Green Bay Phoenix fans everywhere breathed a huge sigh of relief on Wednesday as star player Amari Davis announced that he will be coming back to the program next season.

There is always roster turnover during a coaching change and two players have already announced their intention to transfer – seniors ShanQuan Hemphill and Josh Jefferson, though Jefferson kept the door open to returning to Green Bay.  So the commitment from Davis to remain with the program was welcome news and provides an all-conference caliber player for the new coaching staff to work with.

“Green Bay has been good to me this last year,” Davis wrote on Twitter announcing that he will be staying. “I’m not the type to just give up on something that has great potential.”

“I respect everyone’s decisions on leaving I want the best for everybody including myself.”

Davis, the reigning Horizon League Freshman of the Year was the team’s second leading scorer in his first season of college basketball averaging 15.9 points and 4.0 rebounds in 28.7 minutes per game. He passed Tony Bennett’s program record for most points as a freshman with 524 – all without hitting a single three pointer – and set the conference record for most Freshman of the Week awards.

He was also an extremely efficient shooter knocking down 51.4% of his shot attempts from the floor.

After the decisions of Hemphill and Jefferson to test the transfer waters – two likely starters for next season – Davis’ decision provides a huge piece for the new coaching staff to build the program around and could potentially help convince some other players to stay on as well.

“We lost a real one with Coach Darner but we gotta move on,” Davis wrote. “With that being said I’m staying at Green Bay and I’m looking forward to next season.”

Photo via Green Bay Athletics