The Illini received a boost to their big man corps Tuesday when 6-foot-9, 195-pound forward Mike Davis cleared NCAA inspections.

Davis, an Alexandria, Va., native, accepted a scholarship offer from Illinois two weeks ago and has been practicing with the team since then. After originally planning to spend the season at a boarding school in Connecticut, Davis is now eligible to travel with the Illini to Canada this weekend for five exhibition games.

“We’re pretty excited about him,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said at a press conference Tuesday. “He’s very athletic; he’s got about a 40-inch vertical jump. Actually, with the reach of the vertical, he touched 144 inches. That’s two feet over the rim.

“We just feel he has a lot of upside,” Weber said. “He has to get strength, there’s no doubt about that.”

Illinois coaches were intrigued with Davis’ play last season at T.C. Williams High School where he averaged 17.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game. However, it wasn’t until mid-summer that word got out the athletic forward could be academically eligible to play Division I basketball this season.

“(Davis) is a kid that we had kind of investigated during the season,” Weber said. “One of the assistants, Coach Webster, kind of started a relationship and it looked like he was going to go to prep school. (But) some things turned his way, academically, late. Then it got out mid-summer he was on the AAU circuit as a prep school kid, that it looked like he was going to make it academically.

“I think he had numerous offers from a variety of schools and some that said, ‘If you go to prep school, we’d like to be involved next year,'” Weber added.

Davis’ original plan, according to Weber, was to play prep school basketball as a means to add strength and develop.

But Weber talked him out of it.

“I just said, ‘Why, if you have opportunity, why wouldn’t you come to a major school, with weight coaches and assistant coaches that can work with you on a daily basis?'” Weber said. “‘That’s where you should have a chance to develop…quicker.'”