RJ Davis passes Michael Jordan on North Carolina career scoring list

Another member of the North Carolina basketball team has passed Michael Jordan on the program’s career scoring list, with RJ Davis joining Armando Bacot in accomplishing that feat on Tuesday night.

Davis eclipsed Jordan’s career mark of 1,788 points with a free throw with 6:30 remaining in a game against Clemson.

The North Carolina guard entered the game with 1,772 career points, just 16 points shy of Jordan’s mark. He managed to make up that gap in a highly competitive game against Clemson, one in which the Tar Heels desperately needed his contributions.

Bacot passed Jordan’s mark last spring, showing it could be done, and Davis followed suit not long after.

Davis was also chasing another non-Michael Jordan mark, threatening to break into the top 20 in all-time assists at North Carolina. He went into Tuesday night’s game with 379, just four short of passing Steve Bucknall for 20th place.

At the time of this writing, Davis had three assists, tied with Bucknall.

North Carolina’s formula to succeed

While North Carolina has been pretty close to firing on all cylinders this season, coach Hubert Davis believes there’s still a bit of untapped potential for his squad.

To unlock it it’s about everyone understanding their role on the team.

“There’s a hunger and thirst with this group that individually and as a team to be the best that we can be,” Davis said. “I just think it comes from many different directions. Obviously the people, guys that have been here before there’s a hunger and thirst to continue to grow and be good. Then you have guys like Cormac (Ryan) … never run out of that tunnel and look at that type of crowd and get on this stage and so a thankfulness and appreciation for being here.

“So there’s a hunger and thirst to be good, because this is the first time in their career they’ve been in this situation. And then the freshmen that I don’t know if they know what’s going on, but there’s a hunger and thirst for them to be a part of this and so it’s nice to see the the motivation in this team to be the best that they can be. Wherever it ends up, but all year this team has been connected and had a goal to reach their full potential.”

One thing that Davis loves about his team is its ability to bounce back.

“It doesn’t happen all the time, but this team, I think one of the characteristics of this team has been being able to handle a little bit of adversity and bounce back,” Davis said. “One of the things that we always talk about is, whether good things or bad things happen, the only thing you have control over is how you react and how you respond. And I feel like all year our guys have done a really good job reacting and responding, whether something’s going well for us or we’re struggling with it.

“Just the conversations in the huddle, the conversations on the floor with these guys. They’re locked in, they’re communicating, they’re talking, they’re all on the same page. It gives you great confidence as a coach that they can do the things they need to do to continue to win out there on the floor.”