A constant in time of change
Heels’ Bacot became face of modern game as well as a throwback
The curtain call for Armando Bacot came with three minutes, seven seconds remaining in North Carolina’s 84-51 victory Tuesday night against Notre Dame, in what was his final college home game. It came after all the points (2,230 and counting) and rebounds (1,639, a school record), and it came 1,582 days after his first college game, played on this same Smith Center court.
The moment came after more than four years and almost five full seasons. It came after 162 games, an ACC record. It came after Bacot had played for two head coaches and alongside more than 40 teammates; after the delirious rush of the 2022 postseason and the despair of 2023; after a journey unlike any in college basketball history.
Consider what Bacot, the fifthyear senior forward, had experienced during his college years:
■ The onset of a global pandemic and cancellation of the season in March 2020, the day after he was part of the final game of the ACC Tournament that year.
■ The surreal playing, during the 2020-21 season, of games in mostly empty arenas, or in front of cardboard cutouts that served as stand-ins for spectators.
■ The retirement of Roy Williams, in April 2021, and the hiring of Hubert Davis as UNC’s head coach.
■ The reluctant allowance, by the NCAA, of college athletes to be able to monetize their name, image or likeness, which led to unprecedented commercial opportunity — and led to Bacot to becoming a nationwide face of a movement.
■ The equally reluctant allowance of freedom movement, and the advent of the transfer portal, which, along with NIL rights, led to a form of unregulated free
agency in college athletics.
It was for all those reasons and more why Bacot received a long, loud ovation upon his exit Tuesday night with a little more than three minutes remaining in a victory long decided. For a brief moment, he walked alone on the court toward the sideline. He held his arms high. He met Davis in front of the UNC bench and the two embraced, Davis wrapping Bacot in a bear hug.
There was a catharsis for all the aforementioned reasons and numbers — for everything Bacot had endured here and all he’d given. But also because players like him have become rare in a time of rapid transience throughout college athletics. In a time of unprecedented movement, when it can be difficult to follow which player is on what roster, Bacot stayed.
In a time of upheaval so dramatic that not even a school’s conference affiliation can be counted upon in the long term anymore, he stayed. And, yes, he made a lot of money, too — an untold amount through various NIL deals that made Bacot one of the most successful commercial pitchmen of this new college sports era.
If anything, though, his business success reaffirmed that college athletes should’ve had NIL rights all along; that in some cases, and perhaps most, their commercial value is never going to be higher than it is during their college years. Bacot understood that and leaned into it. He signed deals that were undoubtedly lucrative, and also took on smaller gigs on Cameo for $100 a pop.
His page there is filled with five-star reviews for messages he recorded for birthdays or Mother’s Days or, in at least one case, a well-wishing for the start of a distant state high school basketball tournament, when Bacot looked into his phone camera and said:
“What’s good Jack, it’s Armando here, and I just want to give you the best of luck for your upcoming North Dakota high school basketball tournament Class A tournament — I know you’re going to kill it and I just want you to do your thing.”
Imagine being teenage Jack in North Dakota, and opening a video message from perhaps your favorite UNC player saying your team needs your 3-pointers (as Bacot said later in the message). No player in UNC’s storied basketball history has connected with fans the way Bacot has. Part of that is a reflection of the times, and the ease of communication. But part of it, too, is that Bacot provided connection in a moment of disconnection throughout college athletics. He seemed to love playing at UNC as much or more than UNC fans love cheering for the Tar Heels.
When he arrived at UNC in 2019, Bacot was not sure how long he might remain in college. He was not sure of a lot of things. It was a time before NIL and before the phrase “transfer portal” entered into the lexicon of college athletics. He was the kind of player, in those early years, who might especially fluster Williams, who seemed to always take more pleasure in turning his big men into something more than they thought they could become.
What Bacot became is one of the most beloved players in school history. Only part of that is because of everything that happened on the court. He helped lead the Tar Heels to the 2022 Final Four, and nearly led them, on one leg, to the national championship.
In a time of great change, Bacot proved to be a constant. He’s had arguably the most unique college basketball experience in recent memory. He became one of the faces of a movement of athlete empowerment throughout college sports and, at the same time, a beloved throwback.