"He knows what I'm thinking... we're very connected" On Davonte "Ticket" Gaines and his potential impact at Providence this season
“In my nine years of coaching, he’s the only guy I coached all four years. It’s going to be five. I coached him for two years at Tennessee, two years at George Mason, and now for a fifth season. So, we’re very connected. He knows what I’m thinking. He knows what I’m seeing. He knows all of our positions — one through five.”
That was Providence head coach Kim English speaking about Davonte “Ticket” Gaines, a graduate transfer from George Mason who announced he was headed to Providence a few weeks after English took over as head coach.
The 6’7, 190 pound Gaines is expected to play a significant role in his only year in Friartown, both as a defender guarding multiple positions and as an outside shooter.
Gaines spent the first two seasons of his college career fighting for minutes at Tennessee behind a pair of NBA draft picks, then went to Mason along with English, where he averaged 10.2 points per game and shot over 40% from three as a junior.
Gaines’ shooting numbers dipped a bit as a senior (we’ll dig into his numbers shortly), but his impact was still significant. As the sports information department at George Mason noted last spring, the Patriots were 17-6 with Gaines in the lineup last season. A hand injury suffered on Dec. 31 cost him five weeks — and certainly hurt Mason. They went 4-6 in his absence.
Opponents averaged 65.9 points per game with Gaines in the lineup for Mason, and shot 41.5% overall and 28% from three. Without Gaines, opponents put up over 70 per night, shot 45% from the field, and 34% from distance. Once Gaines returned to the lineup, George Mason closed the year with a 7-2 mark, including when he scored 23 points and came up with a late steal and score to help them take out Richmond on the road.
Mason’s defensive rating last season with Ticket Gaines on the floor was 96.5 — good for 92nd percentile in the nation last year. Overall, their defensive rating on the season was 100.7 (80th percentile). The Patriots’ Net Rating (point differential per 100 possessions) was +7.8 with Gaines in the lineup. And that came in a down shooting year.
Offensively, Friar fans would love to see the Davonte Gaines of 2021-22, when he added 8.1 rebounds a game to the aforementioned 10.2 points and 40% shooting beyond the arc.
Last season, Gaines saw his field goal percentage dip (.457 to .382), as well as his scoring mark (10.2 to 7.3), rebounding (8.1 to 6.1) and 3-point percentage (.402 to .343). Yes, he suffered a hand injury in December, but at that point of the year Gaines was shooting 34% from deep — around the same number that he closed the season.
A huge difference in his overall field goal percentage had to do with just how much of his offense came from beyond the arc last season. As a senior, 77% of Gaines’ shot attempts came from beyond the 3-point arc — up from 51.8% the year prior.
Here’s a look at his shot chart from last season:
The Friar staff is enamored with Gaines’ toughness and intangibles.
“He’s just a great defender and great shooter,” English said. “He’s a guy you really want to have on the court. We can put some really good defensive groups out there (with him), so I’m really excited.”
The defensive upside of the 2023-24 Friars should be higher than its predecessor, even with a lack of size on the interior. Providence has potentially terrific defenders and positional size in the one through three spots, and a piece in Gaines they will deploy everywhere.
He can also produce offensively with relatively few touches. His usage rate a year ago was 15.1% (which ranked in the 21st percentile), mirroring the season