UNC’s Armando Bacot isn’t just a good player. He’s a historic figure.
Armando Bacot pushed his 6-foot-10, 240-pound frame into the lane at Capital One Arena in the closing minute of the first half of a rather dull ACC quarterfinal on Thursday. How many times has this been witnessed by the hordes of North Carolina men’s basketball fans? Here was Bacot, timing a miscued shot to perfection and grabbing the rebound. Bacot managed to get two offensive rebounds in a single possession. Bacot was rising once more, increasing Carolina’s advantage over Florida State.
And there was Bacot, returning to the ground, his scream traveling through his big bulk and starting in his size 18 Nikes.
He declared, “That was a lot of fun.”
Bacot wasn’t the Tar Heels’ greatest player on Thursday, as seen by their easy 92-67 victory over the Seminoles. The ACC’s player of the year was point guard R.J. Davis, and with the depth and quality in this Carolina team, a breakout might come from any number of places.
But he is nothing short of a historic figure in college basketball. Hyperbole? Not close. Consider his path.
In a time when the most promising prospects left college after one or two seasons to join the NBA, Bacot stayed five years. Throughout his career, players have switched colleges about as frequently as they have switched teams, but he never gave thought to leaving Carolina. He entered college before athletes could make money off of their names, likenesses, and images, and he went on to become a major figure in that industry.
He’s a basketball player, sure, and a good one. But at 24, he represents so much more.
