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Can Carolina be great without R.J. Davis being just as great?
Hubert Davis was asked before the season if he expected any more from his returning ACC Player of the Year and first-team All-American. “I’ll take exactly what he did last year,” Davis answered to a smattering of laughter from the media.
Rarely do Most Valuable Players in their respective leagues repeat for various reasons. The opposition has spent the entire summer preparing game plans and figuring out how to contain the returning star. Tyler Hansbrough was a four-time All-American but only ACC Player of the Year once, as a junior, and the next season Ty Lawson beat him out for the award. The Tar Heels went from a Final Four loss on Saturday in 2008 to sweeping through six NCAA games to the national championship in ’09.
Davis has started off his super senior season in a shooting slump, not unlike but a little worse than last season when he was banged up from an early injury. He has missed 20 of 25 attempts from the 3-point line for 20 percent accuracy. And most of those misses were good looks out of the offense and not forced shots.
The 2024-25 Heels are a markedly different team after losing Armando Bacot, Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan. So, without a glass cleaner underneath and with less size in the paint, it will take them a while to establish their new identity. They showed what might be possible with a torrid comeback at Kansas before losing to the top-ranked Jayhawks.
The perimeter may be better with Elliot Cadeau hotter from the floor, the foul line and long-ball arc. And Seth Trimble is so improved, Hubert could not keep him out of the starting lineup, which is now a small, but faster and more athletic trio out front.
Would R.J. trade less stardom, individually, for a deeper run in the NCAA tournament than the Sweet Sixteen? Never heard anyone ask him directly, but you can bet his answer would be, “Yes, hell, yes!”
They went out by two points to Alabama, which visits Chapel Hill on December 4, largely due to poor outside shooting of 12-for-32, with R.J. going 0-for-9. This season, Cadeau is more of a true point guard and a better shooter as a sophomore. And Trimble and Jae’Lyn Withers are both shooting 5 of 9 from outside for a team-leading .556 percent.
We may have more answers next week when 10th-ranked Carolina concludes the Maui Invitational with a field that includes three other top 10 teams (UConn, Auburn and Iowa State). And then comes the fifth-ranked Crimson Tide and No. 21 Florida and of course Duke down the road.
By then, R.J. will surely have his groove back, but a bigger question will be whether the help he received from Bacot, Ingram and Ryan can in any way be matched.
Featured image via Associated Press/Charlie Riedel
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
Tough thing to surpass a stellar year. The psychology works against a young man I think. Expectation makes everything tight.
RJ is special and he’ll lighten up and be back soon enough.