UNC Basketball: Two Tar Heels named to All-ACC teams, Garcia snubbed

A pair of UNC basketball players were selected for preseason All-ACC honors, but Dawson Garcia wasn’t one of them.

Preseason awards for the Atlantic Coast Conference were announced on Tuesday morning, and a pair of UNC standouts were selected to All-ACC teams. The two Tar Heels that made the cut were obvious choices, but there was also one obvious snub.

Junior center Armando Bacot decided to return to North Carolina rather than leave for the NBA, and was a slam dunk choice for first team All-ACC honors. He heads up a new-look group of Tar Heels that were chosen to finish third in the ACC by a panel of 81 media members covering the league.

Bacot averaged 12.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game last season while shooting nearly 63 percent from the floor — all team-highs. He’ll look to build on that this season with a much more balanced UNC offensive attack that features multiple capable three-point shooters for the first time in a few years. In turn, Bacot will be able to work more freely inside the painted area with less opponents sagging down on defense and double-teaming him in the lane. He’ll also benefit from less of a log-jam in the front court this season, something that often hindered him last year when the Tar Heels had a multitude of talented bigs roaming around the blocks.

Sophomore point guard Caleb Love was selected as a second team All-ACC player for the 2021-22 season. Although Love’s freshman season could be defined as streaky and inconsistent, he did turn in a solid performance overall. He averaged 10.5 points, 3.6 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game as a freshman in Chapel Hill.

Love was at his best in a pair of games against rival Duke when he averaged 21.5 points, seven assists and 2.5 rebounds while shooting 53.5 percent from the floor (15-for-28), 54.5 percent from three-point range (6-for-11) and 100 percent (7-for-7) at the charity stripe. Those are the type of performances that he’ll look to have more of in year two with the Tar Heels, as he leads a sensational group of sophomore guards in the UNC back court.

One Tar Heels that was obviously overlooked by the ACC voters was sophomore big man Dawson Garcia. A member of the Big East All-Freshman team a season ago, the former Marquette power forward recorded 13 points and 6.6 rebounds per game while knocking down 48 percent of his shots and 35.6 percent beyond the arc.

Being with a team and a coach that will allow him to continue playing his style of basketball, and being surrounded by a number of accomplished shooters, Garcia should absolutely flourish as a sophomore. This is one that the 81-member panel of league voters missed, and I look to see Garcia have a strong season and subsequent All-ACC honors by season’s end.

For all the latest on the UNC basketball program and the upcoming 2021-22 college hoops season, check back with Keeping It Heel.