Latrell Davis had 57 points in a Swish Pro-Am summer league game last month. It should have been 60, except a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left wasn’t counted because the officials had mercifully ended the 113-88 game early.
Davis shrugged. It wasn’t his career high.
He also had some 50-point games as a kid back in Leeds, England. He once had 65. He typically played in older age groups but dropped down one day — “I think I was 11 or 12,” he said — and dropped 85.
There are some qualifiers to his prodigious output at Lincoln High School in the Swish league, which starts the playoffs this week ahead of an Aug. 9 championship game. The running joke is there’s no “D” in summer league, and the talent level on the Lincoln floor can fluctuate dramatically depending on which college or overseas pro players happen to be in town.
The Swish League MVP last summer was Taj DeGourville, who would average 5.5 points per game for SDSU while shooting 37.1% in a largely disappointing season.
But still …
“I don’t care where you’re playing, 57 is a lot of points,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said. “You go to an open gym anywhere and a guy puts up 57, that’s pretty impressive. I think he made nine 3s. You can’t fake that.
“Latrell is a very good player, so I’m excited.”
Davis hasn’t hit 57 again, but it’s not like he hasn’t been scoring. Through six Swish appearances this summer heading into Thursday, he’s averaging 38.3 points per game and has been held under 30 just once. He’s shooting close to 40% behind the arc.
That includes 35 last Sunday when he forgot his sneakers were in the JAM Center locker room and didn’t arrive at Lincoln until tip-off, delaying his entry into the game without having taken a warm-up shot. He had 10 points in the first half, then 25 in the second while routinely facing double teams on the perimeter.
In a matter of minutes, he drove and finished at the rim in traffic with his left hand; made a pull-up 3 off the dribble from well behind the NBA arc; drove and finished at the rim in traffic with his right hand; crossed over, drove down the middle and dunked with two hands; made a step-back 3.
San Diego State’s Latrell Davis has been scoring at will in the Swish League. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
It’s the kind of stuff the Aztecs saw in practice on a daily basis last season and compelled Dutcher to predict “he’ll have a chance to be a first-team all-conference-type player” in 2026-27.
“I redshirted last year,” said Davis, who transferred from San Jose State and has two years of eligibility remaining, “so I’m just trying to get back into the mode of playing games and playing against other competition on the live floor. That’s been my focus. I’m the leading scorer on my (Swish) team, so I have to provide.”
Davis returned to England last May and put up similar numbers in a training camp for the national team ahead of World Championships qualifying. He opted against playing in Worlds this summer, knowing he is the most veteran returnee on a largely new SDSU roster and his leadership would be needed during summer-session workouts.
The Aztecs have been together about a month, and they consider Davis bullish on their prospects even if Elzie Harrington is still rehabbing offseason leg surgery and the three European pros haven’t yet received NCAA clearance.
“It’s been great,” Davis said. “Everyone is coachable, everyone listens. When we’ve got to run, no one is arguing with the coaches. They just get on the line and do it and hop back in the rest of the drill. We’re all gelling together well, all working hard.
“I feel like last year, people weren’t as coachable. This year, people are coachable and willing to learn and accept tough coaching. I feel like that’s the biggest difference.”
In a departure from past Aztecs rosters, half the players were born overseas — five are from Europe and 7-foot center Thokor Majak is from South Sudan.
“I don’t feel like it’s a different kind of game,” Davis said. “I feel like we might work harder. We don’t take it for granted, because everybody from Europe’s dream was to play in America, play Division I college basketball. They’re not going to do anything to mess it up.
“They’re going to work their hardest every time possible down the floor. I feel like that’s going to be good for us.”
Boyd’s back
A practice visitor this week was Nick Boyd, SDSU’s leading scorer in 2024-25 before transferring to Wisconsin for his final season of college eligibility.
Boyd averaged 20.7 points and 4.3 assists per game for the Badgers and was named second-team All-Big Ten. He went undrafted and, after interviews with more than a dozen NBA teams, played with the Golden State Warriors in the Las Vegas Summer League.
Boytd signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Warriors that includes an invitation to training camp but no guarantees beyond that. The Warriors have one two-way contract still open, which allows players to move between the NBA team and its G League affiliate without being plucked by another franchise.