UNC Basketball: RJ Davis makes key change, regains shooting form

UNC basketball standout RJ Davis made a change that paid dividends on Saturday night, as his shooting form was back on track because of it.

One of the rather big storylines surrounding the UNC basketball program this season has been the inconsistency of junior guard RJ Davis.

There was a lot of concern surrounding Davis’ struggles, especially early on in the season. Through seven games, Davis connected on just over 30 % of his three-point attempts, which is very uncharacteristic for the talented scoring guard.

However, there was a reason behind it, as Davis was dealing with a hand injury that was certainly playing a major factor in his struggles. Once Davis began to get healthy, he started to heat up offensively just in time for conference play.

It was all going well until the team’s matchup with Syracuse, where Davis reinjured the finger (along with sustaining other injuries). Since then, Davis has been forced to tape his fingers, and of course, the struggles once again came back.

As the Tar Heels struggled, so did one of their leaders, as the White Plains, New York native was shooting just 32 % from the floor, including 21% from three-point range. During that stretch, North Carolina lost five of six games, as their NCAA Tournament hopes began to dwindle.

Now, about a month after re-aggravating the injury, Davis felt healthy enough to shed the tape, and it paid off on Saturday night.

Davis scored 16 points while connecting on five of his 10 shot attempts in the Tar Heels’ much-needed victory over No. 6-ranked Virginia. He knows there are risks that could come along with removing the tape, but it appears the junior is more than willing to give it a try:

"“The last few practices I tried to play without the tape to see how it feels. I’m going to take the risk of my fingers getting jammed up or hit, it’s just a risk you take. I don’t think too much about it, but I feel like that was a great start for me to play without it and have a better feel for the basketball.”"

Without a doubt, the hope is that Davis can avoid re-aggravating the injury over the final stretch of the 2022-2023 season. It’s evident that the UNC basketball program is a much-better team when Davis is shooting the ball at the level that he has shown he is capable of.

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