CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina freshman guard RJ Davis met with the media via zoom Monday afternoon to discuss what he learned from last week’s experience in the Maui Invitational, how his game is coming along, and much more.
In four games, Davis leads the Tar Heels in scoring at 12.3 points per game while shooting 15-for-37 (40.5 percent) from the field, including 6-for-13 from 3-point range, which is 46.2 percent. He’s 13-for-17 from the free throw line, is averaging 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists.
Above is the video of Davis’ Q&A session and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*Davis and Caleb Love are the first freshmen duo to start together in the backcourt at UNC since Bobby Frasor and Marcus Ginyard in the 2005-06 season. And without having a typical preseason with a secret scrimmage and exhibition game, how is their chemistry coming along?
“I feel like me and him complement each other really well,” Davis said. “Obviously, we’re both freshmen, so there’s a lot to learn, especially the way Coach Roy wants us to play. We’re doing a good job (but) we can do a better job as far as taking care of the ball, shot selection, and getting our teammates involved.
“It’s still early in the season, so there’s a lot of time to improve and fix our mistakes. We have a long way to go and we just want to win.”
*In a broader sense, what did Davis learn from three games in three days in Asheville?
“I learned a lot. We played great competition, I learned there’s three things I have to work on, which is the assist-to-turnover ratio, we have to do a better job with that, as point guard limit our turnovers," Davis said. "And get the ball inside and knowing what are good and what are bad shots. There were a couple of times where I took some bad shots, which could have been better shot selection either for myself or my teammates.
“And just overall, moving on offense. Not staying too stagnant, setting screens for one another, cutting without the ball. It was a good learning experience. Obviously, the last game didn’t go as we wanted, but I feel like we kind of needed that just learn from it and build off from that moving forward.”
*Davis was defending Texas’ Matt Coleman on the final shot last Wednesday night – a shot that fell through the cylinder winning the Maui championship for the Longhorns. What does Davis think about how he defended Coleman and what is his overall take from the play?
“I feel like I did a good job of playing Matt Coleman,” he said. “I know he did the same move twice in a row, both contested jump shots. I feel like I did a good job staying my ground, didn’t want to jump because I knew he would have jumped into me and caused a foul. So, I feel like I did a pretty good job of playing him. It was a tough shot, it was well contested.”
*After watching the film from last week’s games, what are some of the things Davis feels really good about regarding his personal performance?
“I did a good job of bringing energy,” Davis replied. “Obviously, my shot wasn’t falling the last game, but I also did a couple of other things that helped my team. We saw Garrison was hot so we got the ball to him, played as tough defense as I could, and basically just learning to push the ball faster at a faster pace.
“It was a good week for me, could have been better, (but) this is where you learn from. You take you’re mistakes and you adjust them.”