Armando Bacot breaks down recovery process leading to quick return

North Carolina needs veteran center Armando Bacot to help the team in ACC play and whatever postseason future awaits the Tar Heels. Unfortunately, he has been dealing with injuries this season that have forced him to miss time, most recently to his ankle.

After only playing only one minute against Virginia due to that ankle injury, Bacot managed to play 25 minutes against Louisville. There, he played a key role in the win, despite a remarkably quick return from injury.

It’s a return from injury that Armando Bacot spoke about following the win.

“I mean, yesterday I was still in a boot and, like I said, we just have been working hard and then today this morning we got up early and I just went through the movements and it felt good,” Armando Bacot said. “Then, I was like, I think I can play.”

Bacot was then asked a quick follow-up question, wondering if he felt the injury during the game at all.

“Moments,” Armando Bacot replied “But, overall I thought I felt pretty good and a better place than I thought I was gonna be.”

In the 25 minutes against Louisville, Bacot dominated the glass, grabbing 16 rebounds. He also had 14 points in the game. This being a game that he didn’t even expect to play in the night before.

“I really wanted to play and, like I said, Doug and Jonas we were working hard for me to play, but I didn’t really know I was playing until this morning. I texted my mom last night, like I probably won’t play and everybody, my whole family, friends, I told them I wasn’t gonna play. So, I woke up this morning feeling good. I don’t know how, but I did,” Bacot explained.

“It put me at a great place going through the game it allowed me to strengthen my ankle even more, and just gonna keep working these next few days to get ready for Boston College.”

North Carolina will host Boston College on Tuesday night.

Hubert Davis on the limitation of Armando Bacot

While he’s making his return, Armando Bacot is, naturally going to be limited. Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis explained those limitations.

“I didn’t think he was even going to play. I mean, he didn’t practice the last two days. So we had off Wednesday, [and] practiced Thursday and Friday; he didn’t practice. He didn’t do dummy offense, nothing. After every practice, he kept saying, ‘Coach, I’m progressing pretty well.’ And I would say, ‘okay, that’s great. But look, I’m never going to put you or anyone of the players in a position where you could get injured. Just keep working out.’ As I told everybody before, absent of Armando, we got enough in our bag to win any game,” Davis said.

“It’s kind of difficult, in terms of monitoring, you don’t want to play him a lot of minutes, but if you take him out and he sits, he gets cold. I would have taken him out earlier, but I wanted to keep him warm, I wanted to keep him safe, and I wanted him to play because he’s really good.”