It's hard to imagine now that we've seen him the Cardinal and White, but freshman point guard Davonte Davis almost joined the Oklahoma State Pokes instead of the Hogs. The high-energy guard averaging 16 minutes a game off the bench is quickly becoming a fan favorite and on Saturday, Davis will get to face the program he was once pledged to.

Davis was offered by Arkansas under former coach Mike Anderson in May of 2018 but after several months of some hard recruiting by OK State's staff, he became the first of Arkansas's top five in-state targets to come off the board.

As the cycle went on, not much progress was made toward getting Davis to flip to the Razorbacks. In fact, he seemed pretty locked in with the Pokes. It wasn't until Eric Musselman arrived on the Hill that the heat turned up.

Davis decommitted from Oklahoma State just a few days before visiting Arkansas and was rewarded with a re-offer from Musselman and his new staff. Despite picking up other new offers from Texas Tech and Ole Miss, it was the Hogs Devo called for good on October 12, just 11 days after his Pokes decommitment.

"I think that, at least from my initial conversations with Devo, it seemed like he was really excited to become a Razorback player and that it was really important to him," Musselman said, reflecting on the experience.

"I didn’t offer him a scholarship until I did it face-to-face. The excitement in his family, there were people that teared up and I could tell how powerful it was. It was an eye-opening experience for me to offer a scholarship to an in-state player and see family members actually come to tears. It was really powerful for me to see, for sure."

Now averaging 6.1 points per game with three boards, an assist and a steal, Davis will head to his former-future home on Saturday to take on Oklahoma State in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The former Jacksonville standout is coming off of one of his best games yet with 14 points, six rebounds and two steals against Ole Miss.

Davis's commitment to Arkansas was big for Musselman as it got his 2020 class going and he was able to help recruit fellow top 150 players Moses Moody, Jaylin Williams and KK Robinson. He was the lone prospect to put pen to paper in the early signing period, making his desire and excitement to be a Hog abundantly clear.

On the other side of the court, Arkansas will be up against some other former Razorback recruits including Rondel Walker (9.9 ppg) and Rivals' No. 1 Cade Cunningham (17.8 ppg).

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