Stanford men’s basketball senior guard Daejon Davis has entered the transfer portal and is planning to use his extra year of eligibility away from the Farm, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello first reported.
The NCAA granted all student-athletes in the 2020-21 academic year an additional year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the 2021-22 year will mark Davis’ fifth season of play.
As of Tuesday evening, Davis was the most recent update to the 247Sports running list of NCAA Division I men’s basketball players who have officially entered the portal.
A Seattle, Wash. native, Davis came to Stanford as a part of head coach Jerod Haase’s first recruiting class. He played in 59 games during his first two seasons for the Cardinal — starting all but one of them at the point-guard spot. During his junior year, Davis transitioned to a more off-the-ball role as part of the program’s adjustment to the addition of point guard Tyrell Terry, who was drafted to the Dallas Mavericks in 2020 after a single year in Stanford’s lineup.
Davis’ senior season started off on a high note, with the guard scoring in double figures in each of Stanford’s Maui Invitational games. However, an injury suffered against Arizona in mid-December knocked him out of contention for a month. Davis would return on Jan. 14 against Utah and score his 1,000th career point in the performance. Unfortunately for Davis and the Cardinal alike, his return to the lineup was short-lived as he re-aggravated the leg injury and was forced out for nearly another month.
Once the former 4-star recruit was healed without restriction, Haase struggled to integrate him back into the lineup along with junior guard Bryce Wills and freshman forward Ziaire Williams. It was not the senior season Davis had planned, as he only appeared in 12 total contests.
Davis finished his Cardinal career with averages of 10.3 points per game and 4.2 assists per contest, in addition to having been named to the 2018 Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. Yet, he will always be remembered by Stanford fans for hitting a game-winning half court shot against USC in 2018.
He is expected to graduate with a degree in communication.
Davis is the third expected departure for the Stanford men’s basketball program this offseason, after senior forward Oscar da Silva and Williams recently declared for the NBA Draft. It remains to be seen where Davis will end up, but a return home to Seattle may be in the cards.
Per NCAA rules, Davis retains the option to withdraw from the portal, but the possibility of him rejoining the Stanford roster and receiving athletic aid in such a scenario remains at the program’s discretion.