For some athletes, putting on a jersey takes no more thought than going to bed at night.
For them, the game is an occurrence taken for granted. But for Oregon women’s basketball sophomore Brandi Davis, her No. 21 Duck jersey took on a whole new meaning on Saturday.
“Once I saw my jersey and got to put it on, it was one of the most exciting things for me,” the Compton, Calif., native said. “I was like, ‘Yes, I can make it, I can do it now.’ I was just really excited.”
After sitting out the 2001-02 season as a redshirt due to being an academic partial qualifier, Davis, 19, saw her first action with the Ducks in the team’s first exhibition game, a 100-43 victory over Horsholm BBC.
“I was bouncing off the walls. I was really excited,” she said about her first game. “I can’t even describe it. It was one of those excitements, like being a little kid in a candy store.”
After settling down and getting over the nervousness that came with her first collegiate game, Davis ended the night with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Her first make, a two-point jumper at the 12:36 mark of the first half, sent most of the 3,540 in attendance to their feet.
When Davis stepped onto the floor for the first time, it marked the culmination of a year spent sitting on the sidelines and thinking about what could have been.
“Last season, she was kind of going through the motions, not too excited because she couldn’t play,” her teammate and current roommate, Andrea Bills, said. “This year, she just couldn’t stop talking about getting into a game. I was really excited for her to get in her first game and do so well.”
Heavily recruited by former Oregon head coach Jody Runge, Davis came into last season as the team’s only redshirt. She was to sit on the sidelines for every home game, watching as her teammates first struggled, but eventually strolled to a WNIT Championship.
Worst of all, Davis said, she couldn’t travel with the team to road contests, and couldn’t even attend Oregon’s retreat.
“Redshirting is probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life,” Davis said. “It was very hard just not being able to be with the team. It was a really hard transition, but it was worth it.”
What Davis did gather, however, was a better understanding of the collegiate game. While she is essentially a freshman — at least in terms of playing time — Davis gathered valuable experience from watching her teammates last season.
That has catapulted her into the competition for the starting wing position. Head coach Bev Smith said the position will be decided on a week in, week out basis.
But without a natural playing talent and desire to just be on the court, Davis would have been overlooked for the position.
“Certainly, she’s got a year of experience behind her and that helps anybody with the game at the next level,” Smith said. “She’s much more focused, although she’s got a lot of work to do on that still, but she’s making strides. She’s conscientious about it, so she understands that it’s about competing and not taking any time-outs or rests.”
Listed as 6 feet tall, Davis has a swagger in her game. She can knock down 3-pointers or pull up from 10 feet and sink a jumper. Overall, her game is well-balanced, and all she is missing, according to Smith, is a better understanding of the collegiate game.
“I think Brandi is one of our most athletic guards, and very talented in terms of her offensive weapons,” Smith said. “She will play a role in our up-tempo game. I think once she understands the game, she’ll be an intricate part of our success.”
Flashing back to Saturday’s game, Davis entered the contest around the 16-minute mark of the first half. She admitted to being nervous, although that wasn’t new as she always was excited before games at Sonora High School as well.
Yet, this nervous was special. This nervous meant playing in front of a big-time college atmosphere, at a school that she knew she wanted to attend since the beginning of her recruiting process at Sonora.
“‘Oh my gosh, she’s putting me in.’ That’s the first thing that came into my head,” Davis said. “I was so scared, so nervous, and then once I went in there and the crowd was rooting for me, it was exciting.”
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