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

Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!

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

Note: Video of Armando Bacot postgame interview posted below this piece.

LOUISVILLE, KY – When Armando Bacot went to bed Friday night, he texted his mother telling her he didn’t think he would play Saturday versus Louisville.

Bacot had spent his time since suffering an ankle injury at Virginia on Tuesday night on crutches before transitioning to a boot. He hadn’t practiced since that night.

But when the 6-foot-10 senior woke up Saturday morning, he felt pretty good. Actually, he felt a lot better and wanted to give it a go against the Cardinals.

He did, and then some in the Tar Heels’ 80-59 victory at the KFC Yum! Center.

The word from UNC before the game was Bacot would start and would be monitored to see how things went, and they went well. Bacot played the first 14:52 of the game, impacting it more than anyone else on the floor to that point.

“Yesterday, I was still in the boot,” Bacot said after scoring 14 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in 25 minutes. “We (trainers) had just been working hard. This morning, we got up early and just went through the movements, and it felt good, and I was like, I think I can play.”

Bacot didn’t appear as bouncy or quick early on as he had before the injury, and his coach was keeping a watchful eye on his star player.

“It was kind of difficult in terms of monitoring,” UNC Coach Hubert Davis said. “You don't want to play him a lot of minutes. But if you take him out, he sits and then he gets cold.

“I would have taken him out earlier, but I wanted to keep him warm. I wanted to keep him safe and I wanted to play. Because he's really good. Just trying to think about that throughout the entire game, that's something that I was thinking about nonstop.”

Bacot’s first points came with 12:27 left in the first half, and was a put-back dunk off a missed shot by Caleb Love, and then he rammed home a jam 31 seconds later off a feed from RJ Davis. And just like that, Bacot sparked his team on a 17-4 run to take control of the game.

He grabbed his tenth rebound with 6:46 left before halftime, which is when he hit double-digits in scoring, too. It was a classic Bacot put back. It also gave him 59 double-doubles for his career.

But it didn’t seem possible all week. Not to him, not to his coaches, and not to his teammates. Though, they started thinking the big guy might actually go after breakfast.

“We had an idea early today,” sophomore guard D’Marco Dunn said. “We didn’t do walkthrough, so we didn’t know until game time when he suited up.”

Bacot joked he must have gotten good night of sleep as why he felt much improved in the morning.

“It was great, it put me in a great place,” he said. “Going through the game allowed me to strengthen my ankle even more. I'm just going to keep working these next two days and get ready for Boston College.”

As UNC’s second all-time leading rebounder sat in the interview room, he was littered with cup marks on his legs and thighs, and half-joked he had “120 needles all throughout my body” as the training staff did everything in their power to get the Preseason ACC Player of the Year ready.

The ankle hurt at times during the game, Bacot acknowledged. But he battled through, and his teammates noticed. So did Carolina’s fans. His effort was also a hit on social media.

UNC (12-6, 4-3 ACC) fans called him a “stud,” said he was “the most Tar Heel of Tar Heels,” a “super tough” guy, and one fan even compared him to Carolina legend Tyler Hansbrough, who also happens to be the man Bacot is chasing on that all-time rebounding list.

“I don’t know if I'm that tough,” Bacot said laughing. “That’s a different level of tough. But like I said, I just wanted to play, I like playing basketball, and I don’t want to miss out on these opportunities. Whatever I got to do, get out there, I'm going to get out there.”

Bacot was out there, he performed in very Bacot-esque fashion, and as a result, the Tar Heels got a big victory.