Armando Bacot is returning to North Carolina for his junior season, he announced on social media Monday afternoon.
Bacot announced on April 6 he was testing the NBA draft waters and used the opportunity to gather information from the league. But he has finished that process and formally disclosed his intentions on returning to Chapel Hill.
At 6-foot-10, Bacot led the Tar Heels this past season averaging 12.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. He was UNC’s most consistent player, then-UNC Coach Roy Williams said several times late in the season.
The Richmond, VA, native scored in double figures in 20 of Carolina’s 29 games, hitting the 20-point mark twice and totaling 15 or more points in 11 contests, including five of UNC’s last six games. In fact, Bacot averaged 16.7 points in that span while converting 35 of 58 shots from the floor, which is 65.5 percent.
He also averaged 9.5 boards in that span while playing 25 minutes per contest. Bacot averaged 22.8 minutes over the course of the season.
UNC Coach Hubert Davis said in multiple interviews this spring that Bacot was returning and sources close to the situation told THI multiple times Bacot was returning. And in speaking to the Rams Club in May via zoom, Davis also heaped a ton of praise on his top returning big man, laying out some lofty expectations, too.
“He was fantastic for us,” Davis said. “He led the team in rebounding and scoring last year. I look for him to be ACC Player of the Year next year. He's that good. And he's really working hard on his ball-handling, really working hard on being able to be a player out on the perimeter.”
As a freshman, Bacot averaged 9.6 points and 8.3 rebounds while shooting 46.9 percent from the floor. He played 24.4 minutes per contest, as well.
Bacot committed to UNC in the summer of 2018 and was part of its 2019 recruiting class that included Cole Anthony, Anthony Harris, and Jeremiah Francis. Anthony left for the NBA after last season, Francis transferred to New Mexico, and Harris has battled injuries during his time at UNC but remains in the program.
In returning, Bacot joins a team that returns four starters from a unit that went 18-11 and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. While the Tar Heels did lose Walker Kessler as a transfer, they brought in Brady Manek, who scored nearly 1,500 points at Oklahoma, and Justin McKoy, who started four games at Virginia last season.
CHAPEL HILL – University of North Carolina forward/center Armando Bacot announced today he is returning to UNC for his junior season in 2021-22.
“I’m ecstatic,” says Carolina head coach Hubert Davis. “Number one, I am really happy he went through the process. We completely support that. We want our guys to have two basketball goals. One is to have the experience of cutting down the nets and being the last team standing on that final Monday night of the season. We also want them to reach all their dreams and goals, and their dreams and goals are to play in the NBA. We 100 percent supported Armando’s pursuit to see where he stood right now in terms of going to the NBA, and we support that for all of our players.
“I’m thankful Armando got an opportunity to work out with some teams and he played off-the-charts great. As much as I am pleased that he was able to go through the process and flourish in that process, I am just as ecstatic that he is coming back to Carolina. I recruited him in high school, helped coach him the last two seasons and couldn’t ask for anything better than to be around him as a head coach. He’s our team leader, our captain, he’s worked extremely hard, he’s our leading returning scorer and rebounder, and for us to have a chance next year we need to have someone like Armando.”
The Richmond, Va., native has averaged 10.9 points and 8.0 rebounds in 61 games as a Tar Heel, scoring in double figures 36 times. Bacot earned third-team All-ACC and first-team All-ACC Tournament honors as a sophomore. He is the first Tar Heel to average 8.0 rebounds through his sophomore season since Sean May from 2003-05.
Bacot led Carolina in scoring (12.3), field goal percentage (.628), rebounding (7.8) and blocks (26) last season, becoming the first Tar Heel to lead in those four categories since first-team All-America Brice Johnson in 2015-16. Bacot’s field goal percentage was the eighth-highest in a season by a Tar Heel.