Photo credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
UNC Basketball: RJ Davis Battling Former Tar Heel for National Award
On Tuesday night, UNC basketball star RJ Davis boosted his standing for ACC Player of the Year and various national honors. The 6-foot guard tallied 22 points and six assists, shooting 4-for-6 beyond the arc, to lead the No. 7 Tar Heels (24-6, 16-3 ACC) to an 84-51 home win over unranked Notre Dame (12-18, 7-12 ACC) on his Senior Night.
Hours earlier, Davis landed among the five finalists that the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced for the prestigious Jerry West Award, presented annually to the premier Division I shooting guard.
The other four players remaining in the race are Kansas' Kevin McCullar Jr., Kentucky's Antonio Reeves, Michigan State's Tyson Walker, and RJ Davis' former Tar Heel teammate in Arizona senior Caleb Love.
Davis and Love, perhaps the two frontrunners for the distinction, arrived together in Chapel Hill as part of the celebrated 2020 UNC basketball recruiting class.
Four years later, the 6-foot-4 Love, a former five-star prep who transferred to the Wildcats following his third season with the Tar Heels, is averaging 19.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists for No. 5 Arizona (23-6, 14-4 ACC). And Davis, a former four-star, is putting up 21.5 points, 3.8 boards, and 3.5 dimes per game.
Neither has missed a single outing for their respective teams.
NEXT UNC BASKETBALL GAME: at No. 9 Duke (24-6, 15-4 ACC), 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday (ESPN)
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