IC's back on a manic phase as Evan drops a UNC cb and stops by to say that it wouldn't surprise him if it ended soon fun times
them freaking out about the duke 247 staff cb’ing him was great. tdd’s explosive report the next day said absolute nothing about this crazy intel they hinted at
probably not good but probably not nah either, something along the lines of a thrilling lukewarm that will surely ignite the fan base
he’s the linchpin in this class anthony, jre and green have all expressed interest in playing with him with the latter two playing at his high school may not be the biggest need in this class but you could argue he’s the most important recruit in this class from a “recruiting his classmates” perspective and more importantly the “beating duke for a target of theirs” perspective get him and mann locked up by mid september and things are going to be fun for the rest of the cycle
duke mod who cb’ed bacot to them not even a week ago and caused a panic on ic on mobile and couldn’t get it to copy and paste
full write-up on the commitment. Spoiler (Photo: Jim Hawkins/Inside Carolina) On Thursday evening, Armando Bacot announced his commitment to North Carolina, ending a recruitment that began more than two years ago from a UNC perspective. It’s a major victory for Roy Williams and his staff for a variety of reasons. Let’s first dive into the “what” of Bacot to UNC, followed by the “why," and "what's next." Williams’s teams, throughout his 30-plus years of coaching, have consistently been anchored by a strong post presence. From Mark Randall to Kennedy Meeks, success has, does, and always will begin in the paint for Williams. Bacot gives North Carolina that inside presence in abundance, because of his ability to score with his back to the basket, pass from the high post, and rebound efficiently in and out of his area. "He projects as a post player in college,” said Evan Daniels, the National Recruiting Director for 247Sports. “Offensively you could use him as a ‘4’ as well as a ‘5.’ Defensively, you’ll probably want him guarding ‘5' men, but that’s certainly an area where he continues to improve." What’s more, Bacot has winning DNA. That sounds cliché, but he won a state title at Richmond (Va.) Trinity Episcopal, a gold medal playing for Team USA during the FIBA Americas 18U tournament, and was named MVP of Team Takeover’s 23-1 EYBL championship team. The Inside Carolina staff watched him dozens of times in April, May, June, and July, and he improved throughout the summer. By the end of July any doubt about his potential effectiveness in college had been erased. "He’s in better shape and when someone gets in better shape and gains strength, they play more confidently,” Daniels explained. “Those were factors involved in his development and how he played during the summer." Because of his varied experiences, Bacot won’t have the culture shock of arriving on campus and playing with high-level, Division-I players for the first time. At Trinity, for Team Loaded and Team Takeover, during the FIBA Americas 18U tournament, and at IMG Academy, Bacot has learned to co-exist with strong personalities, future NBA players, and college All-Americans. Consider that the UNC targets and commitments he’s been teammates with include: Cole Anthony, Matt Hurt, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Josh Green, Coby White, and Hunter Dickinson. At the moment, Bacot isn’t likely a one-and-done player. However, if he keeps developing and improving it’s not out of the realm of possibility. While the three sophomore bigs, assuming they all return, will have two years under their belt in Williams’s system, Bacot will certainly immediately challenge for minutes. His ranking and style of play are similar to that of former UNC forward Tony Bradley. The Florida big man played meaningful minutes his freshman season, despite being behind two experienced, talented seniors in Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks. Finally, Bacot’s commitment has repercussions off the court as well. About four days after receiving a UNC offer in August 2017, Bacot picked up an offer from Duke -- the school he grew up admiring. He’s previously put out there that his favorite college players were former Blue Devils Jahlil Okafor and Harry Giles. The entire recruiting community assumed after he received the offer that Bacot would end up at Duke, but Williams’s persistence coupled with a temporary slow play by Duke ceded the upper hand to the Tar Heels. Sources confirmed to Inside Carolina that at the close of the summer circuit, the Duke staff attempted to ramp back up its pursuit of Bacot. The Blue Devils were ultimately rebuffed, and he’s instead heading to Chapel Hill in 10 months. The “why” Bacot committed to UNC is pretty simple. In the class of 2017, Williams signed Brooks, Huffman, and Manley – essentially eliminating the Tar Heels as a viable option for many class of 2018 posts. With Luke Maye departing, and the growth/viability of the three bigs unknown, Williams was determined to sign a big in the class of 2019, and he offered scholarships to James Wiseman, Vernon Carey, and Armando Bacot within two weeks of the conclusion of the July 2017 evaluation period. The seeds to UNC’s interest in Bacot had been sowed in the fall of 2016 during his first visit to campus. He took in a football game, and played pickup with members of the 2016-17 National Championship team. That meant, as just a sophomore, Bacot got to play against Meeks, Hicks, Bradley, and Luke Maye. A source close to Bacot and Team Loaded told us at the time that the visit was eye-opening. Williams and his staff increasingly prioritized Bacot as his high school career progressed. They consistently took visits to Richmond during fall and spring evaluation periods, and continued watching him throughout the summer before his junior year. That summer, Bacot was