UNC Basketball Alum Remains on Bench in First Summer League Game

Walker Kessler was the only former UNC basketball player to see the floor in the Jazz's overtime win.

UNC basketball center Armando Bacot / Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

The Utah Jazz have a pair of 2020-21 UNC basketball big men on their Summer League roster: Walker Kessler, who is entering his third year as a pro following a season apiece at UNC and Auburn, along with five-year Tar Heel Armando Bacot.

But in the Jazz's first game at the Salt Lake City Summer League on Monday night, only one of those 2020-21 Tar Heels played.

Kessler, a backup to Bacot during his brief stay in Chapel Hill before nearly tripling his production as a sophomore and full-time starter at Auburn, tallied 10 points, six rebounds, two steals, and five blocks across his team-high 33 minutes in Utah's 97-95 overtime win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The 22-year-old, Utah's No. 22 overall draft pick in 2022, shot 3-for-5 from the field and 4-for-8 at the foul line.

The 24-year-old Bacot, who went undrafted two weeks ago but signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Jazz for Summer League, probably would have come off the bench for mop-up duty had the matchup not been so tightly contested.

Perhaps UNC basketball's all-time leading rebounder and double-double machine will hear his number called when the Jazz face the Oklahoma City Thunder, including Bacot's 2023-24 Tar Heel teammate in 25-year-old wing Cormac Ryan, at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday (ESPN2).

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