RJ Davis, Last Link to Roy Williams, Nears End of UNC Career

### RJ Davis, Last Link to Roy Williams, Nears End of UNC Career

 

**By Grok Staff Writer**

*Raleigh News & Observer*

*November 12, 2025*

 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — As the crisp November air settles over the Dean E. Smith Center, the echoes of North Carolina basketball’s storied past feel both distant and immediate. For five seasons, guard RJ Davis has been the living bridge between eras: the final recruit of Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams and the steady hand guiding Hubert Davis’s Tar Heels through the turbulence of modern college hoops. Now, with his eligibility ticking down and the 2025-26 season opener against Elon looming, the White Plains, N.Y., native stands on the precipice of his farewell. At 24, Davis is no longer the wide-eyed freshman who arrived amid a pandemic; he’s a two-time All-American, the ACC’s reigning Player of the Year, and the last on-court remnant of Williams’s legendary tenure.<grok:render card_id=”4ee9fa” card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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When Williams abruptly retired on April 1, 2021—just days after a heartbreaking first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Wisconsin—Davis was left reeling. It was April Fool’s Day, a cruel cosmic joke for a program built on blue-blood certainty. “Before we get to that, Coach Williams retiring. On April Fool’s Day, bruh,” Davis recalled in a recent interview, the disbelief still fresh four years later.<grok:render card_id=”faa227″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> That freshman year, played in empty arenas and truncated by COVID-19, saw Davis average a modest 8.4 points per game, starting 10 of 29 contests. He was a reserve spark, the fourth two-guard to start as a freshman under Williams, joining the likes of Marcus Ginyard and Wayne Ellington. But the loss to Wisconsin, Williams’s final game, etched a scar: UNC’s season ended 18-11, and Davis scored just two points in 12 minutes.<grok:render card_id=”a96c40″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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Williams, the architect of three national titles (1993, 2005, 2009) and 903 wins at UNC, had handpicked Davis from Archbishop Stepinac High School. Ranked No. 43 in the Class of 2020 by ESPN, Davis committed over blue-blood suitors like Georgetown and Pitt after a whirlwind recruitment. Williams and then-assistant Hubert Davis scouted him relentlessly, even hopping courts at an AAU event in Atlanta. “Roy was all about that family feel,” Davis said. “He saw something in me—a shooter who could run the floor and compete.”<grok:render card_id=”bb2ec5″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> Stepinac, where Davis earned New York’s Mr. Basketball honors and led the Crusaders to back-to-back championships, was a proving ground. He averaged 30.3 points as a senior, blending silky jumpers with gritty drives. Williams offered a scholarship in July 2019, envisioning him as the backcourt glue for a reloaded 2020 class that included Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton.

 

The transition to Hubert Davis’s regime was seismic. Hubert, Williams’s handpicked successor and a 1980s Tar Heel sharpshooter, inherited a roster in flux. Williams, ever the meddler from afar, remained a shadow advisor—hiring agent Jim Tanner as UNC’s first general manager to modernize recruiting amid NIL chaos. “Roy’s still got that fire in his little finger,” Hubert Davis quipped recently, defending his program’s direction against critics.<grok:render card_id=”1e7167″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> For RJ, the shift meant retooling under a coach who doubled as a family friend. “Hubert was on that red-eye to see me play,” Davis laughed. “It was full circle—from Roy recruiting me to Hubert leading us.”

 

