Armando Bacot to North Carolina

By ADAM ZAGORIA

Armando Bacot is off the board to North Carolina.

The 6-foot-10, 238-pound power center from IMG Academy (FL) and Team Takeover committed to the Tar Heels on Thursday, choosing them over Duke, Georgia, Oklahoma State and VCU.

He is ranked No. 21 in the 2019 ESPN 100.

I’ll be attending…… pic.twitter.com/q19S3cUUVN

— Armando Bacot Jr. (@iget_buckets35) August 16, 2018

North Carolina’s Roy Williams and Hubert Davis tracked Bacot all summer and he has visited campus several times.

“I feel like I’m their top priority, they’ve really been recruiting me hard,” Bacot said earlier this year. “He feels like I can be a great player there and I can excel. With my playing style, I can show a lot of versatility and just showing what I can do.”

“They’ve been to my school about four or five times.”

Playing on the Nike EYBL Circuit for the first time this summer, Bacot helped lead Team Takeover to a 23-1 record and a Peach Jam Title. After averaging 11.6 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in eight games at Peach Jam, Bacot took home MVP honors for the event.

He also won a gold medal with the USA U18 team at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship in Canada in June.

“Armando brings a special skill set as he can play several positions very well,” USA Basketball coach Don Showalter said. “This will definitely help him at the next level. His ball handling and shooting is very good so this will be helpful to the college game.”

Bacot joins point guard Jeremiah Francis in North Carolina’s 2019 class. They remain in the hunt for several big fish, including Cole Anthony, Josh Green, Tre Mann, Wendell Moore, Matthew Hurt and Will Baker.

Bacot said he’s working on getting Anthony, who recently visited UNC, to join him next season.

“We originally wanted to play together in high school and he loves playing with me so I’m going to try to throw the full court press at him,” Bacot said.

At the Peach Jam, Anthony said, “I love Armando Bacot’s game,” before adding he liked other players including Bryan Antoine, Matthew Hurt and Tyrese Maxey.

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