Women’s Basketball Profile: Rennia Davis
KNOXVILLE — The Lady Vols basketball team has gotten off to a scorching start this season, thanks in large part to the play of Rennia Davis.
Hailing from Jacksonville, Fla., Davis been a leader for this Tennessee squad reminiscent of Rocky Top legend Candace Parker. The 6-foot-2 junior swingwoman has been a tugboat for the team in her two-plus seasons, logging over 30 minutes per game during that stretch, and providing both a scoring punch and a presence on the glass.
Davis played high school ball at Jacksonville’s Ribault High School starting in 2014, where she earned numerous accolades. She was named to the FABC 4A All-State First Team all four years she played, and led her squad to state titles in both her junior and senior seasons; she participated on three total championship teams at Ribault. She averaged 20.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game her junior year, and for her senior season, Davis elevated her scoring game to post 26.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, and was named a McDonald’s All-American and MaxPreps First-Team All-American, among many other distinctions. It should also be noted that she was a superlative student, graduating 14th in her class and earning a dual-enrollment AA degree, while also being named to the National Honor Society.
Before beginning her collegiate career, Davis played in the 2016 USA Women’s U17 World Championship Team Trials with the AAU club Essence. She averaged 12.3 points over seven games, scoring double digits in five of those matches and sporting a high mark of 20 points, while also averaging 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game over the same stretch.
Davis came out of the gates on fire for the Lady Volunteers, averaging 12.0 points and 7.6 rebounds in her debut season, while starting 32 of 33 games on the year. She finished sixth all-time in rebounds per game by a Lady Vol freshman with 7.6, ranking No. 11 in rebounding in the SEC and second among conference freshmen. She shot .483 from the field, .329 on three-pointers — her 25 treys were the fourth-most on the team. She also notched nine double-doubles to tie Tamika Catchings for fifth-most double-doubles ever recorded by a Lady Vol freshman.
Her sophomore year was an impressive step forward that earned her a 2019 All-SEC Second Team selection as well as a WBCA All-America Honorable Mention selection. She led the Lady Vols in scoring (14.9), rebounding (7.7) and free throw percentage (.856) in just her second season in Knoxville. Her free throw mark was an SEC-best, while her rebounding and scoring numbers placed her eighth and twelfth in the conference, respectively. She continued her tear as a double-double machine, matching her freshman season output of nine — the seventh-most double-doubles ever by a UT sophomore and the sixth-most by an active player in the SEC. She also scored in double figures a team-leading 26 times, with 16 games of 15-plus points and six of 20 or more.
Expectations have been high for Davis entering her junior year after being named to numerous watch-lists, including the Wooden Award Preseason Top 30, the Citizen Naismith Trophy Preseason Watch List, and the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 30. So far, she has lived up to the hype, recording double-doubles in four of her first six games, and already receiving one SEC Player of the Week award after she exploded for a career-high 33 points against a then No. 16-ranked Notre Dame squad. She’s averaging 15.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game so far, making 18 of 22 free throws for a healthy 82 percent mark.
The women’s team has gotten off to a tremendous start this season winning their first six games out of the gate, and Rennia Davis is one of the biggest factors in their success. The talent and potential has always been there, and fans are now witnessing one of Tennessee’s best players blossom right before their eyes. With Rennia Davis holding the reins, the possibilities for the Lady Vols are endless.
