5 Reasons Armando Bacot Made The Right Decision

Armando Bacot probably didn’t need much convincing to decide that another year playing college basketball wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

The North Carolina forward, and runner-up for ACC Player of the Year this past season, announced Wednesday he will return for his senior campaign. The 6-foot-10 Bacot highlighted being a part of something special at UNC, wanting to hang banners, and add to the program’s lore as reasons why he will be a Tar Heel for one more season.

In the video he released, which lasts about a minute, Bacot showed people what makes him tick, and it’s something we learned firsthand in February.

The day before the Tar Heels’ inexplicable home loss to Pittsburgh, we had a one-on-one interview with the Richmond, VA, native, and he let on then reasons why something like this may happen. It was part of our basis in projecting Bacot would return, even after his game blew up on a national level in the NCAA Tournament.

*************************************************************************************

Subscribe to THI for one year at just $8.33 per month and get access to everything we do. We are all over football & basketball recruiting & we go where the Tar Heels go.

And Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE AN INSIDER, TOO!!!

*************************************************************************************

We have chronicled the team goals for Bacot, but there are also personal ones. Not only do they make sense, they are very much attainable. He would like to one day be mentioned alongside Tar Heel greats like Sam Perkins, Antawn Jamison, and Tyler Hansbrough. And now he could be on his way.

“It’s just crazy to think,” Bacot told THI in an exclusive interview. “I’m a basketball junkie, and being put in some of those conversations is just something you never would really imagine. Just growing up playing basketball, if you would have told me this ten years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.

“There are so many great players that have played here, there’s so many bigs that were successful here, it’s really crazy to put into perspective that I’m playing just as good or even better than some of them. It’s kind of unbelievable, but I’m just thankful for the opportunity, and for (Former UNC) Coach (Roy) Williams and (current UNC) Coach (Hubert) Davis to put me in those situations.”

So, with that said, here are 5 Reasons Armando Bacot made the right decision:

UNC was 14-19 in Bacot’s freshman season, and as a sophomore, the Tar Heels went 18-11 and became the only Williams-coached team to ever lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Bacot wants to be a part of a banner that will hang forever, and while UNC’s 21st Final Four matters, he wants more.

He wants to win an actual championship of some kind, at the very least.

“I want to put a team banner somewhere up there in one of those categories,” he told THI. “I just want to be a part of some type of team history at North Carolina. If that’s winning an ACC regular season championship, ACC Tournament, national championship, just something.”

Carolina will have a deep, talented, and experienced roster next season with the primary mission cutting down the nets on the first Monday night of April in Houston. Bacot wants to win a national championship, and Carolina will have a team that can get it done.

Bacot made no bones about it in our conversation that he wants to have his jersey hanging in the rafters at the Smith Center. And to get there, winning ACC Player of the Year would make him a lock. He wants it very much.

“A hundred percent,” he said in mid-February. “Even after this year, I know it will be tough, I know I’m in the runner for ACC Player of the Year, that’s something that I’m definitely going for. And I feel like I’m the best player in the ACC. I feel like I’m the most dominant and that teams have to prepare for me more than any other player in the conference.

“I think that adds to my ACC Player of the Year case. I know that would put me in the rafters, and that’s definitely something that I want.”

There are other avenues to get his jersey up there, and one would have to think National Player of the Year could be in his future, too. If he wins a major National Player of the Year award, that would happen. UNC’s criteria is a Tar Heel must win one or more of the following: Associate Press; NABC; Sporting News; Wooden Award; Oscar Robertson Trophy; or the Naismith Award.

Currently 46th all-time at UNC with 1,301 points, so if Bacot scores 635 points next season, as he did this year, he would finish with 1,936 points, which would rank him ninth all-time at Carolina.

Bacot is currently 10th all-time at UNC with 1,001 rebounds, and is just 218 from tying Tyler Hansbrough for the all-time Carolina record. Bacot set a UNC single-season mark this past season with 511, so barring a serious injury, he would leave Chapel Hill as the program’s all-time leader in rebounds.

After registering an NCAA single-season record 31 double-doubles as a junior, tying him with Navy’s David Robinson in 1985 and 1986, Bacot is currently third in UNC history with 49 double-doubles, 11 behind the all-time leader Billy Cunningham, who had 60.

With 65 blocked shots this past season, Bacot now has 127 for his Carolina career. If he blocks 65 more as a senior, that would give him 192, which would rank him fourth all-time at UNC.

Thus, Bacot has a chance to plant his name high up in many record book lists at UNC, which would only add to his growing legacy, and move him up in the conversation about UNC's best and most accomplished players.

Bacot wants to play in the NBA, of course, and he has a good idea of what he must improve to enhance his chances at landing and sticking in the league. When we asked Bacot to evaluate his game as a pro prospect, he paused thinking before answering.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “I guess I’d say shooting the ball more from the outside, being more of a threat, showing I can shoot it more.”

Bacot might not have to hit regularly from the perimeter to stick in the NBA, but hitting stuff a bit further from the basket inside the arc would certainly help his cause. He can work on those things over the next year to best prepare for that mission.

His coach, however, told THI in an exclusive interview in February that Bacot already does something well enough to intrigue some teams in the league.

“To have longevity in the NBA, you have to be able to do at least one thing at an elite level consistently against elite players. It’s just plain and simple, period, the end…,” Davis said. “And the reason that I say that is at the end of the day, yes, specifically for Armando, and that’s we worked on threes and ballhandling all summer, because he needs to have that skill.

"At the end of the day, that’s not going to be the determining factor that gets him in there and helps him stay there. And I think so many kids miss that mark. One of the things that Armando does at an elite level is he rebounds. That translates. And so yes, his ability to step away on the floor, that’s going to be an added benefit. That’ll be great for him in the league. But what he does at an elite level is rebound the basketball. So, I think a lot of players take their eye off what is the most important thing.

“That’s what has put him in position for his dreams to come true. Not because he can now shoot the ball from the outside, it’s because he’s rebounding at an elite level.”

Bacot can rebound at an elite level, but if he can bring up some other elements of his game, his chances at sticking in the league will be greatly enhanced.

The NIL era is here and UNC could be one of the major hoops beneficiaries. Bacot fully understands how much money he can make over the next year by being a part of UNC basketball for another season, but also one in which the Tar Heels will be under the spotlight and vying for a national championship.

He is the face of one of the three biggest blue bloods there are, and will be one of the leading contenders for national honors. He has a terrific personality, is smart, affable, and is a great student, so he has a great story the media will enjoy writing and telling. That should resonate financially.

But more important is his regional and local NIL value. Carolina’s fan base is massive, and Bacot is as marketable as anyone on the team, in the ACC, and perhaps nationally. He is “going to make coin,” as one highly placed source in the realm of NIL told THI. And if he makes seven figures, it would surprise nobody who understands how this works.