Roy Williams leaving North Carolina was a monumental moment in college basketball. One of the greatest coaches to ever do it was stepping away from the game, leaving a premier job in college basketball open. At the time, there were questions about the UNC roster, wondering who would stay and who would go.
Originally, Armando Bacot was a player slated to leave Chapel Hill. He recently revealed so on Theo Pinson‘s podcast Run Your Race. North Carolina even informed the big man of Williams’ retirement beforehand, hoping to convince him to stay out of the NCAA transfer portal.
“I was going to transfer after my sophomore year,” Bacot said. “I had a great year but Coach Williams had left. He said he was leaving on April Fools but I kind of had an idea before.”
Bacot was fresh off a solid sophomore season, finishing with an average of 12.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Had he gone on the open market, teams likely would have been lining up to sign him. But there was already a destination in mind, heading back to his hometown of Richmond.
“I was going to go to VCU,” Bacot said. “Which is crazy to think. I would have gone crazy in the A-10 too.”
Mike Rhoades was the head coach at VCU at the time, fresh off an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2020-21. Bacot coming in would have brought a whole new dynamic to the Rams, who wound up having a nice season. 22-10 during the year but an early exit from the A-10 Tournament meant they were not going to the big dance. A spot in the NIT had to suffice.
You have to imagine Bacot would have made a huge difference.
Instead, Hubert Davis was able to convince Bacot to stay with North Carolina. And the rest is history.
“Coach Davis was named the coach,” Bacot said. “Coach Davis recruited me, the guy who always had a hand on my shoulder was I was down, always encouraging me. So Coach Davis said he was coming, it was a wrap. I knew I was staying at Carolina.”
UNC did not have the smoothest regular season but wound up securing multiple historic wins over arch-rival Duke. Beating Mike Krzyzewski in his final game at Cameron Indoor could only be topped by beating them at the Final Four a few weeks later.
Bacot wound up staying for an additional two seasons too, just wrapping up his time with North Carolina. An all-time ‘What could have been’ story for VCU fans, something Tar Heels are glad they avoided.
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