RJ Davis named ACC Preseason Player of the Year

RJ Davis was named ACC Preseason Player of the Year and was a unanimous pick for the Preseason All-ACC First Team. The UNC basketball program was also picked to finish second in the ACC after perpetual preseason champion Duke.

The rest of the Preseason All-ACC First Team consisted of Duke freshman Cooper Flagg, Wake Forest guard Hunter Sallis, Miami guard Nigel Pack, and Notre Dame guard Markus Burton. What do you notice about that group of players? There's a lot of guards, and RJ Davis is the best of the bunch.

Davis was stellar last season, averaging 21.2 points per game, 3.6 rebounds per game, and 3.5 assists per game. In head to head matchups with some of his peers on the All-ACC First Team, RJ dropped 36 points on Sallis and Wake Forest, and a career-high 42 points at home against Miami (Nigel Pack was injured that game).

That production was good enough to turn RJ into a First Team All-American last season, and with the departures of Armando Bacot, Harrison Ingram, and Cormac Ryan, he'll need to shoulder an even heavier load. RJ's shoulders are broad enough to carry the team.

He'll have plenty of firepower to support him, but a lot of UNC's talent is either young or unproven in the ACC. He has the best table-setter in the ACC in sophomore point guard Elliot Cadeau, a sharpshooter in Belmont transfer Cade Tyson, and two exciting perimeter players in Ian Jackson and Drake Powell to lead into a grinding season against some of the nation's best.

If RJ can perform and raise the level of his teammates, he'll have plenty of marquee games to shine in front of national voters. The North Carolina basketball program visits Kansas, will host Alabama in the ACC/SEC Challenge, and play marquee teams in the Maui Invitational. RJ Davis should sprinkle enough magic in those games to transform his preseason honors into the real thing.