UNC basketball’s RJ Davis wins 2025 Tudor Award for media cooperation
▪ ▪ For what might be the last time in his lengthy North Carolina career, R.J. Davis sat down at the desk in the Smith Center media room, facing the press ahead of Saturday’s game against Duke.
There’s a chance he might be back in that chair ahead of the NCAA tournament, or between rounds, but for all the many times he has taken that seat, this was his final guaranteed appearance. Davis knew it. And he appreciated it.
“I never take for granted the type of games I’ve played in, the magnitude of the games, the built-up energy, the interviews I do with you guys,” Davis said. “I never take that for granted because I know at one point in time, this could all be gone. As a kid, this is what you dream of. I always remind myself of that.”
It’s interesting that Davis equated appearing before the media with everything else about the big games he’s played in, because he approaches his public appearances with the same gravity as basketball. For that, Davis is this season’s winner of the Caulton Tudor Award, which recognizes the Triangle basketball player who is most cooperative with the local media, in honor of the late News & Observer sports columnist.
Davis joins former UNC players Marcus Paige (2015) and Theo Pinson (2018) and former teammate Armando Bacot (2022) as winners of the award, which is selected by the N&O staff with input from other Triangle media representatives and presented by Tobacco Road Sports Cafe. Duke’s Kyle Filipowski was last season’s winner.
Perhaps because Davis has been in Chapel Hill as long as an old-school ACC player from a previous generation, he’s developed the same kind of give-and-take with the media as those players did with writers like Tudor. It’s a throwback to a different era of media.
“He’s let us in enough that there’s a semblance of a relationship and he’s kept it there, which has sustained a continuous stream of quality dialogue,” said Andrew Jones, who covers North Carolina for Tar Heel Illustrated. “He doesn’t BS when they’re playing well and when they’re not playing well. And there’s a mutual respect. There’s never been a jerk moment and he’s had plenty of opportunities.”
There was a particularly strong field for the award this year, with Seth Trimble and Alyssa Ustby also in Chapel Hill, Saniya Rivers and Jayden Taylor at N.C. State and Sion James and Cooper Flagg at Duke. Davis stood out over his long career at North Carolina, both in the highs (which were very high) and lows (which were just as low), not that you could ever tell from his demeanor.
He was always willing to be the spokesman for his teammates, whether on Zoom during his freshman year or during the difficult beginning of the 2022 season when North Carolina was blown out by Kentucky and Miami. Later that year, he reveled in the spotlight as the Tar Heels beat Duke twice on their way to the national title game. Now, he’s the elder statesman finally approaching his final home game, full of lessons learned the hard way.
“I wouldn’t want my journey or my chapter of this life to be any different or to go any other way,” Davis said. “I’ve enjoyed every single part of it. The good, the bad, the ugly, the roller coaster, the highs, the lows — it gave me a picture of what life is. The legacy I’ve built, I think it has the common theme of dealing with adversity and overcoming it. That’s what I really preach on and harp on, because that’s what life throws at you. Sometimes life will go your way, sometimes it won’t, and how you respond defines who you are as a person.”
CAULTON TUDOR AWARD WINNERS
▪ 2015: Ralston Turner, N.C. State
▪ 2016: Marcus Paige, UNC
▪ 2017: Matt Jones
▪ 2018: Theo Pinson, UNC
▪ 2019: Torin Dorn, N.C. State
▪ 2020: Jack White, Duke
▪ 2021: Elissa Cunane, N.C. State
▪ 2022: Armando Bacot, UNC
▪ 2023: Jarkel Joiner, N.C. State
▪ 2024: Kyle Filipowski, Duke
▪ 2025: R.J. Davis, UNC
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This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "UNC basketball’s RJ Davis wins 2025 Tudor Award for media cooperation."
