Earlier this week, R.J. Davis found out that he is still in the running for one of the most prestigious awards in college basketball, the Jerry West Award. On Friday, his teammate, Armando Bacot, found out that he too is one of the finalists for a major award.
Bacot, who played his final game in the Smith Center on Tuesday night, is one of the five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which is awarded to the nation’s top center each year. He is joined by fellow ACC finalist PJ Hall as well as Kansas’s Hunter Dickinson, Purdue’s Zach Edey and Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner.
Bacot’s numbers have dipped a bit in his final season, he is still having one of the best seasons for a center in the entire country. He is still averaging a double-double with 14.0 points per game and 10.2 rebounds per game while shooting 54.7% from the field. While his numbers may be down offensively, he has had a really strong year on the other end of the floor. He is averaging 1.6 blocks per game, the second-highest mark of his career and has done a good job at taking away the lane throughout the season.
Bacot will continue his pursuit of the award on Saturday when the Tar Heels face the rival Duke Blue Devils in Durham with an outright ACC regular season title on the line. We’ll have all the coverage you need this weekend and as we head into the postseason with Tar Heel basketball right here on the Heel Tough Blog.
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