Chansky's Notebook: Two in the Queue

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This is a tale of two seniors, both playing their last home games. Maybe.

Leaky Black is having his second Senior Night against Duke Saturday at the Smith Center. His first was Syracuse last February before deciding to take his fifth COVID year. It has greatly benefitted his game and NBA stock.

Armando Bacot could take a lesson from Leaky. Bacot said last fall that, unquestionably, he would be leaving Chapel Hill after his senior season. No doubt about it. “The coaches almost didn’t let me come back this year,” he joked when he was preseason ACC Player of the Year for No. 1-ranked UNC.

So much has changed for both players during the current season, when the Tar Heels now face a must-win over the Blue Devils just to return to the NCAA Tournament after once being confident of getting back to the Final Four.

Black feels blessed that he had the extra season to take. He has become the Tar Heel most likely to hear his name called during the NBA Draft in June.

He is Carolina’s nominee for ACC Defensive Player of the Year whom Hubert Davis has repeatedly called the best defender in the country. Black can cover positions 1-4, and has rounded into a full-court threat with the best 3-point percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio on the team, most steals (40), third in blocks behind Bacot and Pete Nance. Leaky has really upped his game, draining 10 of his 21 long balls and blocking 6 shots in the last three victories. “I decided to come back because I had more in the tank,” he said.

Bacot is in a different place from last October. Asked if this was his last home game at UNC, he said he hasn’t “thought about it,” which is a bit of a fib since his position has clearly changed. “I don’t like that this is my last home game. I have to mix all the things together, whether I want to be here.”

Bacot got a lot of publicity over the summer for the money he made from NIL partnerships. With defenses concentrating on him more, he still leads the ACC in rebounding (11 per game) but is less dominating than last year when he averaged 13 boards and 8 offensive compared to 4-plus now.

And he remains absent from most mock first-round draft websites. If he took his COVID season and spent a lot of time in the gym over the spring and summer, he might improve his moves and range with his shot and still make more NIL money than as a free agent in the NBA or in Europe.

Meanwhile, thoughts of again playing for the national championship have been replaced by merely making the tournament. UNC goes for its fourth straight win in what should be a wicked war of unranked big-brands tomorrow night at 6:30. All else is off to the side for now.

Featured image via Todd Melet

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Chansky’s Notebook: Two in the Queue

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