plagued by a few injuries and didn’t play as well as he’d liked. Still, UNC was at his games. In fact, I can remember a game in Spartanburg in July 2017 where Bacot played the opening minute or so before coming out due to injury. A member of the North Carolina staff was there, and continued to watch his team, even though he was done for the day. It was this past December, however, when North Carolina really made its push. Starting on Dec. 19, 2017, Williams blitzed Bacot and his family with visit after visit. Bacot and his family responded by taking multiple unofficial visits over a four-month span. Consider this activity: Dec. 19, 2017 – Williams travels to Richmond to watch Bacot Jan. 27 – Bacot takes an unofficial visit to UNC Feb. 8 – Bacot takes an unofficial visit to UNC Feb. 14 – Williams travels to Richmond to watch Bacot Feb. 28 – Williams travels to Richmond to meet with Bacot March 22 – Williams travels to Richmond to meet with Bacot April 24 – Bacot takes an unofficial visit to UNC Bacot visited North Carolina during two, what we'd consider, high-impact events. He was in Chapel Hill on Sept. 9, 2017 - the same weekend North Carolina honored the 2017 National Championship team, as well as its previous national title teams. It was also UNC freshman Nassir Little's official visit weekend. Five months later, he was back in Chapel Hill for the Tar Heels's 82-78 win over Duke. Bacot and his father were seated next to Little. In all, Bacot took seven unofficial visits to Chapel Hill during his sophomore and junior seasons. The April visit, which wasn’t widely publicized and, as far as we know never discussed on the record, was Bacot’s last known campus visit before his commitment. That flurry of activity shows that UNC was all in for Bacot, and Bacot was all in for UNC. The Tar Heels kept that same level of attention on Bacot throughout the summer, and fended off arch-rival Duke near the finish line. Why did Bacot ultimately pick UNC? It’s a fit for his style of play, his family developed a strong bond with the coaching staff, and Williams’s pursuit never faltered. Moving forward, Bacot solidifies the Tar Heels' frontcourt for the foreseeable future. Couple his decision with UNC's commitment from 2020 forward Day'Ron Sharpe and it's hard to see Williams adding another big in 2020. We have to project a little bit, but it’s not far-fetched at all for the Tar Heels to have five scholarship bigs in 2020-21 – freshman Day’Ron Sharpe, sophomore Bacot, seniors Garrison Brooks, Brandon Huffman, and Sterling Manley. In that scenario, there’s seemingly no more room for 2020 bigs. More immediately, however, the Tar Heels staff hopes Bacot can become a seasoned recruiter. Within the high school basketball community, Bacot is well-liked and has created relationships across the country. At times, he's been linked to playing in college with some of the top players in the 2019 class. He's good friends with 2019 UNC target Wendell Moore, and counts Anthony as one of his best friends. Additionally, he'll be teammates at IMG Academy with Robinson-Earl and Green, both of whom have UNC offers. UNC's other 2019 verbal commitment Jeremiah Francis, has a similar rapport with players in his class. Though the Tar Heels only have two commitments, we know they want a large class to help replace seniors Kenny Williams, Luke Maye, and Cameron Johnson, and likely Little. Bacot's influence and recruiting ability could go a long way to helping Williams secure one of his best classes at Carolina.
mann will join the fold within the next month. looking good for green too. get green locked up and use him and bacot to push on jre. then all hands on deck for cole this spring.
UNC is sitting pretty for this class. Reloading the way a blue blood should. Bacot is the smartest post kid in several years in choosing UNC over duke. If any school and coach has a track record of using bigs properly and getting them to the next level it’s UNC and Roy Williams. Crazy how many 5 star bigs have fallen for K’s bullshit and lived to regret it.
now the games are not going to be streamed because ic is paying for on-site people but not periscoping it i am going to argue with ben about it in the thread even tho i will be driving during the game this afternoon and wouldnt be able to watch anyways. just feel like arguing tbh
if the game is streamed, this will be where it is shown https://www.youtube.com/user/10thyearseniors1
won 112-91, would've been a fun watch I suppose the gist of what everyone's looking for: Seventh: 11 pts on 5/10, 3/4 ast/to, 3 stl Coby: 18 pts on 6/9, 5/3 ast/to, 2 stl Nas: 11 pts on 4/5, 6 reb
assuming you guys have seen it already but whatever, Coby on the break/in the lane already has me feeling things
2nd scrimmage in the books, hopefully we get some crumbs of info so people can stop reminding us that it's football season
I guess the team we're playing today is booty Also poor Seventh, finally makes the kind of splash play he's known for and gets hurt in the process, had to come out after a couple minutes today due to the sore back
Apparently we're transitioning to something called a moving front, which has quietly become all the rage in defending spread offenses. After a quick read on the subject, it looks like this style makes LB play even more critical, so that should be fun.
guys, we're just a week and a few hours away from Larry Fedora football, the false starts, the porous run defense, the complete lack of situational awareness on the sidelines...what a time to be not dead
My favorite is when he insists on running the O as fast as possible regardless of how tired his defense is.
8 wins to hopefully give recruiting a shot in the arm or tank and cut bait before we get multiple years of that kind of class
we either have a really good year and football is fun or we implode and larry is gone. going to be an enjoyable fall either way.