Sophomore year, 2021-22, was Davis’s breakout. Thrust into the starting lineup as part of the “Iron Five” with Love, Armando Bacot, Brady Manek, and Leaky Black, he averaged 13.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assists. UNC stumbled early, dropping nine of 15, but ignited a 17-1 ACC run. Davis orchestrated the magic: a buzzer-beater at Pitt, 12 assists in a tournament rout of Marquette, and a 30-point explosion against Baylor in the Sweet 16. The Tar Heels stunned Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s Cameron Indoor farewell, then ousted them again in the Final Four—the first NCAA meeting between rivals. Davis’s 16 points in the national title game couldn’t overcome Kansas’s late surge, a 72-69 heartbreaker that replayed endlessly in his mind.<grok:render card_id=”db8ee3″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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“It took a while for the tears to come, but they ended up going right down my face,” Davis admitted of that Superdome defeat.<grok:render card_id=”222bb8″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> The run cemented his jersey’s future in the Smith Center rafters—the first since Justin Jackson in 2017.<grok:render card_id=”4e7103″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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Junior season, 2022-23, was a hangover. As the preseason No. 1, UNC cratered to 20-13, missing March Madness for the first time since 2009-10. Davis shouldered the load, averaging 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.2 assists, but the weight showed. Teammates like Love transferred to Arizona, Walton to Texas Tech, and Puff Johnson to Penn State—leaving Davis as the “Last of the Mohicans” from the Williams era.<grok:render card_id=”3851d7″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> “It was tough, man. We had the pieces, but the chemistry wasn’t there,” he reflected. Yet Davis flirted with NBA Draft waters, only to return after counsel from Williams, Bacot, and Theo Pinson: “Just do it for you.”<grok:render card_id=”e4c104″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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His senior year, 2023-24, was transcendence. Davis erupted for 21.2 points per game, shattering UNC’s single-season 3-pointer record with 113 makes at 40.5%. He dropped a Dean Dome-record 42 against Miami—most by a Tar Heel since Shammond Williams in 1998—and tied for ACC Player of the Year honors.<grok:render card_id=”f1a879″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> UNC claimed the ACC regular-season crown, the program’s first since 2019, and earned a No. 1 seed. Davis’s Sweet 16 no-show (4-for-20 vs. Alabama) stung, but his consensus first-team All-America nod—UNC’s 19th—joined immortals like Michael Jordan and Tyler Hansbrough.<grok:render card_id=”6926df” card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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The decision to return for year five? Unfinished business. “We want to be playing the first week in April,” Davis declared in preseason, eyeing the 2025 Final Four in San Antonio.<grok:render card_id=”07b731″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> With Bacot, Cormac Ryan, and Paxson Wojcik gone, incoming freshmen Ian Jackson and Drake Powell flanked him. But the 2024-25 campaign was a grind: an adjustment to a youth-infused backcourt, early shooting slumps (under 40% from deep), and Hubert Davis’s up-tempo demands. “This whole year has been an adjustment period… mentally challenging to stay present,” Davis admitted after a January rhythm-finder: 26 points, perfect 4-for-4 from three in a rout of SMU.<grok:render card_id=”c389b7″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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He averaged 17.2 points, 3.6 assists, and 3.4 rebounds across 37 games, leading UNC in scoring 17 times.<grok:render card_id=”8920ac” card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> Highlights included 30 against Dayton in Maui and a career-closing 20 in Senior Night’s 82-69 loss to Duke—his final steps on Roy Williams Court, honored with a video tribute that left him misty-eyed.<grok:render card_id=”6afcf1″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> “My approach, my mindset, me being a leader—everything I envisioned came true,” he said postgame. “Just sometimes the outcome doesn’t go your way. That’s life.”<grok:render card_id=”04329d” card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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The postseason offered redemption. In the First Four, Davis authored a masterpiece: 26 points on 6-for-6 threes against San Diego State, tying UNC’s tournament record and setting a perfect-shooting mark (eclipsing Hubert Davis’s 5-for-5).<grok:render card_id=”366381″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> “For him to go 6-for-6 in our most important game… incredible,” teammate Seth Trimble marveled.<grok:render card_id=”307f42″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> UNC cruised 95-68, silencing doubters and advancing to face Ole Miss. But in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, the fairy tale frayed. Davis poured in 22, including a late three that sliced a nine-point deficit to two with 69 seconds left. Yet Ole Miss held firm, 71-64, ending UNC’s season at 23-14 and Davis’s college odyssey.<grok:render card_id=”637ed0″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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Walking off for the last time, jersey in hand, Davis embodied closure. His 2,725 career points rank second in UNC history (behind Hansbrough’s 3,509) and third in ACC annals.<grok:render card_id=”ec9fb3″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> He holds program marks for games played (175), consecutive double-figure scoring games (140), and NCAA Tournament free-throw percentage (90.2%). One of four Tar Heels with a 30-10-10 stat line, Davis notched five double-doubles and led in assists 56 times.<grok:render card_id=”7f10a8″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> His 23-game streak of multiple threes in 2023-24 remains untouchable.

 

As the last Williams recruit—outlasting Love (now at Arizona), Walton (Texas Tech), and Johnson—Davis severed the final thread to an era of unyielding dominance. Williams, spotted at summer leagues with ex-Tar Heels like Bacot and Davis, beamed from afar. “RJ’s the heart of what we built,” he told reporters in July, gathered with alumni in Vegas.<grok:render card_id=”39492e” card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> Hubert Davis, whose 1991 Final Four loss to Williams’s Kansas still haunts, praised his star: “He’s bridged generations, won an ACC title, reached the title game. Now? The league awaits.”<grok:render card_id=”6e7ebe” card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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Postseason, Davis inked an Exhibit 10 deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, only to be waived for the G League’s South Bay squad. His debut? A 31-point clinic, channeling Chapel Hill fire.<grok:render card_id=”2ce186″ card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> NBA scouts whisper second-round potential—shooting, IQ, grit. But for Tar Heel faithful, Davis is eternal: the kid who turned shock into legacy, fool’s gold into blue-chip gold.

 

As UNC reloads with transfers like Kyan Evans and freshmen Derek Dixon, the Smith Center feels emptier. Yet Davis’s shadow lingers—a reminder that even in transition, Carolina endures. “I came for Roy, stayed for Hubert, won for the brothers,” he posted on X after Ole Miss, a simple 🗣️ emoji underscoring resolve.<grok:render card_id=”f1623f” card_type=”citation_card” type=”render_inline_citation”>

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</grok:render> The last link may be severed, but the chain? Stronger for it.

 

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