UNC Basketball: Armando Bacot making case for All-ACC Honors

Is Armando Bacot playing his way into consideration for All-ACC honors this season?

The improvement of Armando Bacot has been one of the major storylines for the UNC basketball program this season. Last year, we saw flashes of what Bacot is capable of. Now, having more than a year of college basketball experience under his belt, the Richmond, Virginia native is starting to put it all together.

If you’ve seen the Tar Heels in action this season, you could definitely make the case that Bacot has been the team’s best player overall. The sophomore big man has taken tremendous strides in his overall development, and is beginning to put the Atlantic Coast Conference on notice.

Through 16 games, Bacot is averaging 12.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. And he currently leads the Tar Heels in both categories. The eye-popping stat for Bacot, though, is his shooting percentage. His 65.5 percent field goal efficiency is tops in the ACC. He’s shooting almost 20 percent better from the floor than he did as a freshman, and you may be wondering why that’s the case.

For starters, it could be that he understands Roy Williams’ system better than he did as a rookie in one of the nation’s most competitive basketball conferences. After a year of experience, Bacot now knows where he needs to be on the floor. His floor spacing has put in him better positions to find open shots for himself — which has been articulated by his efficiency on the offense end of the court — and has helped him shoot the ball at a very high level.

Speaking of shooting the ball at an elite level, Bacot’s last three games have been a testament to that narrative.

Over the Tar Heels’ current three-game winning streak, Bacot has averaged 18.6 points per game and shot 75 percent from the floor. His success offensively seems to have some correlation with the team’s recent offensive improvements.

The Tar Heels scored over 80 points just once prior to their January 12 matchup against Syracuse. That came in the form of a 93-80 loss to Iowa back on December 8. Including the Syracuse game, Williams’ team has scored 80-plus points in three of their last five contests (4-1 in that span). In the other two contests, the Tar Heels put up 75 in each (1-1 in those two games).

In the four wins during that span, Bacot scored 15, 18, 17 and 21 points, respectively. In the lone loss, Bacot scored just nine points, and his shot totals were down drastically. So, perhaps there’s a correlation.

As the Tar Heels’ offense seems to get in a rhythm, it appears as if Bacot’s success is helping lead the way. Not only is he creating good shots for himself, but his success is also forcing teams to focus on him a bit more, which is opening up opportunities for his teammates.

Now, let’s not make it look like Bacot has only improved offensively. The sophomore big man is very active on the defensive side of the ball. He has made some highlight-reel blocks over the last few weeks, including this block below:

As we’re more than halfway through the regular season, is it too early to say that Bacot deserves All-ACC honors this season? The Tar Heels have a very important stretch of games coming up. Over their last ten regular season contests, Bacot and the Tar Heels will try to convince the committee that they belong in the NCAA Tournament field this season.

If you’re basing the decision on the first 16 games of the season, then yes, Armando Bacot most definitely deserves some type of regular season honors. He has been tremendous for this Tar Heels squad, and his success on both sides of the floor has been a major contributor to the team’s improvement over the last few weeks.

However, there’s still 10 ACC games left to play, so Bacot will have to show that he can sustain this level of success throughout the rest of the regular season. At this point, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the Tar Heels will go as far as Armando Bacot takes them. After a week off, Bacot and the UNC basketball program will return to action on Tuesday night, as they continue ACC play against Clemson.

Continue to follow the Keeping It Heel team for all the latest news and updates regarding Armando Bacot, and the UNC basketball program.