RJ Davis, Hubert Davis Claim Year-End Honors

Posted on March 12, 2024

 

This article was updated March 28, 2024.

Senior point guard RJ Davis and head coach Hubert Davis ’92 have been named 2023 –24 Atlantic Coast Conference Player and Coach of the Year. It is the first time in almost three decades that  swept the league’s top two awards. In the 1997–98, season forward Antawn Jamison ’99 and head coach Bill Guthridge captured the accolades.

The All-ACC honors were announced March 11, with RJ Davis receiving 68 of the 75 votes for Player of the Year. He was also named first-team All-ACC and is the 15th UNC player to receive Player of the Year honors and the first since Justin Jackson ’19 in 2016 –17.

Davis leads the ACC in scoring with 21.1 points per game. During the Feb. 26 contest against Miami, he set the all-time scoring record in the Dean E. Smith Center with 42 points. Bob Lewis ’67 holds the all-time single-game scoring record at UNC. Lewis scored 49 points in December 1965 in Carmichael Auditorium against Florida State. Davis is a finalist for the John R. Wooden award, given to the nation’s best player, and for the Bob Cousy Award, given to the nation’s top point guard.

“I just wanted to have a great senior year, especially with how last year went,” Davis said on ACC Network, referring to the team not making the 2023 NCAA tournament. “I just wanted to come into this year with how I wanted to leave my legacy behind.”

Hubert Davis is in his third season coaching the Tar Heels, who finished the regular season 25–6, 17–3 in conference play. UNC was the regular season champion. This was the Heels’ first outright regular season championship since the 2016–17 campaign, and the team’s 17 conference wins tied the ACC record for most victories in a single season.

Hubert Davis is the fifth Tar Heels coach to win ACC Coach of the Year and the first since Roy Williams ’72 (’73 MAT) won it in 2011.

Joining RJ Davis on the All-ACC team are graduate Armando Bacot (second team) and junior Harrison Ingram (third team). Bacot was also voted to the All-Defensive team, and first-year Elliot Cadeau was named to the All-Freshman team.

—Cameron Hayes Fardy ’23