The date was November 12. 2021. The Kent State men’s basketball team was opening their season at the Cintas Center, taking on the tradition rich Xavier Musketeers. Kent State senior forward, and sophomore at the time, Von Cameron Davis played one minute and twenty five seconds in the game. He played eight seconds in the first half, and the final 1:17 of the game in a 73-59 loss to the Big East’s Musketeers.
Davis was highly touted in his recruitment to Kent State. Coming out of Walnut Ridge High School in Columbus, Davis was named Mr. Basketball in the state of Ohio for the 2019-2020 season. His 2,201 points rank 25th all time in OHSAA history.
He became the first Mr. Basketball in Ohio to commit to Kent State in school history, and the first MAC player since Chet Mason went to Miami to play for Charlie Coles.
And with all those accolades, Davis was having a hard time cracking Rob Senderoff’s rotation in the first game of the season.
What was going through Davis’ head at that moment?
“A lot of things going through my head,” Davis said on The Field of 68 MAC Media Day program. “Am I good enough to play in college? Am I not playing hard enough for my coach? What am I not doing, but just after repeated reps, going to practice every day, because in my situation I was a COVID kid, so I didn’t get a summer of my freshman year, I didn’t get the workouts, we jumped right into practice.”
Kent State’s program has long prided itself on physical, competitive practices, and if you don’t defend, you don’t play. It is rare that a young player makes an immediate impact in the rotation. Without a losing season in 27 years, reloading is always the approach.
“Kent State is a very different team to play for. We play hard, we play physical, we play with force. So me just having to adapt to that took me a little longer I think just in my journey here so I definitely was feeling that type of way, but my assistant at the time coach Jules Sullinger, he just told me keep my head down and keep grinding and your time will definitely come.”
Davis’ time has most certainly come. By the end of the 2021-2022 season, Davis was starting on a team that rode a 14 game winning streak all the way to a MAC Championship game appearance.
With constant improvement, Davis put his name in the portal following the 2023-2024 season and decided to come back a week later. He’s played in three straight MAC Championship games and will go for a fourth this year on 3-15 and will hopefully finish the deal and get back to the NCAA tournament.
Seeing a player in his fifth year at a school is very rare. With mid-major players leaving to cash in on NIL riches, and transfer portal transactions becoming the norm, Davis stayed loyal to Kent State.
“I’m back at Kent State not only because of Coach Sendy but also the whole staff, the players that ultimately came back and our new guys and ultimately just the tradition and the family atmosphere at Kent State brings and I guess I’m just a Flash for life and I love that for myself,” Davis said.
After a solid junior year, Davis emerged down the stretch and most notably in the MAC tournament. With Kent State down several bodies due to injury, the staff decided to play slower, play through Davis and minimize possessions. The strategy worked. Davis was dominant in a quarterfinal win over Toledo, finishing with 26 points and 12 rebounds, on 12-17 shooting. In a championship game loss to Akron, Davis had 21 points and six rebounds on 8-16 shooting. Had the game went differently in the final seconds, Davis would have been the MVP and he and his teammates would have been back-to-back tournament champions.
From his performance in the MAC Tournament, a new nickname was born. I-95. Interstate 95, the main north-south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States. With the nickname given to him by former KSU coach Jim Christian, the clearest path to winning is to play through Davis in the mid-post and low post area, and allow him to make decisions, facilitate and score.
Davis was named a preseason All-MAC performer by the league last week, and in most preseason publications previewing the season. Davis has been to three straight MAC Championship games and will use the pain of last year’s loss in the championship game to help motivate his teammates to get back.
“It was definitely a very, very, very hard pill to swallow…I’ve been in the MAC Championship three out of my four years so far at Kent so I’m definitely considered a winner,” Davis said. “That was definitely one of the hardest pills to swallow just in my college career losing how we did, and losing at that high of a level in the championship but it’s definitely set high standards for this year and what we want to accomplish this year and were working towards this year and that’s ultimately to get back to the MAC Championship and get to the NCAA Tournament.”
Kent State looks to take I-95 in 2024-2025. And they’re hoping those travels lead to a ladder and a podium at Rocket Mortgage Field House, and beyond.