UNC Basketball: Armando Bacot named third-team All-American by the Associate Press

While we all can agree that this has been a really frustrating basketball season, the one thing that is hard to deny is that the Tar Heels likely don’t even crack .500 without senior center Armando Bacot. The first-team All-ACC big man had quite an impressive season despite teams clamping down on him, and now the Associated Press have joined in to give him his flowers.

The AP has named Bacot as a third-team All-American, making him the only ACC player to make any of the three teams. That may or may not seem low to some, but one has to wonder where he’d be if UNC performed better as an overall team. It is worth noting that the first-team center is Purdue’s Zach Edey, who not only was a major problem for opposing teams all season long, but helped Purdue lock up a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Still, Bacot’s season was as impressive as anybody’s in the country. He finished the season with averaging 15.9 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 1 block per game. This was all done fighting through mobs of defenders in the paint all season long thanks to UNC’s inability to stretch the floor, which really makes him averaging a double-double that much more impressive.

The question now is whether or not Bacot will stay with the program or move on. There are whispers that he could stay for a fifth season, but right now nobody knows for sure. I wouldn’t be shocked if we hear something by the end of the week considering the fact that Tyler Nickel and Justin McKoy already made their announcements. Let’s cross our fingers for some good news in the near future.