Kankakee’s Davis elevating Kays in homecoming season

The Kankakee boys basketball team put up the winningest season in program history last season. That season ended in the IHSA Class 3A Sectional semifinals, but with a talented group of players set to take the court this season, the Kays were looking to take the next step.

The team got reinforcements to help take that step when senior guard Jordan Davis moved back to town.

Davis previously went to school in the Kankakee district before he and his family moved out to St. Anne after his eighth grade graduation.

He starred with the Cardinals for three seasons and made back-to-back Daily Journal All-Area teams as a sophomore and junior, but is now wrapping up his high school career with the Kays.

While the team may be new, Davis said there is plenty of familiarity with many of his new teammates, which eased his transition to the team and helped them get off to a strong start in the offseason.

“They made it really easy to fit in, plus I’ve known them all since seventh grade,” Davis said. “It helps in practices. The first practice ever was very competitive because everybody was battling for a starting position.

“Everyone wants to start, and some felt like they should be starting, but now we’re all on one page and now we’re a way better team.”

Kankakee head coach Chris Pickett said the prior experience Davis has with some of his teammates helped him slide into the rotation, but key work still had to be done prior to the season to get the team firing on all cylinders.

“It took a little adjustment when his family made the move back to town to get used to how we play, but when you know how to play basketball, your skills are going to shine and shine through,” Pickett said. “This summer he was able to get in and play with us, and we were able to get a feel for each other at that point.”

Davis was the Cardinals’ leading scorer in all three of his seasons at St. Anne, averaging 14.2 points per game as a freshman and 17.8 points per game in both his sophomore and junior seasons.

He also led the team in assists all three seasons, averaging 3.7 per game, 4.5 per game and 4.6 per game.

Davis said that the work he was able to put in at St. Anne under head coach Rick Schoon, and the one-on-one work he did with assistant Joe Lightfoot, helped him grow as a player.

“I would say the individual work that coach Lightfoot gave me [helped a lot]; coach Schoon too, but mainly with the individual work,” he said. “The individual ball-handling, the individual shooting, the individual everything, that has definitely improved me into the person I am now.”

So far this season with Kankakee, Davis is putting up 13.3 points per game and three assists per game, providing another serious scoring threat for a Kays’ team that is scoring nearly 76 points per game and beating opponents by nearly 30 points per game on average.

He had his coming out party at the Kankakee Holiday Tournament, where he was an all-tournament selection after helping the Kays to the maroon bracket title.

The addition of Davis, Pickett said, makes the team very difficult to stop as opponents simply lack the manpower to slow down everyone at once.

“It was big from the standpoint that it gave us another weapon on the court,” Pickett said. “Having someone like Jordan gives us five options on the floor and makes it difficult for teams to try and take a particular part of our game away. Now we have five guys that can hurt you.”

But for Davis to become a viable option for the Kays, he had to prove he could make the jump from Class 1A basketball at St. Anne to Class 3A with Kankakee. He said he was confident he would be able to make the jump, but he had to prove to others that he was capable.

“It was a big adjustment from 1A to 3A,” he said. “Everyone was wondering and second-guessing if I was going to be able to make the transition from 1A to 3A, everyone was doubtful saying I wasn’t going to be able to make it.”

Now that he’s made that adjustment, Davis said that one thing has stood out to him as a major difference between the classes, both in games and in the gym.

“Competition,” he said. “The competition is way different. The practices at Kankakee are much harder. It’s not a cakewalk. We compete every day and we’re always running.”

Pickett said that the speed and size that comes more frequently in Class 3A is also something that players have to adjust to.

“One of the first things he mentioned after our first game against Mahomet-Seymour was ‘the game is faster,’” Pickett said. “There are guys out there who are playing a little more open-court type of game, and guys that are a little more physically imposing than the guys that he used to see from his time at St. Anne.

“It’s the speed and pace of the game he mostly had to adjust to,” he added. “You throw in the physicality and talent level, it makes it that much more difficult.”

Pickett said he has seen Davis become gradually more comfortable throughout the season, which has been proven by his increase in scoring and improvement on the defensive end.

The Kays have high hopes for this season and have their sight set on the IHSA State Finals in Champaign. Davis and the entire team will need to be playing to its potential by the final weeks of February to make that dream a reality.

Pickett said that Davis should be able to do just that if he continues on the trajectory he’s been on so far.

“I’m looking for Jordan to just continue to improve,” Pickett said. “He started making tough plays that we pride ourselves on being able to make. If continues to do that and continues to make the progressions he’s making, he’s going to hit his stride at the right time in late February and early March so we can try and make our run to Champaign.”

Davis said that he and the team are confident that they have a real opportunity to not only reach state, but to come back with a state title for the first time in program history.

“Honestly to win state, not just to go to state,” he said. “I know with the help of God and my teammates, I know we can definitely win state. For sure we can.

“We’re just now learning how to click as a team and it’s scary,” he added. “The more we click as a team, the scarier it’s going to get. God willing, we’re going to make a run at state and win.”