— Caroline Wills, sports editor
RJ Davis
After missing the 2022 NCAA tournament, all eyes fell on how men's basketball would bounce back.
Most found comfort in the fact that Armando Bacot returned for his fifth year and would likely be UNC's spine. But someone else captured the spotlight: RJ Davis.
Davis had one of the best UNC seasons in college basketball history. He was a consensus first team All-American, the first North Carolina guard to do so since Joseph Forte in 2001. Furthermore, Davis became just the fifth UNC guard to win ACC Player of the Year, joining elite company with Michael Jordan, Phil Ford, Forte and Ty Lawson. Davis also added the Jerry West Award, given to the best shooting guard in the country — the first Tar Heel to do so.
In February against Miami, he exploded for 42 points in the Dean E. Smith Center, and that was after a career-high 36-point outing against Wake Forest just over a month earlier.
And while it's easy to point out his abysmal shooting performance against Alabama in last year's NCAA Sweet 16 — one of the contributing factors for why North Carolina lost — the Tar Heels never would have been in that position without him.
Despite a slow start to the 2024-25 season after being named a preseason first team All-American, it’s still Davis' team, and it's not a slump that one would expect to last the whole season.
– Matthew Maynard, assistant sports editor
Vance Honeycutt
Some people are born with the clutch gene and Vance Honeycutt has it.
Before being drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft by the Orioles in 2024, the center fielder helped lead the Tar Heels to their first College World Series appearance since 2018. To earn the top-8 spot, UNC's all-time home run leader hit two moon shots against LSU in game three of the Chapel Hill Regional.
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He hit a walk-off homer against West Virginia in the Super Regional. And he ended the game against Virginia in a similar fashion during the Tar Heels' first game of the CWS.
Outside of those game-winning moments, Honeycutt was the only player in the Power 4 conferences to finish his time at UNC with more than 60 home runs and 70 stolen bases. His 65 career home runs are the fourth most in ACC history. He was the first Tar Heel to receive the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. He was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024.
Last year, he led the ACC in runs scored, tied the conference lead for home runs and ranked third for stolen bases. The list of accolades just continued.
So, it's safe to say this to summarize it all: He has aura.
— Emma Moon, assistant sports editor
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Emma MoonEmma Moon is the 2024-25 assistant sports editor. She previously served as the Summer Sports Editor and as a senior writer. Emma is a senior majoring in Media and Journalism, and English. She has red hair and drives a Prius.
Caroline WillsCaroline Wills is the 2024-25 sports editor. Previously, she served as a senior writer on the sports desk, primarily covering women's tennis, field hockey, and women's basketball.