make the push for one more game in state.
Gopher Hole: What things are you really focusing on to continue to improve yourself as a player?
Brad Davison: One thing I want is since I’ll be with Nikko, him and I try to get that pick and roll game down. Last year, a lot of people would double the screen or go under the screen, so this year I’m working on splitting the double defenders or if they go under the screen, make them pay with the jump shot. Just trying to get more consistent with that.
Gopher Hole: I know that when we talked before, you mentioned going to the Gopher game versus Illinois. What are you hearing from the Gophers? What are they saying to you?
Brad Davison: I talked to the three or four times (at the Gopher team camp) and they told me to just keep playing the way I am and everything will work out. It is good.
Gopher Hole: What years are your sisters at UNI?
Brad Davison: Steph, my older sister, is going to be a redshirt junior and Angie is going to be a sophomore.
Gopher Hole: So, it was obviously nice when you went down there for the team camp that you got to spend some time with them?
Brad Davison: I got to stay in their house. We actually went down there on Friday, the team camp was on Sunday, so we had to do a bunch of yard work. We painted the house, raked and everything, so that wasn’t fun, but it was good to be with them.
Gopher Hole: Do you think that playing in team camps is going to help you build some team chemistry?
Brad Davison: I think that it gets us more prepared and since the games are more spread out, like 12, 4 and 8, it gives us more time to bond and really come together as a unit. I think that is something really big for us when we are not in the high school season.
Gopher Hole: Where are you guys playing in July?
Brad Davison: I’ll be playing with Pulley. We are going to Chicago, Louisville and I think another trip. I’m not sure, but those two for sure. It will be good.