Armando Bacot’s ankle drama in UNC basketball’s win over BC recalls postseasons past
As much as this felt like the umpteenth turning of the corner for North Carolina, winning the first of at least two and probably three must-win games in Greensboro to keep their very faint NCAA flame burning, that wasn’t the only element that emerged that the Tar Heels may have been missing.
Sure, they shot the lights out — 10-for-24 from 3-point range in an 85-61 win over Boston College — and, as their former coach would say, everything looks better when the ball goes in the basket. BC was never going to be able to keep up with North Carolina at this pace. Virginia might not on Thursday, either.
No, what North Carolina may have needed was some old-fashioned injury drama, the kind that has inadvertently fueled a few recent national championship runs (and derailed another, but still).
It got Ankle Watch 2023.
Armando Bacot went limping down the tunnel to the locker room in the first half, favoring his left ankle after a collision with Makai Ashton-Langford. Bacot returned to start the second half, playing 5 minutes and change before enjoying the rest from the bench, but if North Carolina continues to win and play its way into the NCAA tournament, it isn’t hard to imagine the status of Bacot’s ankle being a major and ongoing talking point.
And not for the first time.
Joel Berry and both of his ankles were watching in the Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday from the ACC Network stage as Bacot went down. Berry famously played on a pair of sprained ankles during North Carolina’s run to the national title in 2017, spraining one in the first round and the other in the second, limping his way through the wins over Butler and Kentucky in Memphis before healing up for the Final Four.
Along the way, he lived up to the previously bestowed sobriquet of “tough little nut” from Roy Williams, the highest of that coach’s praise, but Double Ankle Watch went on his resume forever.
“Everybody used to tell me, it was so great what you did with your ankles and being able to persevere through that,” Berry said. “They didn’t talk about the shots that I made, or winning a national title. They were just like, ‘I love your grit playing on two bad ankles.’ I was like, ‘I appreciate it.’ ”
Berry’s health was a constant talking point, just as Ty Lawson’s was in 2009 after mistakenly giving his injured big toe a late-season soak in an Epsom salt bath, causing massive swelling and calling into question his availability for the NCAA tournament. Again, Ty Toe Watch seemed to focus the Tar Heels more than it was a distraction: Lawson missed the opener and played in the next five on the way to another national title.
And UNC went into the 2012 tournament worried about John Henson’s elbow — Elbow Watch! — coming out of the ACC tournament, only to have its hopes derailed entirely when Creighton’s Ethan Wragge broke Kendall Marshall’s wrist and left the Tar Heels without a point guard in the regional final against Kansas.
If anything, last year’s run was all the more unexpected, coming without any of that until the Tar Heels were already in New Orleans and Bacot sprained his ankle late in the win over Duke, because it is the kind of thing that can fuel a talented team, especially when a key player is playing through obvious pain. Berry, now one of the outside speculators, was fully aware of that at the time.
“Being on the other side, I can feel for him because it’s something that’s very tender, but you know you’re a key part of your team and you’ve got to be out on the floor,” Berry said. “So for me, I just wanted to do whatever I could and I knew my presence on the court was huge. So even if I wasn’t at 100 percent, I knew being out on the court, that not only gave me confidence but gave my team the confidence to know you have your leader.”
Not that North Carolina needed Bacot all that much Wednesday, but there were certainly some gloomy uncertainty when his parents were pulled out of the stands and taken down the tunnel to the UNC locker room. But it’s far from the first time he’s left the court to deal with an injured ankle, and far from the first time he’s bounced back quickly. When Bacot came out for the second half and scored the Tar Heels’ first basket by shrugging off Quinten Post and dunking, he certainly calmed any nerves that might have developed during his absence.
“I’ve never seen anybody sustain ankle sprains and be able to come back like he can,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “He didn’t think it was as bad as the one obviously in the Final Four and also the one when he hurt it at Virginia. When Armando is out there, whether it’s 100 percent or 75 percent, that’s good news for us.”
If worrying about Bacot’s ankle will provide an opportunity to focus, as it has for UNC teams in the past, and he can play through it as well as he did to start the second half, the Tar Heels may have gotten more than a win out of Wednesday.
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This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 9:12 PM with the headline "Armando Bacot’s ankle drama in UNC basketball’s win over BC recalls postseasons past."
