UNC Basketball: Banchero, Kessler ahead of Bacot on AP All-America teams
How did Paolo Banchero earn third-team All-America honors while UNC basketball’s Armando Bacot was only an honorable mention selection?!
The disrespect towards Armando Bacot has GOT to stop!
First, Bacot gets absolutely robbed of the ACC Player of the Year Award, which was given to a player whose team not only got upset in the ACC Tournament but didn’t even earn a bid to this year’s NCAA Tournament! Now, Bacot is once again overlooked in regards to postseason honors.
The AP All-America teams were announced, and the UNC basketball standout was among the honorable mention selections.
HONORABLE MENTION?!
To make matters worse, Paolo Banchero, who finished below Bacot in the ACC Player of the Year voting and quite frankly did not have as good of a year as the junior big man, earned third-team honors!
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Of course, the hype surrounding the freshman from Duke most certainly helped his case. Bacot, who’s been in Chapel Hill for the past three seasons, doesn’t seem to get the popular vote that some of these other players get.
Heck, even Banchero’s own coach felt that Bacot was the league’s player of the year, which makes it seem as if the soon-retiring coach feels the Tar Heels big man had a better season than his own star player!
Isn’t that something!
All-America honors are nothing to scoff about: only the best players in the country get rewarded with this type of recognition. However, Bacot had one of the greatest individual seasons in North Carolina’s prolific history and was certainly deserving of a higher placement for this honor.
It’s really getting tiring seeing the disrespect of what Armando Bacot accomplished for the UNC basketball program this season. It’s even more disappointing seeing him listed behind players in whom he had a better overall season than.
Along with Banchero, a former Tar Heel also made third-team All-America honors.
UNC basketball fans may want to look away (don’t actually do that!) or simply riot given that we’re talking about this player again.
Walker Kessler, now of the Auburn Tigers, is a third-team All-America selection for the 2021-2022 season.
Unlike Banchero’s selection, we can live with Kessler receiving this honor. Not only did Kessler serve as one of, if not the, most improved player in the entire country, but was a force to be reckoned with for one of the best teams in the sport.
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There will always be those fans who are salty that Kessler decided to leave. By all means, we understand where those people are coming from.
However, we all would’ve liked for him to have earned this honor as a UNC basketball player, but there’s no reason why we all shouldn’t be happy for him for all his success this season.
Even though we shifted our focus to Kessler for a bit, let’s not forget that Armando Bacot continues to get snubbed by the voters for these various awards. It’s time that people around the sport of college basketball begin to realize just how special of a season Bacot put together for the UNC basketball program.
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