North Carolina basketball is running it back running it back. Although this season was a mammoth disappointment (they became the first ever preseason #1 to miss the tournament entirely since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985), star point guard RJ Davis announced on Friday that he will return to UNC for a senior season, forgoing testing the waters in the NBA Draft.
“Tar Heel for life #seniorszn” Davis tweeted on Friday morning to announce his return.
Over his three years at UNC, Davis has cemented himself as one of North Carolina's best and most important players. Despite UNC's rocky season and general underperformance this season, Davis enjoyed the best statistical year of his career averaging 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. To wit, he was the ACC's most accurate free throw shooter, draining a conference-leading 88.1 percent of his attempts from the charity stripe. Originally considered a pass-first point guard with a shaky jump shot, Davis also nailed 1.9 three pointers per game and shot 36.2% on 5.3 attempts. Similarly, he was a massive part of the Tar Heels' Cinderella run to the national title game last season, almost single-handedly securing a win over top-seeded Baylor in the round of 32 with a legendary 30 point outburst.
Alongside All-American center Armando Bacot, Davis is the second important starter to confirm that he is staying a Tar Heel rather than enter the transfer portal or enter the NBA Draft. At this point, the last major puzzle piece for North Carolina basketball is whether Caleb Love—a mercurial, streaky scorer—will opt in for another year alongside Bactor and Davis. Either way, with Davis and Bacot in tow, UNC has the talent and experience to redeem themselves next season.
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