Returning to UNC basketball for a fifth season, RJ Davis wants to be seen ... and heard
North Carolina’s Hubert Davis has some simple advice for his basketball team this season: “Watch R.J. Listen to R.J.”
Watching the Tar Heels’ R.J. Davis is easy enough. He’s one of the best guards in the country and was named the ACC player of the year last season, which his coach called “historic.”
As he enters his fifth season at UNC, Davis has a chance to pass Tyler Hansbrough as the school’s career points leader. He could be in most conversations about the national player of the year.
Watch R.J? People in these parts and the ACC have been watching him for years. Opposing coaches likely are tired of him.
“I’d be OK if he had the same kind of year he had last year,” Hubert Davis said Friday at UNC’s basketball media day. “Last year wasn’t a good or great year but a historic year. Him coming back, you want him to do the same things he did last year. He did so much for us.”
And listening to R.J.?
Hubert Davis said R.J. Davis has become more vocal, that he wants to be heard more often.
“His leadership role has been off the chart,” the coach said. “It’s been nice to see the progression of him in terms of maturity and feeling comfortable to be that type of leader within his own personality.”
Davis, looking back into his UNC past, said he was fortunate to have older leaders on the team such as Jeff Lebo and Steve Bucknall to teach him how to prepare and practice the “right way” and help him be successful as a player.
“Now, R.J. is that,” Davis said. “Just his growth from a leadership standpoint has been huge. ... R.J. is not the rah-rah type of personality. He’s gotten better with that each year. But in terms of leadership by example, it’s off the chart.”
One who should continue to benefit from Davis’ leadership is Elliot Cadeau. Now a sophomore, he came to UNC last year saying he felt ready to measure himself against college basketball’s best, and often had Davis by his side — Cadeau as the Heels’ point guard, Davis the shooting guard — to show him the way.
Some expected Davis might enter the 2024 NBA Draft after averaging an ACC-best 21.2 points a game as the Heels finished first in the conference in the regular season and became a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
But he didn’t. Part of it was the last game of the season — Davis missed 16 of 20 shots and was 0 for 9 on 3-pointers as UNC was beaten 89-87 by Alabama in its NCAA Sweet 16 game in Los Angeles. He didn’t want to go out that way, did he?
‘That was hard, because I prepared myself mentally and physically for the game,” Davis said. “Coming up short like that, with the phenomenal team we had last year, was kind of hard to process.”
These days in college sports, NIL packages are always a factor in such decisions. There were questions about where he might be slotted in the draft if he decided to leave UNC and enter it. There was much to consider.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Cadeau said Friday. “I know it’s great to play with him for another year. He’s such a good role model, for everybody. I know I look up to him.”
Cadeau said a year ago he was not completely comfortable trying to be a team leader, even though he said that was his nature.
“I feel like this year, it’s a lot different,” Cadeau said. “As a point guard, I need to be more vocal.”
Coach Davis said he wants the Tar Heels, 29-8 last year, to be the quickest transition team in the nation. In UNC practices, the team gaining possession after a rebound has three seconds to advance the ball past midcourt or lose possession, junior guard Seth Trimble said. On an inbounds pass after a make, it’s four seconds.
While Davis and Cadeau could thrive at a faster pace, Cadeau recognizes the need to be a better shooter — he finished at 18.9% on threes last season. He said he worked with former UNC assistant coach Marcus Paige in the offseason on his shot and has continued it before and after practice.
“Me and him feel like my form is good. My balance, my eyes,” Cadeau said. “It’s just about reps and confidence.”
Cadeau said he also intends be to better on the defensive end this season, noting, “Playing defense, there’s a lot of things going on and I feel like that year of experience helped me a lot. I feel like I’m one step faster in everything I’m doing.”
The Heels, like many teams, have a number of new faces on the roster. Armando Bacot is no longer around -- “He was here about eight years until he was 30,” R.J. Davis joked -- but the talent is there, younger and older.
“We always talk about ‘we over me’ and that’s been a huge emphasis on this team and this program,” Davis said.
This story was originally published October 4, 2024 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Returning to UNC basketball for a fifth season, RJ Davis wants to be seen ... and heard."
