Oregon commit Deja Kelly and her boyfriend RJ Davis

Former North Carolina guard Deja Kelly recently announced her transfer destination as Oregon after entering the transfer portal from the Tar Heels. Kelly spent her entire four-year career in Chapel Hill before entering the transfer portal.

She and her boyfriend, North Carolina Tar Heels, RJ Davis have been in a relationship since 2022. Davis bade her a heartfelt goodbye when she announced her decision to leave.

On Friday, Davis who announced his return to North Carolina for a fifth year next season reposted a video of his girlfriend with a bouquet of roses after their graduation ceremony.

He captioned the clip:

“Aah graduate @dejakelly,” Davis wrote.

Why did Deja Kelly join Oregon after graduating from North Carolina?

One of the programs that Deja Kelly seriously considered joining from high school was Oregon and during the recruitment process, she established a relationship with Ducks coach Kelly Graves.

In an interview with “DuckTerritory.com,” Kelly explained why she chose to join the Ducks instead of the other high-profile programs that interested her.

“It helped a ton because I got really close with Kelly (Graves) in high school,” Kelly said. “I had visited Oregon twice. They just had a really big class coming in that year… It was great to have that, and it definitely helped with my decision.”

Deja Kelly has been one of the most consistent points scorers in women’s college basketball throughout her career finishing with 1,858 points during her stay in Chapel Hill.

She has repeatedly reiterated her desire to play in the WNBA and next season will be her last season of eligibility. Kelly explained how joining coach Kelly Grave’s team will help her achieve that dream.

“This is a big grad year for me, so going into this decision I was really focusing on my goal to play at the next level and go to the league. I think for this year it was really important for me to focus on continuing to raise my draft stock and putting myself in a situation and an environment and a system that can really cater to that,” Kelly said. “I had a lot of great options, which was good, but ultimately, I think Oregon was the best fit for all of what I was looking for.”

If Deja Kelly can re-energize Oregon and bring the Ducks back to prominence, she might just end up improving her draft stock as intended but she has an uphill task after the program went 11-21 last season.

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