Lucas: Mondy

By Adam Lucas

It started a couple of months ago.

I was sitting next to my wife watching the Tar Heels. If you have ever had the privilege of watching a game with her, you know it is an intense experience.

Armando Bacot blocked a shot or scored in the post or grabbed an offensive rebound—you know, the things you've seen him do thousands of times over the last five years. And then it happened.

"Way to go, Mondy!" she shouted.

I first thought I'd misheard her. It's Mondo, of course. Teammates and friends call him Mondo. Not one person on planet Earth calls him Mondy.

But as those of you with wives will immediately understand, it felt like the wiser decision was not mentioning the error. I just nodded knowingly. Yes, indeed, Mondy had made a great play.

It continued over the next couple of games. And finally, at some juncture when things weren't going well for the Tar Heels and I was in a bad mood about turnovers or free throws or something similarly important, I said, "I don't think anyone calls him Mondy."

She gave me a look that instantly conveyed the egregious mistake I had just made.

"I do," she said simply, and went back to cheering for the Tar Heels.

And that's the relationship Carolina fans have with players like Armando Bacot. We've cheered for him so many times that he's part of our lives. When he first showed up—his first regular season game in the Smith Center was against Notre Dame, the same opponent he faced in his last game in the building—he was just Bacot. And now, unfortunately for him, five years later, he's Mondy (It should perhaps be noted that I have been told—by others, of course—that certain Duke players also develop a family-specific name in some Tar Heel group texts. That is an entirely different circumstance and, usually, an entirely different set of names).

You know how it is. We text and talk about them like they're family. Some families talk about politics or literature or current events over Thanksgiving dinner. We talk about the Heels. Year after year, class after class, JR turns into 'Tawn who becomes Big May and then there's Psycho T and next up is Theo and here we are, with Mondo. Or Mondy.

"It's pretty crazy how fast time has gone," Bacot said on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "I never really expected to be this loved by the fans and by the community. It's so great to be a Tar Heel, and I'm so fortunate to do it for five years. I'm so thankful to be at a school like this."

The beauty of the win over the Irish was that Carolina played well enough that the sellout Tuesday night crowd could show their appreciation right back without having to be worried with the outcome. Every game the rest of this season will feel like it comes with enormous stakes and major mood swings on every basket. Tuesday, though, served primarily as another reminder that Senior Day matters at Carolina. With seven seniors, Hubert Davis elected to start Bacot, RJ Davis, Duwe Farris, Rob Landry and Creighton Lebo, giving the nod to the players with the most tenure in the program.

Dean Smith would have had a hard time imagining the current state of college basketball. But Smith, the inventor of Senior Day, likely would have appreciated the walk-ons in the lineup. Cormac Ryan and Paxson Wojcik still got minutes and made key contributions. But it's a safe bet that Farris, Landry and Lebo will be telling stories about this night for decades.

"I was just really excited and felt really blessed," Farris said of getting the start. "I realized I had never played offense on that side of the court before. I've stood on the same spot during starting lineups for all four years, so to sit and look up at the whole Smith Center was really special."

"It was very emotional before the game seeing all the parents and our seven seniors take the floor for the last time," Hubert Davis said on the THSN. "So many things go through your head. So many memories and moments throughout their years here. Things go so quickly. You go from moment to moment and don't get a chance to enjoy each moment. It was really nice before the game to enjoy the moment, and it was continued by the way everyone played today."

The head coach conveyed the importance of those moments to his team, and helped them pause for perhaps a second longer than they otherwise might to savor scenes from Tuesday's win.

Bacot, for one, will leave forever knowing that his last official made basket at the Smith Center was a three-pointer. It was, for the first time in his career, his second made three-pointer of the game. And let the record show that he called his shot.

"We were in the huddle and he was trying to get me to run a play we run for RJ for him," Hubert Davis said.

Bacot has worked tirelessly on his perimeter shot. Summer afternoons, winter mornings, days after wins, nights after losses, he's been in an empty Smith Center, shooting jumper after jumper. And he wasn't going to leave without demonstrating once and for all that he could make it. Coming out of that huddle his head coach mentioned, Bacot looked at RJ Davis.

"Throw me the ball," he told Davis, "and I'm going to shoot it. Regardless of where I am."

Of course it went in. That was the only way the script was written on this evening. "I thought I got fouled, too," Bacot said with that smile. "We have to draw up some plays for me coming out of pin-downs so I can shoot more three's. I showed that today. My volume should be up way more."

So there were smiles. But maybe some tears, too.

"The most emotional part of the day was running out of the tunnel at halftime," Farris said. "Rob and I had a moment where we both knew it was our last time running out. We just gave each other a big hug."

There were hugs for everybody on this evening. And so, when Davis and Bacot and Ryan were removed for the last time with 3:07 remaining, with every fan in the building on their feet, they were greeted with a giant hug and a kiss on the cheek from their head coach.

For the last five years, in a time when there isn't a lot of certainty in college sports, one absolute has been the presence of a certain 6-foot-11 man from Richmond. He entered school before any of us knew what a Covid test was. Online class was mostly a fantasy. Any payments to college athletes were strictly prohibited. During the time he's been in school, Cole Anthony—part of the same recruiting class with Bacot—has signed two separate NBA contracts. And yet, there he was, game after game. There has never been a time in the history of college sports when it was easier to go elsewhere. He didn't. He could have opted out. He didn't.

It's hard to imagine this, but the next time Bacot is in the Smith Center for a game, he'll be sitting over in the padded seats, near the one occupied by 2017 alum—and national champion—Isaiah Hicks on Tuesday night. On this same evening, Bacot set the ACC record for most games played, notching his 162^nd career appearance. There have been 564 games played on the Smith Center court. Bacot has played in 13 percent of them, a figure almost exactly half of the percentage of Smith Center games coached by Dean Smith.

So it's only natural that when he comes back, we'll point him out. Perhaps they'll show him on the video board. And then we'll turn to the person next to us, and say, "Hey, there's Mondo."

Sorry. I meant Mondy.

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Duwe Farris

Rob Landry

Creighton Lebo

Cormac Ryan

Paxson Wojcik

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