Elijah Davis had no idea what to do.
The son of UNC head coach Hubert Davis, Elijah had just flung up a long three-pointer in the waning moments of the Tar Heels’ 99-51 win against East Carolina Monday night at the Smith Center. It went in, but Davis doesn’t clearly remember the moment.
“I blacked out,” he said after the game. “Kind of like a flashback of everything.”
Elijah transferred to UNC from the University of Lynchburg, which competes in Division 3, before the 2024-25 season. He hadn’t scored a point since then.
“I vividly remember my last shot that I hit at Lynchburg,” Elijah said. “And I was like, ‘That can’t be my last career point. That can’t be it.’”
Elijah could also vividly remember some of his lowest points at Lynchburg. During his junior season, he tore his hamstring running sprints. Teammates told him to get up. Elijah couldn’t.
He was out for eight weeks, though Elijah admits now he probably should’ve taken it a little slower. During the grueling rehab from the injury, he said he thought about walking away from the game entirely.
“I ain’t talk to my parents. I made a decision: I was done,” Elijah said. “I just wasn’t in a good space. I just went into my coach’s office, I was like, ‘I’m done. I want to go home.’ And he told me no.”
Maybe it was that turning point in his life which flashed through Elijah Davis’ mind as the ball sailed through the hoop at the Smith Center. It certainly was a long time coming, at least in Elijah’s mind. He thought he had another one made earlier this month against East Tennessee State.
“As soon as it left my hands, it felt so good,” he said of that miss. “I really thought that was gonna be the one.”
As for senior guard Seth Trimble, he knew Elijah had something special in store Monday night. Trimble participates in eye therapy before games, an exercise which involves ping pong paddles. Out of nowhere, Elijah joined in.
“I made a joke,” Trimble said. “I said, ‘You’re gonna make your first three today.’ It looked good to me as soon as he shot it.”
Elijah’s shooting form is far from textbook. One could almost describe it as herky-jerky, a far cry from his dad’s form which torched the nets both in Chapel Hill and the NBA. None of that mattered to Hubert Davis at the press conference podium Monday. Almost as soon as Davis heard Elijah’s name, his eyes welled. He took a moment to compose himself. In those few seconds, the head coach disappeared. A proud father took his place.
“I try to be head coach and not dad,” Davis said, clearly losing that battle. “That was a really awesome, cool moment.”
But in the moment, as the crowd erupted, the Davis family had another issue. Somewhere in the Smith Center stands, Elijah’s brother had taken his shirt off and was, to quote Elijah, “hurling it around.”
On the Tar Heel bench, freshman star Caleb Wilson used all of his freak athleticism to hop nearly into the UNC student section behind the baseline. Jonathan Powell jumped onto the court and had to be restrained by an official. Afterward, Henri Veesaar – who had made four threes himself in his 26 minutes of action – refused to speak to the media if Elijah was not included in the session.
