Michigan Wolverines basketball senior Jon Teske was heavily expected to be one of the best centers in the Big Ten entering the 2019-20 campaign, with sophomore Colin Castleton anticipated to be his backup and redshirt junior Austin Davis nothing more than an afterthought.
Teske's defensive struggles throughout much of December and the first half of January were well-documented as several opposing big men enjoyed career games against the 7-1 Ohio native, though he still produced offensively during that span.
For whatever reason, Teske's offensive play has since taken a downhill spiral, with the big man averaging just 7.6 points over his last five games despite playing at least 25 minutes in each.
The scoring totals aren't necessarily the most concerning aspect, but his shooting percentage; Teske has only made 14 of his last 44 attempts (31.8 percent), and has shot 25 percent or worse in each of Michigan's last three games.
Davis, on the other hand, has gone on the complete opposite trajectory.
He has been just about perfect from the floor (almost literally) in U-M's last five outings, connecting on 15 of his last 16 attempts (93.7 percent), and raising his overall shooting percentage on the year to 72.5 percent in the process.
Davis doesn't have enough attempts to qualify in the national shooting percentage standings, but if he did, his percentage would be the second best mark nationally (behind Kansas redshirt junior center Udoka Azubuike's 75 percent) and 10.3 points higher than Rutgers redshirt sophomore center Myles Johnson's (the current Big Ten leader) 62.2 percent.
It's evident how comfortable Davis has become around the rim, showing much better footwork and touch on his shots than Teske has as of late.
The redshirt junior center's minutes have increased as a result, playing at least 12 in each of the team's last four games after hitting that number just five times all year prior to February.
Davis has also nearly matched Teske's scoring average of 7.6 over Michigan's last five games, averaging 7.0 points of his own during that span.
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