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NEW ORLEANS — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has called his state “the center of the college basketball universe,” as its two bitter rivals face off in the Final Four.
With that in mind, the winner of this intergalactic battle could be determined by Westchester County, located more than 1,300 miles to the northeast of where this showdown between Duke and North Carolina — their first matchup in NCAA Tournament history — will be staged.
North Carolina’s R.J. Davis and Duke’s AJ Griffin, starters for their respective teams and former teammates at Archbishop Stepinac who won a state title together, will be representing the New York City area on the biggest stage of the sport.
“Not many people from Stepinac make it to the Final Four, and to say you played against each other is something we’ll always remember,” Griffin said on Thursday.
There was major buzz about Davis and Griffin this week at Stepinac, everyone recalling their days at the school and trying to finalize plans for which party to attend to watch them face each other. Coach Pat Massaroni heard a kid marveling at the fact he was walking the same halls as Davis and Griffin once did.
“The biggest word that comes to mind is pride,” said Archbishop Stepinac senior Samuel Gibbs, who played with the pair for two years.
They took different paths to get to this point. Griffin, a 6-foot-6 projected one-and-done lottery pick from Ossining, entered Stepinac with significant hype and was top-ranked prospect in his class by the end of his freshman year of high school. The 6-foot Davis out of White Plains didn’t break out on the national stage until the summer before his senior year. Massaroni remembered high-major coaches telling him Davis wasn’t good enough. That all changed that summer.
“What we knew, and what I knew, at Stepinac now became a national thing,” Massaroni said. “All those guys who said he wasn’t good enough now wanted to recruit him.”
Davis committed to North Carolina in October 2019. A month later, Griffin picked Duke. The two knew they would soon be rivals. In practices and pickup games, they played on different teams and went at one another. The matchups were intense.
“That put a little bit of a chip on each other’s shoulders,” Gibbs said.
The two have enjoyed strong seasons, key parts of their respective teams’ run to this weekend. Davis progressed from a complementary piece to an essential part of the Tar Heels as a sophomore, averaging 13.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and shooting 37.4 percent from 3-point range.
In four NCAA Tournament games, he has piled up 24 assists while committing just eight turnovers, and exploded for a career-high 30 points in a second-round upset of top-seeded Baylor. In the Heels’ upset win at Duke to close the regular season, he poured in 21 points.
“Whenever [his team is doubted] seems to be when R.J. delivers the most,” Gibbs said.
Griffin hasn’t been as consistent. A preseason knee injury set him back, and he didn’t break into the starting lineup until mid-January. He’s shown flashes of his limitless ceiling, scoring 27 points in a win at North Carolina and 18 in the West Regional rout of fourth-seeded Arkansas. His numbers — 10.5 points, 3.9 rebounds — may not be overly impressive, although he has been Duke’s most consistent 3-point threat, a court-spacing force shooting 45.8 percent from beyond the arc.
Together, they put Stepinac on the map, leading the Crusaders to the 2018 city and state championship. The next year, they fell to Christ the King in the city championship and were the top overall seed in the playoffs the following year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. They’ll be on the court together again Saturday night, meeting for the third time this year. Griffin and Duke won the first meeting. Davis and North Carolina won the second. The rubber match is by far the most important one. No matter who wins, Stepinac will be represented on the final night of the college basketball season.
“It shows you can stay home in New York and still get to the highest level,” Massaroni said. “The two of them, McDonald’s All-Americans. The two of them, New York State champions. The two of them, playing in the ACC and producing, and now the two of them in the Final Four, and for one of them, hopefully a national championship.”
Gibbs laughed when asked if he’s rooting for either team. Everyone, he said, is asking him that. He hopes both play well.
“I just want to see them have fun, enjoy the moment,” Gibbs said. “I think Stepinac is the winner out of all of this, in that you’re seeing people from Westchester County compete on the highest stage possible.”
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