North Carolina standout RJ Davis recalls playing in title-game loss to Jayhawks
Just one member of North Carolina’s 2024-25 men’s basketball team played in the Tar Heels’ 72-69 loss to Kansas in the 2022 NCAA title game on April 4, 2022 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
He’s returning first-team consensus All-America selection/reigning ACC player of the year RJ Davis, a 6-foot-0, 180-pound fifth-year senior guard who as a sophomore scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while playing 40 minutes in the narrow defeat to the Jayhawks.
“We were just one rebound away from winning it,” White Plains, New York native Davis recalled Wednesday at a news conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina held in advance of Friday’s nonconference clash between No. 1-ranked KU and No. 9 UNC.
Tipoff is 6 p.m., Central time, with a live telecast on ESPN2.
Davis — he scored 24 points with seven rebounds and seven assists in Monday’s 90-76 season opening win over Elon — will be starting Friday and be matched against KU senior Dajuan Harris, who along with senior KJ Adams are the two returning Jayhawks from the ’22 title game.
“It’s definitely something that the following year I was rewatching that game over and over again because you get so close to your dream that you set as a freshman, or just as a high school athlete. You always want to win a national championship just from watching different teams, different players play March Madness and you want to be the last team standing,” Davis added.
“So, just to be that close, it was definitely heartbreaking for me. A lot of emotions I can remember from that game. I remember looking up at the clock and then watching it hit zero and the buzzer going off,” he reflected. “It took a while for the tears to come but they ended up going right down my face in terms of just a lot of the hard work that we put into it as a team throughout that year, the year we had and how we changed that whole year around.
“It was a tremendous feeling. But to end up short like that was heartbreaking. As a team we really put a lot of hard work in, basically put our lives on the line for that game and for that whole year just to end up (short) of the goal we really wanted. It definitely motivated me the next two years but then again this year,” Davis stated.
Pestered by KU’s Harris, Ochai Agbaji and others, Davis was 5-for-17 from the field, including 0-for-5 from 3 yet 5-of-5 from the line versus the Jayhawks in New Orleans. He had two assists to three turnovers in 40 minutes. Harris had two points on 1-of-5 shooting with three assists, three steals and four turnovers in 27 minutes as the Jayhawks rallied from a game-high deficit of 16 points to win. Adams did not score in a brief 3-minute stint.
“It’s crazy because I played Dajuan when I was in high school. On the EYBL Circuit he played for Mokan (Elite). I was matched against him again my sophomore year in the championship game,” Davis said. “He’s a really good guard defensively. .He makes plays for others. He’s able to get downhill. I’m definitely looking forward to that matchup again.”
Davis is familiar with one other Jayhawks guard.
Former Alabama starter Rylan Griffen, a KU transfer who stands 6-foot-6 to Davis’ 6-0, guarded Davis in Alabama’s 89-87 victory over the Tar Heels in a Sweet 16 contest last March 28 in Los Angeles.
Davis scored 16 points but on chilly 4-of-20 shooting. He went 0-for-9 from 3 with seven assists to one turnover in 38 minutes. Griffen countered with 19 points and four boards in 29 pivotal minutes. He hit 6 of 12 shots and was 5-of-8 from 3.
“I know he was guarding me the whole game, obviously a longer defender just to make it difficult for me to make tough shots, kind of push out on the perimeter to catch the basketball. Just little stuff like that,” Davis said of Griffen at Wednesday’s news conference.
“I’ve rewatched that game. Most of my shots were all good looks, they weren’t anything that were difficult for me to make, I just missed them. But he’s a great defender. I remember seeing him at the CP3 (Chris Paul) camp as well. I’m looking forward to it again,” Davis added.
UNC coach Hubert Davis says Griffen was a huge factor in Alabama surviving the Heels a year ago.
“He can really shoot,” Davis said Wednesday in Chapel Hill. “He’s got great length. He’s 6-6, 6-7. He’s really good in transition, but he’s not just a shooter. He can put the ball on the floor, he can attack, he can finish at the basket, mid-range game, get to the free throw line. He’s a heck of a basketball player.
“So, obviously he had success against us in the NCAA Tournament. He’ll continue to do that at Kansas, and he’s one of the many guys on their roster that from a defensive standpoint we have to stay close to and take away those open looks from 3-point range,” Davis added.
UNC and KU have played to a 6-6 tie throughout history entering Friday’s game.
“Only brief,” Davis said, asked if he was aware of the blueblood matchups. “I know that Roy (Williams, former KU and UNC coach) coached there and just from you (media) telling me, Dean Smith played there. I think there’s some Carolina ties there. I think this will be a good game for both of our teams, just from Carolina and the Kansas history, just to have a lot of Hall of Fame coaches from both universities, just being a part of this game. I’m excited for it.”
KU will return the trip to Chapel Hill to complete a home-and-home series next November.
“That’s big time,” Davis said. “I think it’s great for college basketball to have these home and away games, kind of alternate each year. It’s a different environment for us.
“It’s like we’re going down there to their stadium and it’s going to be vice versa next year. Just to get a feel for the environment, the energy, what different crowds bring. I think it’s huge for college basketball in general. It’s something that each player should aspire and look forward to because you only get these type of games and type of opponents once in a while. It’s definitely something you want to look back on and definitely something you want to take full advantage of because it’s fun at the end of the day.”
