CHAPEL HILL, NC – Armando Bacot hasn’t been at North Carolina forever.

It only seems that way.

The Tar Heels star arrived during the summer of 2019 and in the 5 years that have followed, he has experienced more highs and lows than perhaps any player in college basketball history.

His journey has taken him from complementary player to star and from the exhilaration of a Final Four run to the indignity of missing out on the postseason. He has endured a pandemic and set records.
And on Tuesday, in his 71st and final home game, he finally earned the right to raise a banner to the Smith Center rafters.

It’s an honor that will commemorate the Tar Heels’ first regular-season ACC championship since Bacot’s senior year in high school. He and his teammates clinched at least a share of the title with an 84-51 Senior Night rout of Notre Dame. They can win the title outright by beating rival Duke on Saturday evening at Cameron Indoor Stadium. And then possibly add an ACC Tournament title next week.

Regardless of Saturday’s outcome, Bacot is assured of leaving behind a physical reminder of his time in Chapel Hill and his contribution to UNC’s storied basketball tradition. But that regular-season banner is not the one whose mention brought out the most emotion in Bacot during his postgame session with the media on Tuesday.

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His tears were brought about by thoughts of a legacy that would be cemented by a banner with his name and number on it, placed among those of Scott, Jordan, Hansbrough and all the other Tar Heels legends whose jerseys have been honored.

The issue: Bacot technically hasn’t qualified for it, yet. Even with an extra year of trying.

“It would mean the world,” he said of the possibility. “That’s why I came back.”

According to UNC’s official athletic website, a player must meet at least one of the following criteria in order to have his jersey honored:

  • National Player of the Year recognition from one of several respected organizations, including the Associated Press, US Basketball Writers Association, National Association of Basketball Coaches, Sporting News, Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy;
  • First- or 2nd-team All-American;
  • ACC Player of the Year;
  • NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player;
  • MVP of a national championship-winning team.

The good news about setting your own standards is that you can adjust them whenever you decide it’s appropriate. So even if Bacot doesn’t check off any of those boxes in the games he has remaining, UNC can still find a way to get him into the rafters.

All it would take is the creation of a new category to match his credentials. UNC already has done that at least twice.

The provision for MVP of a national championship-winning team was added for George Lynch. NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player came about because of Donald Williams. All school officials have to do to allow Bacot to join them is amend the rules to honor the program’s all-time leader in a major statistical category.

It’s a move Bacot hinted is already in the works.

“I feel good,” said the 6-11 center, whose 1,640 career rebounds are already the most in school history. “Stay tuned.”

Since it appears as though Bacot’s induction into the Tar Heels’ honored jersey fraternity is a matter of when not if, the only question that remains is whether he really belongs.

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The argument against him is that he’s an aggregator whose records are as much the product of his longevity as his ability.

There’s at least some statistical substance to that line of thinking. Tuesday’s game was his ACC-record 162nd in a UNC uniform. And while he holds the school record for double-doubles, a total that is now up to 82, it took him nearly a full season and an extra 65 games to surpass Billy Cunningham’s previous mark of 60 set in 3 seasons from 1963-65.

At the same time, the rebounding record that will eventually/hopefully get him his banner was secured well before he decided to come back for his 5th year. But he was more than just a rebounding machine.

In addition to being the Tar Heels’ all-time leading rebounder, Bacot ranks No. 3 in career points with 2,231 — and likely will move past Phil Ford (2,290) for No. 2 on the all-time scoring list at next week’s ACC Tournament. He’s also No. 4 in program history in blocked shots (208) and No. 7 in blocks per game (1.3).

Tyler Hansbrough, Sam Perkins and Bacot are the only Tar Heels in the 2,000-point/1,000-rebound club.

But none of that really matters.

As his teammate and friend RJ Davis noted after Tuesday’s game, Bacot’s numbers speak for themselves. No matter how long they took to acquire.

“His legacy here is hard to beat,” said Davis, the soon-to-be ACC Player of the Year, an honor that would allow his jersey to be honored, too. “He’s been a great leader for us. He’s been dominant his whole career, breaking records left and right. I feel like each year a new record is broken.”

Beyond those records is a quality that can’t be aggregated or measured by the numbers on a stat sheet.

“I may not have been the best player that ever played here,” he said Tuesday, tears welling. “I may not have scored the most points. I did grab the most rebounds. I may not have blocked the most shots. But I think in terms of players, nobody has loved this school as much as I do.”

That love and Bacot’s desire to deliver a championship to UNC have helped him become a rarity in college sports these days. He’s a star player who stayed all 4 years at the same school and enjoyed it so much that he chose to stick around for 1 more.

That in itself is enough of a reason to warrant his jersey being raised to the Smith Center rafters.

He’s earned it.

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