Armando Bacot reveals fiery challenge to teammates following loss to Wake Forest

20200517_134556by:Justin Rudolph•02/07/23

The North Carolina Tar Heels came up just short against their in-state ACC rival Wake Forest in their Tuesday night matchup. The Tar Heels fell on the road 92-85 after getting run out of the gym and trailing by 22 at the end of the first half. After the game, North Carolina’s star big man Armando Bacot was in anything but a joyous mood. Following another road loss for his Tar Heels, Bacot threw down a fiery challenge to his team.

In the postgame press conference, the North Carolina senior big man kept his words short and simple following the defeat.

“We came back for a reason… and this is not it,” he said.

Bacot also told his teammates after the game, “if you don’t want to be here, quit,” according to Patrick Welter, local reporter for WRAL.

With the loss, North Carolina falls to 15-9 on the season and 7-6 in conference play. The Tar Heels are essentially mathematically eliminated from the possibility of capturing the ACC regular season title. And if they continue to struggle down the stretch, not even a successful run in the ACC tournament could save their season, unless they won it of course. If they continue to struggle, North Carolina could very well end up missing the NCAA tournament in March.

That outcome seems almost unfathomable for a Tar Heels program that not only has a proud legacy of winning but made a run to March Madness’ final game just one season ago — the program’s first under head coach Hubert Davis.

But as losses continue to mount for the Tar Heels, pressure to reclaim past glory does as well and Bacot’s message seems to be — if you can’t handle that fire, get out of the kitchen now. He and his teammate’s next opportunity to respond to his challenge come Saturday vs Clemson at 2 p.m. ET. Clemson is still in the mix for an ACC title and will be coming off a week of rest as they attempt to get healthy for the stretch run while North Carolina comes off three straight losses with a big man desperately trying to find a way to spark his team.