Luke DeCock: After five years, and one last shot, RJ Davis couldn't extend his career, or UNC's season

Luke DeCock, The News & Observer on Mar 21, 2025

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MILWAUKEE — R.J. Davis got North Carolina as close as North Carolina was going to get, driving down the lane to his left, slicing to the rim, landing on his tailbone. The free throw cut a 22-point deficit to two.

A career of ups and downs, of achievement and success and disappointment and frustration, hardly culminated in that moment, but whether Davis would be able to add to the legacy of his five years in Chapel Hill certainly hung in the balance with 69 seconds to go.

Those were the last points North Carolina would score. Sean Pedulla, formerly of Virginia Tech, hit a 3-pointer at the other end. Davis got one last look that came up short. North Carolina’s season came to an end at the hands of Ole Miss, 71-64, yet another second-half rally that fell short.

And that left Davis, after five years at North Carolina, the last player of the Roy Williams era, walking off the court for the final time.

“Just everything I accomplished that I didn’t even think I was going to accomplish, it’s crazy to me,” Davis said. “My name is going to be up there with a lot of great players that put on this jersey, and also that played in the ACC, so that’s something that I’ll just remember and look back on when I get older. And just be grateful. Just be thankful. The ups and downs I went through, the adversity I went through, it helped me become the person and the player that I am today.”

He dealt with the strictures of the COVID year as a freshman, a season that ended with a harsh loss to Wisconsin in what turned out to be Williams’ final game. There was the glory of 2022, when the Tar Heels rallied down the stretch with Davis at the point, ruining Mike Krzyzewski’s Cameron farewell before ending that fabled career in the Final Four, standing on the Superdome floor with a 16-point lead in a national title game the Tar Heels would lose by three.

And the ignominy of the next season, starting out No. 1, ending it by declining to play in the NIT. A Sweet 16 appearance in his first senior season as the ACC player of the year, a late rally to sneak into the NCAA field as the final team in his second. Given the unexpected encore, his virtuoso performance in Dayton helped silence North Carolina’s critics and send the Tar Heels on to Milwaukee and the tournament proper.

If there was something of Davis’ career to this game, there was something of the season to it as well. North Carolina, flirting with embarrassment, rallying at the precipice, falling barely short at the end. The Tar Heels were dead in the water in January, thumped at Clemson in February, only to regroup, tweak the lineup and storm to the finish.

Friday, they had to go small in the second half, with Jae’Lyn Withers out after injuring his right leg early in the half and Ven-Allen Lubin in foul trouble. But Seth Trimble, playing in his hometown for the first time, and Jalen Washington dragged the Tar Heels back into the fight, bringing the building along with them.

It was there for the taking, and then it slipped away. Davis’ last miss from outside left him 1 for 8 from long range, after going 6 for 6 in the blowout of San Diego State three days earlier. The final shot of his North Carolina career, would have brought the Tar Heels back within two.

Davis’ final 15 points left him second in North Carolina history, behind Tyler Hansbrough, and third in ACC history, with 2,725. Those thousands of points contain multitudes.

“He’s the heart of the team,” Lubin said. “He always shows that competitive spirit, that leadership, that ability to continue to fight through adversity, that toughness. It trickled down the rest of us. That’s what we admire about him.”

Afterward, Davis sat in a folding chair, his head resting against a closed locker, and answered questions quietly. There were no tears, not then. Few players have had more time to contemplate their legacy, or reckon with the fast approaching end. Davis has been facing it for weeks.

“It’s been one hell of a ride,” Davis said. “One hell of a career.”

He went to the interview room, did his duties there with his usual forthrightness, then returned to the quiet locker room. He took off his No. 4 jersey for the last time a little before 6 p.m., leaving it on his shoes as he went to change.

It sat there, crumpled, a reminder that a jersey is nothing without the person within it, just fabric and logos and a number. That number will be honored, as North Carolina does, but Davis will not wear it again. His 175th game was his last. The Tar Heels are done, and after five long, tumultuous, accomplished years, so is Davis.