Johnell Davis Continues To Help Arkansas In Its Hunt For A National Title

In head coach John Calipari’s first season at the helm of Arkansas, the Razorbacks have danced their way to the Sweet-16 as a No. 10 seed, currently sitting as the lowest remaining seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Razorbacks, who have a lot of young players, have really leaned on fifth-year senior from Florida Atlantic, Johnell Davis, who played a massive role in the Owls’ Cinderella march to the Final Four in 2023.

In that tournament, Davis put up double-digits in every game except for one, back when the Owls suffered a 72-71 loss at the buzzer to No. 5 San Diego State in the Final Four. In that game, Davis was held to just eight points.

In the first game of this year's tournament, against No. 7 Kansas, Davis put up 18 points, three rebounds, one assist, one block and two steals, heavily contributing to a 79-72 Razorback win. Davis shot 5-of-10 from the field and 4-of-9 from deep, only sitting behind Jonas Aidoo (22) as the team's leading scorer.

The following game, in a 75-66 second-round win over Rick Pitino and No. 2 St. John’s, Davis scored 13 points while tallying four rebounds, one assist and one block on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting from downtown, sitting as the third highest scorer on the Hogs, playing another big role in the team's success.

Davis rolled into the NCAA Tournament with some much-needed momentum, which has helped him come up with some big-time performances, scoring 14 points in the first round of the SEC Tournament against South Carolina and ten points in the second round of the SEC Tournament against the Ole Miss Rebels, despite an 83-80 loss in the dying seconds of the game.

The veteran leadership that Davis continues to display night in and night out could be enough to take this Arkansas team to new heights as they seek to bring the first National Championship since 1994 back to Fayetteville.

If Davis and the Hogs can continue to surge in the big dance, resulting in a national title, it will be Calipari’s second-ever National Championship victory as a head coach, adding onto his legendary National Championship run with Kentucky in 2012.

Davis and the Hogs will seek to keep their heavy ambitions afloat on Thursday, March 27 at 9:09 p.m. CT when they face head coach Grant McCasland and his No. 3 Texas Tech Red Raiders. That contest is set to be played inside of the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., and can be viewed on TBS/truTV.