Right after UNC forward Armando Bacot announced his return for the 2023–24 season, the senior sent out a perfect Twitter message.
Bacot, who chose to use his last year of eligibility instead of finishing up his career now, posted a picture of Perry Ellis, the former Kansas star who is known for playing four seasons with the Jayhawks from 2012–16.
This was Bacot’s not-so-subtle way of adding to the story of him extending his impressive college career. While others have had longer college careers, Ellis is commonly referenced as a joke among college basketball fans because of how long his Kansas career seemed.
Bacot is able to return to his fifth season at UNC due to the NCAA ruling that the 2020–21 season, which was played amid the COVID-19 pandemic, doesn’t count against an athlete’s eligibility.
The forward finished the 2022 season with an average of 15.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. Next season, Bacot has the chance to climb the record list for the most rebounds in NCAA history. Right now he has 1,335 career rebounds. The modern era (post-1985) NCAA Division I record is Kenneth Faried of Morehead State’s 1,673 from 2007 to ’11. La Salle’s Tom Gola, a college basketball star in the 1950s, has the all-time record with 2,201.
