Davenport Shines for Ohio State

Jessica Davenport has the stats and the accolades. She also has a team playing in the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament.

What the Ohio State star doesn’t have is an attitude -- something that sets her apart from so many other elite players.

“Isn’t that a shame?” coach Jim Foster said in mock disgust. “She’s humble, she’s hardworking, she’s mature. And we’re talking about that as being different? We’d better re-evaluate what we do, from top to bottom, if that’s different.”

The 6-foot-4 sophomore has bloomed this year under Foster’s tough love, earning Big Ten player of the year honors and then being named a first-team All-American -- Ohio State’s first -- earlier this week.

Foster spent two tours of duty in Vietnam before embarking on his 27 years as a college head coach. He’s seen a lot of players ruined by me-first attitudes. All Davenport expresses is a willingness to improve.

“I’ve had great players; she’s my fifth All-American,” he said. “Without a doubt the difference is she’s mature between the ears.”

The Buckeyes take on Rutgers in a regional semifinal today. Davenport is one of the few players left in the tournament who can reconfigure a whole bracket by herself.

Davenport -- whose arms are so long they appear to fit someone six inches taller -- leads Ohio State in scoring (19.3 points per game) and rebounding (9.1). She had the program’s first triple-double earlier this season with 19 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocked shots in a game against then-No. 9 Michigan State.

She uses her long arms and legs for leverage, drop-stepping and then pivoting low to get inside a defender with a shoulder before powering up for a short shot.

Dogged by multiple defenders all year, that might be when she’s at her best: spying an open teammate and flicking a pass for an easy backdoor basket while two or three defenders watch helplessly.

No one has really shut her down all year. When the fifth-ranked Buckeyes met No. 4 Rutgers on Jan. 16 in Columbus, she had 22 points, seven rebounds, two blocked shots, hit 7-of-8 free throws and even hit her only career 3-pointer in a 52-50 victory.

After the game, Scarlet Knights coach C. Vivian Stringer said, “We didn’t have an answer for the big girl.”

Now Stringer’s not so sure that any team in the country does.

“She’s in a class by herself,” Stringer said earlier this week.

Davenport expects more of the same from Rutgers in the rematch.

“I’m sure they’ll throw a lot of different defenses at us, give us different looks and try to hurry our offense,” she said. “But we’ve seen a lot this year and that’s prepared us for the game we’re about to play. We’ll move the ball, and if they double, we’re going to keep moving the ball.”

When Davenport was a junior at Columbus’ Independence High School, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt put on a full-court press to try to get her to sign with the Volunteers.

“I thought then as a physical talent and presence she would make a great college player,” Summitt said. “It wasn’t that she was awkward. She was athletic.”

Davenport has grown under the guidance of Foster and an Ohio State staff that includes Pete Gaudet (Mike Krzyzewski’s stand-in at Duke when Coach K took a leave of absence midway through the 1994-95 season), former UConn star Tamika Williams and Katie Smith, Ohio State’s only previous All-American.

The daughter of a truck driver and a school foodservice worker, Davenport always has had a strong work ethic.

“I’ve put in a lot of hard work in the offseason and summertime,” she said. “It’s a hot day outside and you might just want to lay around, but my choice was coming to the gym to work on my game and it’s starting to pay off.”

The big left-hander seldom shows any emotion on the court. She can swat away a layup at one end and then swish a hook shot at the other and never change expression. She is self-effacing before the cameras, always attributing her gaudy stats to the play of her teammates.

The public perception of the shy Buckeye isn’t necessarily accurate, however.

“You’d think Jess is really quiet, but she’s not,” starting forward Stephanie Blanton said, stifling a laugh while acting as if she was revealing a state secret. “She’ll talk your ear off all night long. And she sings all the time -- to herself!”

Foster said it is Davenport’s maturity that sets her apart.

“Because she is mature and she can handle constructive criticism and she is very coachable, she has improved dramatically through the course of the season,” he said. “How they handle that constructive criticism is important.

“She can handle it, and as a result, she’s improving. She’s going to be pretty successful in whatever the heck she does.”