Southern California coach Michael Cooper was reduced to tears.
After a one-point loss to NCAA defending champion Texas AM, emotion flowed for the real loss of the day — redshirt senior Jacki Gemelos suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first half. It seemed to put a cap on a nonconference schedule in which nearly every Pac-12 women’s basketball team lost a significant player, including Washington’s returning leading scorer Kristi Kingma.
Yet while everyone except No. 4 Stanford (9-1 seems to be scrambling to fill voids, Washington (8-2 appears to be getting stronger. And with the injuries adding to the uncertainty of a Pac-12 Conference welcoming six new coaches and two new teams, it seems the perfect time for the Huskies to redefine themselves — starting at point guard.
Meet Jazmine Davis.
«I think they got a sleeper,» said Mark Anger, director for Davis’ East Bay Xplosion AAU club team.
The 5-foot-8 freshman certainly sneaked past first-year coach Kevin McGuff and his staff. Hired in April after nine successful years at Xavier, McGuff didn’t know much about Davis, who nearly had a triple-double in her college debut.
She was nestled in a packed Bay Area talent pool, rated the 29th best point guard in the nation by ESPN’s HoopGurlz women’s basketball website and shooting a league-best 55.1 percent from three-point range at Valley Christian High School.
The problem was she had just switched positions. Her father, Oliver Davis, removed her from a guard-heavy AAU squad in Oakland to the Xplosion, which had big players who could run the floor. That’s when his daughter blossomed.
«That was the end of it,» said Oliver of Jazmine, who had one scholarship offer before that. «We went to Oregon, L.A. and Nashville, and Jazmine had 13 scholarship offers within a two-week period.»
Spotted initially by former Washington assistant coach Greg Nared, Davis was hesitant to select Washington because of its rain. She only considered the program because UW has a No. 1-rated nursing program, according to U.S. News World Report.
That stellar graduate program is the reason she stayed after former coach Tia Jackson was forced to resign in March. Oliver Davis researched McGuff and spoke with Washington athletic director Scott Woodward about the hire to feel comfortable, too.
«We had to weigh everything and say, ‘What is actually be the best situation for Jaz?’ » Oliver said. «When we stripped it all away, she’s going to school to get an education.»
It’s a profession rooted in her Samoan family. Her mother was a nurse, and Jazmine says her maternal great-grandmother, who was blind at 16, advised her to get into a field that helps others.
«I don’t need the spotlight,» Jazmine said. «I’ve always had this thing for helping other people.»
McGuff didn’t know what he was getting. Kingma’s injury during the August tour of Scandinavia prompted him to move the freshman into a starting role with sophomore Mercedes Wetmore at shooting guard.
Added to a senior-laden front line, including redshirt senior Regina Rogers, who’s shooting an NCAA-best 71.4 percent from the field, UW enters its Pac-12 opener at Oregon State on a five-game win streak.
Not that Davis is perfect. She averages 3.7 turnovers, but seems destined for a productive college career.
«She has the potential to be someone who could be special for this program,» McGuff said. «But it’s still a long way to go.
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