CHAPEL HILL – RJ Davis is getting better, his coach said Monday morning, and the junior point guard likely will play when North Carolina hosts Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.

UNC Coach Hubert Davis was asked a series of questions about the 6-foot native of White Plains, NY, during the weekly ACC conference call. Carolina’s floor general is banged up, but he’s been practicing and gets better each day.

“He’s done a lot of work,” Hubert Davis said. “He’ll be practicing today. He did individual workouts, and stuff like that, all throughout the weekend. Every day he’s gotten better and better, and he’s in a really good spot right now.”

The play that ended Davis’ night last Tuesday in UNC’s 72-68 victory at Syracuse came with 10.7 seconds remaining and the Tar Heels just having taken a 69-68 lead.

Orange point guard Judah Mintz raced up the court looking to get right to the rim, but Davis was alongside him the whole way, and got in front enough to quickly step in and take a charge. Mintz swung his right elbow in front trying to position himself to score, and he caught Davis above the right eye.

The UNC guard immediately crashed to the floor, and some of his teammates standing right there motioned to the bench for trainer Doug Halverson to attend to the injured Tar Heel. He was joined by Director of Operates Eric Hoots. And after a couple of minutes, UNC Coach Hubert Davis went out to see his point guard.

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Davis was helped off the court but walked on his own power through the tunnel to the locker room, though his face was buried in a bloody towel.

“He’s tough as nails,” junior Caleb Love said after the game about his backcourt mate. “I appreciate having him on my team because he brings that toughness and grit to this team, and we need those of guys. He put his body on the line. His eye is messed up right now; he got a slit (above) his eye. But he’ll be alright.”

The Tar Heels (15-6, 7-3) are in their open part of the schedule, so they didn’t play this past weekend. So, they are eight days in between games, which is allowing Davis time to heal.

“If things continue to improve, I anticipate him playing,” his coach said during the conference call. “Again, it’s Monday morning and we don’t play until 7 PM on Wednesday. But if things continue to progress as they have, I fully expect RJ to be in the lineup and be playing on Wednesday.”

Some teammates spoke after the win last Tuesday about the blood-soaked towel in which Davis’ face was buried. He was seen afterward with an ice pack above his eye. UNC took precautions to make sure everything checked out fine for the team’s second-leading scorer (16.4 ppg).

“He got hit in the eye. It was swollen after the game. He couldn’t see out of one eye,” Hubert Davis said. “They wanted to do x-rays to make sure that nothing was wrong around his eye, and anything broken. The swelling from his eye is gone, (but) he probably will have a black eye on Wednesday night.”