Pete ThamelESPN
NEW ORLEANS – North Carolina star Armando Bacott plans to play in the national championship game against Kansas on Monday night. Bacot broke his right ankle in UNC’s 81-77 victory over Duke in the Final Four on Saturday. He left for less than a minute of the match after the injury and moved dynamically in the last minutes of the second half. Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis said Bacot was scheduled to train on Sunday, but stressed that the entire team’s training session would be limited. He said the X-rays at Bacot were negative and the swelling was not overwhelming. “He’s ready to play tomorrow night,” said Davis. Bacot is the most difficult player that UNC can replace if he is limited. He is the top scorer of the program (16.3 PPG) and the rebounder (13.1 RPG) and the total of rebounds is ranked No. 3 in the country. It ranks No. 8 in defensive rebounds (30.2%) and No. 21 in offensive rebounds (14.9%), according to KenPom.com. Bacot said on Sunday that he had been receiving treatment almost continuously since the game ended. After the x-rays, he said he spent two hours treating his ankle and then woke up and went into the pool for rehabilitation on Sunday morning. He said while working on a homework assignment for a sports facility on Sunday morning, he held his ankle in compression sleeves. During the meeting with the media on Sunday afternoon, he said that he had stimulation therapy. “We do not have another big man,” Bacot said, “so I have no choice.” The options that Tar Heels have behind Bacot are not attractive. They could move 6-legged forward Brady Manek to the 5-point, which he often played against Kansas while in Oklahoma. That would create a difficult mismatch inside the UNC against Kansas’ David McCormack, who is coming off a 25-point blitz for the season with Villanova. 2 About McCormack is a 6-foot, 250-pound forward whose comfort in contact made him a human bowling ball on Saturday night. He celebrated with self-congratulatory muscle contractions in a night in which he went 10-to-12 from the floor with nine rebounds. Davis went so far as to say that the winner of the national title on Monday night “could finally end up the winner of this match”. If Bacot is limited to the title game and UNC wants Manek to avoid playing after the defense against McCormack, the Heels could turn to either back-up striker Justin McKoy (6-8, 220) or Dontrez Styles (6). -6, 210). None of these options are attractive to UNC. “We have no other big men,” Bacot said. “If I do not play, who knows what Dave McCormack can do?” The absence of 6-11 striker Dawson Garcia from the UNC roster could be great if Bacot is reduced or finds problems again. Garcia, a Marquette transfer, last played for UNC on 22 January. the school announced in February that it would not be returning due to family medical problems. This gave Bacot more opportunities to dominate. In the NCAA Tournament, he averages 16.8 rebounds in five games. That included 21 rebounds against Duke and 22 against St. Peter. “I feel like the best big man in the country,” Bacot said. Bacot spent about a minute crammed to the ground in pain Saturday night against Duke after it appeared he stepped on Leaky Black’s teammate’s foot with 5:18 left. He limped on the bench without putting weight on his right leg, with his arms outstretched around two of his teammates for a walk on the court. At first he said he was in so much pain that he did not even think about returning to the game. Bacot walked to the tunnel on the UNC bench and said that a pleasant speech from coach Doug Halverson gave him an adrenaline rush. Halverson reported that Joel Berry overcame his ankle injuries on the way to the 2017 national title without any treatment. When a teammate asked him about his health when he returned to the game with 4:36 left, Bacot recalls saying a more infamous version of the phrase: “Forget it”. This was recorded on video and made the rounds of social media. He added on Sunday: “That is, there are four minutes left for the national championship [game]. “ Bacot said Sunday that he did not believe UNC would have won the game if he had not returned and played those four minutes. He committed a foul with 46.7 seconds remaining.
