RJ Davis becomes first UNC basketball player to win the Jerry West Award

RJ Davis has been officially announced as the winner of the 2024 Jerry West Award, making him the first UNC basketball player to ever win the award. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame presents this honor, which is annually awarded to the top shooting guard in the country.

Davis becomes just the second ACC player to win the Jerry West Award, joining Duke's RJ Barrett, who took home the award in 2019. Three Tar Heels (Raymond Felton in 2005, Ty Lawson in 2009, and Kendall Marshall in 2012) previously won the Hall of Fame's point guard award, but Davis is now in a class of his own once again.

It was surely the year of RJ Davis in Chapel Hill, as the senior guard set the college basketball world by storm. Davis took his game to a whole new level while leading the UNC basketball program to another ACC regular season title along with a trip to the Sweet 16.

This season, Davis was a consensus/unanimous first-team All-American selection, the ACC Player of the Year, a finalist for national player-of-the-year honors, and a four-time national player of the week and ACC Player of the Week. His 784 points were the fourth-most in a single season and the most ever by a guard in UNC basketball history.

Following a disappointing 2022-2023 season for the program as a whole, Davis returned to Chapel Hill to re-write the narrative. He did just that, putting together a season for the record books that will be remembered for quite some time.

When his UNC basketball career officially comes to a close (remember, he has a fifth season of eligibility to use if he desires), Davis' No. 4 will be the first of its kind to hang in the Dean Smith Center rafters. It will be a friendly reminder of what Davis was able to accomplish as a Tar Heel, as his senior season is one that Tar Heel fans will talk about for quite some time.