When Warren junior guard Jaxson Davis returned to the court at the State Farm Center in Champaign in front of a crowd assembled for state championship games on March 14, he wasn’t there to play.
One year after Davis led the Blue Devils to the Class 4A state championship game, he was recognized as an all-state first-team selection by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association for the third time.
But in the weeks since Warren’s loss in a sectional final, Davis has begun to appreciate what he and his teammates accomplished together.
“I know we had a really good season,” he said. “Down the road, we’ll cherish all the wins and the fun times we had with each other.”
No one was more responsible for those wins than the 6-foot-1 Davis, the 2025-26 News-Sun Boys Basketball Player of the Year. He averaged 23.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3.5 steals for the North Suburban Conference champion Blue Devils (30-4, 14-0), increasing his scoring average by more than four points over last season and improving all of his shooting percentages as well.
“He scored a lot this year because he had to for the team to win,” Warren coach Zack Ryan said. “He’s a point guard, so his mindset isn’t ‘score first.’ It’s ‘pass first’ and get his teammates involved.”
Davis showed that he can score in bunches. He racked up 51 points during the Blue Devils’ 88-54 win over Kenwood in the Big Dipper Holiday Tournament championship game.
“I hit a few shots early, and they kept going in,” Davis said. “In the third quarter, I had 39 or 40 and thought, ‘Maybe I can get 50.’ I knew I had that in me. That was fun.”
But Davis, who is one of the top-rated juniors in the country, offers so much more.
“He’s the catalyst to everything,” Ryan said. “He raised his output and his efficiency in every area on a team that had a smaller margin for error and that really didn’t have a post, and teams were gunning for him every night. His game rose to a whole new level this year.”
Davis, who is the player of the year for the third time and was the first sophomore to win Mr. Basketball of Illinois last year, led the Blue Devils to 30 wins even though four-year starter Braylon Walker was the only other varsity veteran.
“Last year, we came together at the right time, and this year we came together sooner to win all of those games,” Davis said. “I knew I would need to score more, and another main focus this year was leading. My first two years, I led more by example. But this year there was more focus using my voice, making sure all of my teammates heard me.”
Davis made everyone around him better.
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“It’s his gravity and that everyone is always so worried about his scoring,” Warren senior guard Joel Paasch said. “But in my opinion what sets him apart is his IQ and his playmaking. Once he gets downhill, he knows where everyone is, and that creates a lot of open shots for us. That was a big reason for our success.”
Davis also was more physical. For instance, Ryan said he doesn’t remember seeing Davis dunk as a freshman or a sophomore but estimates Davis did it every other game this season.
“I’ve really worked on my body,” Davis said. “People play aggressively against me, and the added strength makes it way easier to get to the basket.”
Davis, who knows he’ll need to continue to find ways to improve to maximize his potential, will go to Indianapolis next week for a second round of workouts with the U.S. junior national team, a trip that also includes attending the Final Four.
A few weeks after that, Davis will resume playing AAU basketball, which will draw the eyes of a lot of college coaches. He doesn’t face the same pressure that many other juniors do, since he already has about 20 offers from major Division I programs.
But Davis hopes to get the attention of a couple more college teams.
“Schools like Duke and UConn, those are my dream schools, but they don’t do a lot of recruiting until after junior year,” he said. “During AAU, I don’t take as many shots because I’m playing with a lot of high-level guys, and my assists go up. But if you win games, people notice.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.