UNC, led by Armando Bacot and RJ Davis, falls to Alabama in NCAA tournament

LOS ANGELES — Armando Bacot and RJ Davis stared achingly into the middle distance, avoiding eye contact with the reporters in front of them as they attempted to escape a crushing, season-ending defeat.

Less than an hour earlier, the North Carolina stars and longtime Chapel Hill fixtures appeared headed for another Elite Eight appearance, and possibly a chance to avenge their loss to Kansas in the 2022 national title game. Even though Bacot was limited at times by foul trouble and Davis was mired in a poor shooting night, the Tar Heels held an 85-82 lead over Alabama with just 90 seconds to play Thursday. Davis, the ACC’s player of the year, had knocked down a pair of free throws to put North Carolina in control of the endgame.

But Alabama, the West Region’s No. 4 seed, responded by scoring seven straight points to close out an 89-87 victory over North Carolina, which became the first No. 1 seed to lose in this year’s chalk-heavy NCAA men’s basketball tournament. This was an abrupt and cruel end for the Tar Heels, who rode the 24-year-old Bacot, a fifth-year senior, and the 22-year-old Davis, a true senior, to three NCAA tournament runs, two Sweet 16 appearances and this year’s regular season ACC conference championship.

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“I’m definitely hurt,” Bacot said. “We all are a little shocked. We don’t underestimate any opponent. It’s not easy losing, especially as talented of a team as we are and we felt we had the chance to win the national championship. Best team I’ve ever played on. The amount of fun we had and the love we have for each other, it was amazing.”

Bacot and Davis didn’t turn in signature performances Thursday, and they shuffled silently out of Crypto.com Arena, side by side, long after their media duties were complete. Bacot finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, but he bemoaned his poor finishing around the basket and missed box outs. Davis added 16 points and seven assists, but he missed all nine of his three-point attempts and shot just 4 for 20 from the field, saying afterward that he “wasn’t good enough.”

While Davis could return for a fifth year because of the NCAA’s pandemic-related eligibility rules, Los Angeles was their last stop together.

“We would not be in this position today without RJ Davis and Armando Bacot,” senior guard Cormac Ryan said, interjecting when a reporter asked Davis about his flat showing. “There’s just not a true fiber in your being that could actually believe that anything that happened tonight could be the result of something RJ did wrong, because RJ’s done something incredible for this team. He’s done stuff that’s never been done before. He’s one of the greatest Tar Heels of all time. For anybody to come and say anything negative about RJ is unacceptable.”

Ryan delivered his passionate monologue not long after Crimson Tide Coach Nate Oats, who can lead Alabama to its first Final Four with a win over No. 6 seed Clemson on Saturday, hailed the Tar Heels as a benchmark for success. Crimson Tide forward Grant Nelson tallied 24 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks, outplaying Bacot, a returning all-American.

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“If we can beat Carolina, now we have done something,” Oats said. “I think people question whether we’re frail and soft. Grant showed we’re not. We can go with the big boys.”

Such a deep level of respect from teammates and opponents alike takes time — significant amounts of time — to develop. Bacot, who averaged 14.5 points and 10.3 rebounds this season, set a program record by playing in 169 games during his career, bypassing the NBA draft multiple times to extend his run. Meanwhile, Davis came off the bench at times as a freshman, became a full-time starter as a sophomore, split scoring duties with backcourt mate Caleb Love as a junior. Finally, following Love’s transfer to Arizona last summer, Davis emerged as the Tar Heels’ leading scorer by averaging 21.2 points this season.

Together, Tar Heels Coach Hubert Davis said, Bacot and Davis represent a potential model for teams seeking to compete for titles in an NCAA era defined by name, image and likeness (NIL) money, transfer portal disruption and freshman standouts heading to the NBA after one-and-done campaigns. The forthcoming dissolution of the NBA’s G League Ignite developmental program will bring additional changes to the college ranks next fall.

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“At a time in college basketball where there’s so many moving parts and so many changes, you had two players that you couldn’t ask for them to be as successful as they have been for four and five years, respectively, at the same institution,” Davis said. “Their commitment to Carolina, their commitment to this program and the community — my hope is that gets talked about more.”

Hubert Davis, of course, has been as committed to UNC as it gets, playing four seasons from 1988 to 1992 before returning in 2012 to serve as an assistant coach following a lengthy NBA and broadcasting career. Despite losing Love, Hubert Davis claimed ACC coach of the year honors and led UNC to a 29-8 record this season. His three-year record is now 78-31, impressive considering his rosters have lacked NBA-friendly stars to follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Vince Carter, Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse.

The Tar Heels haven’t had a player drafted in the NBA lottery since Hubert Davis took the reins from Roy Williams in 2021, and they aren’t expected to have one this season. While chief rival Duke has landed several high-profile recruits, including 2019 No. 1 pick Zion Williamson, 2022 No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero and 2025 projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg, UNC has had only one player selected — Day’Ron Sharpe — in the past three drafts.

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Yet Bacot departs with a 6-5 record against Duke, including an iconic 2022 Final Four victory that sent Mike Krzyzewski, the Blue Devils’ legendary coach, into retirement on a losing note. And Davis is 6-3 against the Blue Devils, including a 21-point showing to spoil Duke’s senior night two years ago.

Duke will face Houston in its own Sweet 16 matchup Friday, and a win would ensure the Blue Devils advanced further than the Tar Heels for the second straight season. Even so, the sting of the 2022 losses to Bacot, Davis and company will linger in Durham for decades to come. And for Hubert Davis, advocate of loyalty, this year’s follow-up was a reinvigorating proof of concept despite its premature end.

“The commitment of this team from the start to want to be a team is the thing that has blown me away,” he said. “It has restored my faith that you can have a bunch of guys in a locker room that genuinely enjoy being around each other, celebrate the success of others and really want to be a team.”

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