The offseason awards keep coming for the UNC basketball program, with no stopping anytime soon.
Again, it starts and ends with retuning big man [autotag]Armando Bacot[/autotag]. Bacot returns next season after a tremendous junior campaign where he averaged 16.3 points and 13.1 rebounds per game.
Bacot was an All-ACC First-Team selection as a junior en route to tying the NCAA single season record for double-doubles (31) and becoming the first person in NCAA history to have six straight double-doubles in the NCAA Tournament.
247Sports writer Isaac Trotter broke down his All-American teams for the 2022-23 season and had Bacot as a member of his First-Team.
The North Carolina big man will already go down as a Tar Heel great. But might be able to put himself on the Mount Rushmore of North Carolina basketball if he can lead the Tar Heels to a national championship in his final season. Guard play can sometimes impact the production of big men, so Bacot will be at his best if R.J. Davis and Caleb Love find the consistency that they showcased in UNC’s deep March run. But Bacot will ace the things he can control. He will play with elite effort. He’s going to have a monster impact on the glass and defensively.
Also according to 247Sports, Bacot is the preseason favorite to win the ACC Player of the Year award.
Gonzaga forward Drew Timme, Kentucky forward Oscar Tshiebwe, Michigan forward Hunter Dickinson and UCLA wing Jaime Jaquez were the other four players on Trotter’s First-Team.
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