North Carolina vs. Miami Postponed After Video of Tar Heels Players' Maskless Party
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
North Carolina's matchup against Miami on Monday night has been postponed, according the ACC.
Personnel from both schools met Monday, ultimately concluding that the "game could not move forward today," per the conference.
Monday's postponement stems from a video released Sunday featuring North Carolina forwards Armando Bacot and Day'ron Sharpe at a maskless party. Both Bacot and Sharpe appeared to be celebrating North Carolina's win over Duke the day prior, and no one in the video wore masks. Miami was subsequently "not comfortable playing the game," following the video's release, leading to a postponement, per Stadium's Jeff Goodman.
On Tuesday, UNC players released a statement addressing the incident and even admitted that more players and team managers that were not seen in the video violated COVID-19 guidelines.
"Saturday night, a number of players and managers — not just the ones shown on the video that was seen — got together to celebrate our win at Duke,” the players’ statement said. “Our intention was to celebrate privately within our group. Unfortunately, we allowed several friends who are not members of the team to join the gathering. We were inside and not wearing masks, which were mistakes. We apologize for not adhering to the University’s and athletic department’s guidelines and apologize to Coach Williams and his staff for not stepping forward when he first addressed it with us on Sunday. We have worked too hard for eight months doing the right things to make these kinds of mistakes at this point in the season. We are hopeful we will all be able to play again soon and wish to remind everyone to stay safe so this pandemic will be over as soon as possible.”
Tar Heels coach Roy Williams accepted the apology and mentioned there would be consequences.
“I appreciate the players voicing their apology,” Williams said in a statement. “They made a mistake. They’ve been fantastic for more than eight months in the way they have dealt with the whole situation with the virus. But they realize they did make a mistake, for which they are paying a very significant price.”
After the statements were released, Bacot's mother, Christie Lomax, posted a note on Twitter, saying her son has been receiving death threats since the video surfaced.
"It brings me great concern that there have been threats toward my son, Armando Bacot's life, by individuals; one, who don't know him nor our family personally and two, did not know the whole story and truth," Lomax wrote in a statement Tuesday.
"We are all dealing in a time that is extremely unfamiliar, making adjustments can be hard and not doing the things we love can make us sad. I understand. At no time is it OK to threaten someone, it's unnecessary and downright evil. Let's not forget to love ourselves so that we can pass on love to others. God loves us all, Prayers to All."
North Carolina struggled out of the gate in 2020–21, sitting at 5–4 as the calendar turned to January. But Roy Williams's squad has returned to form of late. The Tar Heels have won four of their last five games, including a 91–87 win over the Blue Devils on Saturday night.
Bacot leads the Tar Heels with 12.1 points per game this season. Sharpe is in his first year with the program, averaging 9.7 points and 7.8 rebounds. Discipline for players and team managers has not been announced as of Tuesday afternoon.
