RJ Davis will use his Covid year and return to North Carolina for a fifth basketball season, he formally announced Wednesday morning.

The ACC Player of the Year this past season, and a consensus first-team All-American, Davis had until April 27 to submit his name for the NBA Draft. So, the announcement calms so uneasiness by UNC fans hoping he would indeed come back for one more season.

In 37 games, Davis led the ACC in scoring averaging 21.2 points per game. He also averaged 3.5 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 1.2 steals, shot 42.8% from the field, 39.8% from 3-point range, and 87.3% from the free throw line. He also won the Jerry West Award, which goes to the top shooting guard in the country.

“I just love putting on this jersey,” Davis said after the Tar Heels’ loss to Alabama in the Sweet 16. “I love playing for Coach Davis and the rest of the coaching staff, and playing for Carolina fans.”

Davis was asked multiple times late in the season about the prospect of returning, and maintained it wasn’t on his radar at the time, and he would eventually deal with it after the season ended. His coach, however, replied when he was asked about possibly getting a fifth year from the White Plains, NY, native.

“If RJ decided not to come back for an extra COVID year, I’m in 100 percent support of that,” Hubert Davis said. “If he would come back, I am in 100% support of that. I’m glad that our players have choices.”

Davis finished the campaign No. 5 on UNC’s all-time scoring list with 2,088 points, trailing Sam Perkins, Phil Ford, Armando Bacot, and Tyler Hansbrough, who it Carolina’s leader with 2,872 points.

Thus, Davis is 784 points behind Hansbrough, and interestingly, he scored 784 points this past season.

Also, after the Tar Heels’ loss in the NCAA Tournament, Davis was asked about the season, Carolina winning 29 games, the outright ACC regular season title, and being a No. 1 seed in the big dance. And this was coming off a disappointing year in which UNC became the first preseason No. 1 team to not make the NCAAs.

“I feel like me and Mando (Armando Bacot) have a lot of love for this place, and we didn’t want things to end how it did last year,” Davis said. “We wanted to come back and restore success in this program… This sucks because of how much we believe in each other, and we could have done a lot of really great things with this team.”

They accomplished that goal, and now Davis has a chance to add more to his personal legacy and further entrench North Carolina in its rightful perch among the top of college basketball.

RJ Davis Notes:

-Led the ACC in scoring overall (21.3 ppg) and in conference games (21.1 ppg)

-Highest scoring average in the ACC since 2019 -He scored 20 or more points 23 times in 37 games

-The 23 games with at least 20 points is the fourth best in a season in UNC history behind only Lennie Rosenbluth, Tyler Hansbrough, and Antawn Jamison

-He scored 30-plus four times

-His 42-point game against Miami is the highest scoring output in a college game in Smith Center history -Davis hit at least one 3-pointer in every game but the last one

-He was the first UNC player to score 20-plus points in 8 straight games since Tyler Hansbrough in 2007-08, the year he was National Player of the Year

-First Tar Heel to score 26 or more points in five straight games since Charlie Scott in 1970

-Davis became the first UNC player to ever record 20 points, 10 assists, 5 steals, and no turnovers in game

-His 784 points are the fourth most in a season by a Tar Heel

-Davis’ 113 made 3-pointers is also a UNC single-season record.

-Fourth Tar Heel to average 20-plus points and also hand out 100 assists in the same season -Tied UNC record with 41 consecutive made free throws

-Set UNC record for most consecutive games with at least two made 3-pointers with 23 (next closest is at 15)

RJ Davis Honors:

-Consensus first-team All-America – The 19th player in UNC history to achieve this

-The 15th UNC Tar Heel to win ACC Player of the Year

-Finalist for Naismith & Wooden Awards

-Finalist for Jerry West Award

-National Player of the Week by one of the main services in four different weeks

-ACC Player of the Week four times

-Recipient of an ACC Post-Graduate Scholarship and UNC's Scholar-Athlete award winner for men's basketball

RJ Davis Historical Placements:

(Note: Only listing a few marks)

-Fifth all-time in scoring at UNC with 2,088 points

-Second all-time at UNC with 274 made 3-pointers

-UNC all-time free throw shooter at 85.8%