Who would have thought Duke basketball would find an ally with [autotag]Armando Bacot[/autotag]?
The five-year North Carolina starter played against the Blue Devils 11 times, including devastating victories in [autotag]Mike Krzyzewski[/autotag]’s final home and the 2022 Final Four.
However, Bacot revealed on a Tuesday podcast episode that, during Duke’s Elite Eight battle against NC State this year, he was rooting for his bitter rival.
Bacot appeared on the Run Your Race podcast with fellow UNC legend Theo Pinson, and it sounded like both of them disliked the Wolfpack even more than the Blue Devils.
“I wanted Duke to go to the Final Four,” Bacot told Pinson. “They were good enough and like, maybe they beat Purdue, fine, they weren’t beating UConn…It would be remembered at Duke for maybe two-to-three years and after that, like, they didn’t win it all, so be it.”
“But NC State? They never going to let this go.”
Bacot said he blamed the Wolfpack’s Cinderella run on the Blue Devils for losing to NC State in the ACC Tournament.
Imagine if NC State won a National Championship this year…😂 pic.twitter.com/4jI1u1aG4W
— Tidal League (@TidalLeague) July 3, 2024
Bacot also told Pinson in the same episode that he rooted for the Blue Devils growing up, listing Jahlil Okafor and Jabari Parker as his favorite childhood players.