Hubert Davis gives injury update on RJ Davis

North Carolina star guard RJ Davis suffered an injury in the team’s latest matchup versus Syracuse while taking a charge late in the game. With less than 11 seconds remaining Davis took a charge and drew a flagrant one foul on Orange guard Judah Mintz, which helped propel the Tar Heels to victory but left him injured after take a significant blow to the face.

Head coach Hubert Davis gave an injury update on Davis, as he and the rest of the team had an entire week until their next game versus Pitt.

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

Davis elaborated on the extent of RJ’s injury, detailing what exactly went wrong following a brutal hit to the eye in last Tuesday’s game.

“Well in regards to RJ he got hit in the eye and so it was swollen after the game, he couldn’t see out of one eye and so they wanted to do x-rays to make sure that nothing was wrong around his eye and anything broken and the swelling from his eye is obviously gone,” Davis explained. “He probably will still have a black eye on Wednesday night but just the soreness of getting hit around the eye that was the main issue and the swelling and all of that is gone.”

Davis still stuffed the stat sheet during his minutes prior to his eye injury scoring nine points, grabbing six rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Coach Davis didn’t make any guarantees for his status against Pitt, but feels that’s he on track to suit up for the Heels.

“If things continue to improve I anticipate him on playing, but again it’s Monday morning and we don’t play until 7 p.m. on Wednesday. But if things continue to progress like they have, I fully expect RJ to be in the lineup and be playing on Wednesday,” Davis said.

More on RJ Davis

The presence of Davis on the floor Wednesday would be big for North Carolina. Coach Davis previously described his play as ‘All-American level’ before the Syracuse game, and spoke more about what has made him so special for the Tar Heels this season.

“The level that I think, obviously his shooting percentages have gone up drastically since the beginning of the season, but I just feel like his defense and his toughness, just his overall toughness has just been off the chart,” Davis said. “The defense in terms of being able to guard his guy, the challenge of picking up full court has just really led to the energy for everybody out there on the floor and it’s just been great.”

RJ Davis has been making it happen on both ends of the floor this season, ranking top two on the roster in points, assists, and steals per game while also shooting an impressive 38.2% from three-point range. His stats and production are obvious, but according to coach Davis, his toughness has been what’s set him apart this season. And hopefully, he can return from injury for Wednesday’s game and put that toughness on display on versus Pittsburg.

“And then his toughness, the plays that he made at Syracuse the two charges, there was another one in transition where he didn’t allow them to score in transition, put them on the free throw line. His defense and the physicality, the toughness that he has brought lately has just been unbelievable,” Davis said.