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UNC Basketball: Bacot, Love, and Davis Selected as Preseason All-Americans

By Isaac Schade

Feb 28, 2022; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Leaky Black (1) and guard Caleb Love (2) and guard R.J. Davis (4) and forward Armando Bacot (5) react in overtime at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 28, 2022; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Leaky Black (1) and guard Caleb Love (2) and guard R.J. Davis (4) and forward Armando Bacot (5) react in overtime at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /
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College Hoops Today has released their preseason All-America teams and three UNC Basketball players made the list.

Armando Bacot, Caleb Love, and RJ Davis have each landed on one of College Hoops Today’s preseason All-America lists.

College Hoops Today is the website and podcast of national college basketball personality Jon Rothstein (CBS). Of Rothstein’s three preseason All-America teams, a full one-fifth of the 15 slots are made up of Tar Heels.

Bacot leads the way for North Carolina as part of the first team, followed by Love on the second team, and Davis on the third team.

Given the return of many of college basketball’s best and most identifiable big men for the 2022-23 season, there has been much speculation this offseason about the make-up of preseason All-America teams. Will media outlets and national writers produce teams that could comprise an actual legitimate basketball lineup or will they include the five best players in the country regardless of position?

Rothstein clearly has no qualms about choosing the latter option. His 2022-23 preseason All-American first team is comprised of five classic big men: Armando Bacot (UNC), reigning National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky), Drew Timme (Gonzaga), Hunter Dickinson (Michigan), and Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana).

Can you imagine walking out on the floor to actually face that quintet? Here are the heights of those five bigs from shortest to tallest:

Jackson-Davis – 6-9
Tshiebwe – 6-9
Timme – 6-10
Bacot – 6-11
Dickinson – 7-1

This grouping is yet another clear indicator of the delineation between skill sets the college game currently values vs. what the NBA is looking for.

NIL also plays a pivotal role in each of these five student-athletes returning to campus where they will likely make more money this season than they otherwise would have as a professional.

Rothstein’s second and third teams show a greater diversity of position, more typical of the make-up of All-America teams. However, the third team is comprised almost entirely of guards, other than Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner.

Second Team

Marcus Sasser | Houston | G
Caleb Love | North Carolina | G
Jaime Jaquez | UCLA | G/F
Adama Sanogo | UConn | F
Zach Edey | Purdue | C

Third Team

Mike Miles | TCU | G
RJ Davis | North Carolina | G
Adam Flagler | Baylor | G
Isaiah Wong | Miami | G
Ryan Kalkbrenner | Creighton | C

UNC Basketball voted best team in 2022-23 by coaches. dark. Next

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