On Thursday, Cleveland State took one more step towards rounding out its 2025-26 roster with the transfer commitment of senior guard Madison Royal-Davis.
Royal-Davis is a familiar name around the Horizon League, of course, given that the 5-11 Toledo native spent the last two seasons at Oakland. Those years weren’t especially fruitful for the Golden Grizzlies, particularly as the bottom fell out in 2024-25 with the abrupt retirement of long-time head coach Jeff Tungate in December, followed by defeats in 15 of OU’s final 18 contests.
However, little of that can be placed at the feet of someone who has become an elite defender, both within the HL and nationally.
While the backcourt tandem of Maddy Skorupski and Macy Smith drew most of the attention at Oakland, Royal-Davis was a steady force for this past season’s Grizzlies, including leading the team in both rebounding (6.5) and blocked shots (1.2). Her 2.1 steals per game were second only to Skorupski on the squad, and among the top 100 players in Division I.
It’s possible that those averages don’t fully encapsulate just how dominant she can be at times.
Royal-Davis posted back-to-back eight-steal efforts against Youngstown State and Detroit Mercy on January 26th and February 1st, an eye-popping total that makes her 12 rebounds in the latter game seem like an afterthought. About a month later, she had probably the best game of her career, including 19 rebounds and 11 points (both personal highs), as well as four steals, three blocks and three assists in a near-upset of Northern Kentucky.
Essentially, she’s a high-floor sort of player – point-getters can have off nights, but those earning their way through defense usually don’t – who can have a profound impact on her best days. She’s also done it in the Golden Grizzlies’ up-tempo system, which should make for an easy transition to Chris Kielsmeier’s “defend, rebound, run” modus operandi.
Prior to her time at Oakland, Royal-Davis spent two years at Butler (including Austin Parkinson’s first season with the Bulldogs, which featured several notables from his IUPUI juggernaut), but saw extremely limited action.
Though she might not be a big scorer at the DI level, Royal-Davis certainly was in high school, during a scholastic career split between Toledo Christian and Toledo Rogers. In fact, she was the biggest scorer in Northwest Ohio history with 2,265 career points, eclipsing the mark of eventual South Carolina national champion and WNBA player Zia Cooke (who, notably, was a teammate of Royal-Davis at Rogers).
Toledo’s women’s basketball exports also include Natasha Howard and Ericka Haney, not to mention a pair of Cleveland State stars from recent history: Mariah White and Nadia Dumas. In other words, only hard-won records are generally taken from the Glass City.
The Vikings’ projected squad for the coming season now features 11 players, though until now, it had been a bit thin on gritty, defense-first athletes able to play on the wing if needed. Regardless, a CSU program that was rattled to its bones by the transfer portal a few weeks ago is inching closer to full strength.
