No major school wanted RJ Davis at first. How UNC basketball found him in New York
Before R.J. Davis earned a spot in North Carolina’s starting lineup as a college freshman, playing his way onto the varsity lineup as a relatively unknown freshman in New York state was a much more daunting task.
There to welcome him in his home debut at Archbishop Stepinac was one of the biggest names in New York. Isaiah Washington, a senior who would be named New York’s Mr. Basketball that season, had a cult following on social media as a member and co-creator of the “Jelly Fam.”
“Going against Isaiah Washington, I just knew that I had to show out,” Davis told the News & Observer. “My freshman year, especially for first home game, I just wanted to show people what I’m about.”
Davis beat out a junior to earn his starting spot as a freshman, then he proceeded to score 19 points against the 2017 Mr. Basketball. That helped shape the player Davis would become.
“He came out opening night and held his own versus Isaiah Washington, who was the man in New York at the time with Jelly Fam and all that stuff,” Patrick Massaroni, Davis’ coach at Archbishop Stepinac, told the News & Observer. “We won 100-98 and from that point on, we all knew that this kid’s got a chance.”
Davis is making the most of his chance at North Carolina. He’s just the fourth shooting guard during coach Roy Williams’ tenure in Chapel Hill to start as a freshman. Entering Wednesday night’s late game for the Tar Heels (5-3, 0-1 ACC) at Georgia Tech (4-3, 0-1), Davis is fourth on the team in scoring with a 10.1-point average and leads the team with 10 made 3-pointers.
It hasn’t been a seamless transition. Williams has constantly preached shot selection and taking care of the ball to Davis and Caleb Love, who is also a freshman guard. Their on-the-job training has led to predictable rookie missteps. Davis has had three turnovers in five of his last six games. The only game he didn’t — against Kentucky — he played a season-low 16 minutes due to a bruised right knee.
“I feel like we’re doing a good job, but we could do a better job, as far as taking care of the ball, shot selection and getting our teammates involved,” Davis said. “It’s still early in the season so there’s a lot of time to improve and fix our mistakes. We have a long way to go.”
Davis is used to taking a long view of his career. An injury as a sophomore kept him sidelined during the summer, which also kept him out of the spotlight of recruiting analysts. Although he always saw himself playing at a high-major Division I school, he was considered undersized as a 6-foot-1 guard and only garnered local attention from mid-majors in New York. Davis didn’t crack the top 100 on most recruiting services — and was no where in sight on Carolina’s radar — until the end of his junior year in high school.
“That was kind of frustrating, because I had to wait even more, not being able to play my sophomore year AAU for colleges to get looked at,” Davis said. “That was kind of heartbreaking to me, but it was God’s timing so I didn’t question it one bit. Going through my junior year, I just played with the mentality that no one can guard me and no one can stop me.”
That continued when Davis played summer basketball for the N.Y. Rens and culminated when he went head-to-head against R.J. Hampton’s team. Hampton, who was the 24th pick in the 2020 NBA draft for the Denver Nuggets, was in the middle of deciding whether to play professionally overseas or go to college. Davis dropped 30 points against his team, which announced the budding star’s arrival on the national scene.
N.Y. Rens coach Andy Borman, who played at Duke from 2000-04, said what Davis proved that summer was that he was built for the grind of the ACC.
“It’s just the nature of the business, but if you’re a smaller guard you can’t prove them wrong once, you got to prove them wrong two, three, four, five six times,” Borman told the N&O. “When he played with the Rens on the Nike circuit he was consistently great. There wasn’t just one game where you say like, ‘Oh wow, he can play at Carolina.’ It was every single game against every single type of guard.”
Heading into his second ACC game, Davis has more to prove for the Tar Heels. He’s been a consistent scorer, but knows he has to continue to improve his efficiency both in improving his 36% shooting from the floor and in cutting down on his turnovers.
Davis is remaining patient and confident he’ll do so, drawing strength from his journey just to get to Chapel Hill.
“I didn’t really give up, I didn’t really pay attention to where I was ranked or any of that because it didn’t really matter,” Davis said. “It was more about the end journey. For me to be unranked and play with North Carolina basketball is just one for the books. It’s a great story. I just worked so hard to be in this position and I’m going to continue to do it.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 10:46 AM.