The preseason honors continue to roll in for R.J. Davis.

The Associated Press named Davis to its 2024-25 Preseason All-America first team on Monday after the fifth-year guard received 51 of a possible 55 votes.

Joining Davis on the first team are Mark Sears from Alabama, Hunter Dickinson from Kansas, Johni Broome from Auburn, Caleb Love from Arizona and Cooper Flagg from Duke. Love and Flagg tied for fifth in voting, expanding the list to six players instead of the traditional five.

Davis is coming off an outstanding 2023-24 season, one which saw him lead the ACC in scoring at 21.2 points per game and shooting 39.8 percent on three-pointers. Davis scored 30 or more points four times, set new career scoring highs not once (36 points against Wake Forest) but twice (42 against Miami), the latter of which is the all-time scoring record for any player in the history of the Smith Center. Davis is the first Tar Heel to score 40 points since Harrison Barnes in 2011, and the first to do so in a non-overtime game since Tyler Hansbrough in 2008.

Davis earned several honors for his accomplishments in 2023-24, including an AP first team All-America nod. He also became the first Tar Heel ever to win the Jerry West Award (given to the nation’s top shooting guard) and became the first Tar Heel to win ACC Player of the Year since 2017.

Davis and the Tar Heels will wrap up their preseason schedule when they host Johnson C. Smith at the Dean Smith Center in an exhibition on Sunday at 2 p.m.

 

Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Carlson

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