Donovan Davis had a number of great options, but only one was the right choice for him.
The Freedom High School basketball standout announced May 6 he will continue his basketball career in college at Iowa State University.
He committed to the Cyclones during a public event inside the Freedom fieldhouse in front of a huge gathering of family and supporters.
“I’m pretty excited,” Davis said. “To have the opportunity to play college basketball has always been a dream of mine. And, you know, to play for a really good team like Iowa State, I mean, it’s a dream come true.”
The 6-foot-8 Davis made official visits to Wisconsin, Iowa, Marquette, Nebraska and Iowa State. Davis had offers from those five schools along with Syracuse, Colorado State and Cal-Berkeley.
Davis said he made his decision May 1 and called Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger to give him his commitment.
“I think he was working out,” Davis said. “He was actually running. He said he had to go to his office to calm his excitement so everyone else didn’t see it. He kept saying how excited he was. He has strong belief in me that I can do special things.”
Davis, who is the No. 32 overall recruit in the 2027 class according to rivals.com, is the first Freedom boys basketball player to get a Division I scholarship since Jim Bartels, who led Freedom to the Class B state championship in 1990 and went to the University of Iowa.
Davis, who moved from Kimberly to Freedom in 2013, was overwhelmed with the turnout for his announcement and with the support he has received since moving to Freedom and blossoming into a basketball star.
“I think it means a lot,” he said. “I’m kind of surprised that this much people came. It’s a lot of friends, people I’ve grown up with or people I’ve gotten to know a lot over the years, and it just shows that they support not just basketball, but any sport or just someone in the high school.”
Davis was a Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association all-state pick in Division 3 this past season. He was the North Eastern Conference player of the year and made the league’s all-defensive team. He averaged 21.7 points, 12.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.
Davis joins a Cyclones program coached by Otzelberger, a Milwaukee native who guided Iowa State to its third Sweet 16 appearance in five years this past season. Otzelberger, who agreed to a 10-year contract extension through 2036 after the season, was a two-year captain at UW-Whitewater, where he earned his business administration degree in 2001 and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction in 2004.
Iowa State finished the 2025-26 season with a 29-8 record, tied for the second-most wins in school history. The Cyclones were ranked No. 8 in the final AP top 25 poll.
Otzelberger has recruited Wisconsin heavily during his time at Iowa State. This past season’s roster included Jamarion Batemon of Milwaukee Academy of Science, Anthony Rise of Brookfield Central, Milan Momcilovic of Pewaukee and Xzavion Mitchell of Oshkosh North.
In choosing Iowa State, Davis became the latest Wisconsin prep standout to not commit to coach Greg Gard at Wisconsin.
Davis took an official visit to Wisconsin on April 13. He received an offer from the Badgers in 2024 and took several unofficial visits to Madison since then, including for UW’s Jan. 31 loss vs. USC.
He said it was difficult to tell the other schools that he would not be committing to them.
“It was pretty hard,” Davis said. “I have so much respect for them. It was actually pretty hard to tell them that I wasn’t going to go to their school. But, you know, most of them just said that they’re going to support me wherever I go. They’ll just keep in contact with me.”
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Freedom basketball star Donovan Davis commits to Iowa State
Reporting by Mike Sherry, Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
