North Carolina’s climb up the AP rankings continues as the Tar Heels are at No. 7 this week.
UNC picked up two huge road wins last week at Pittsburgh, 70-57, and then-No.16 Clemson 65-55. Both are Quad 1 victories and were the Tar Heels first true road games.
Carolina was No. 8 last week and has now won four in a row, including three Quad 1 games. Hubert Davis’ team is now 11-3 overall and 3-0 in the ACC.
Armando paced the Heels with a pair of double-doubles totaling 30 points, 26 rebounds, four assists, and five blocked shots. Plus, his defense on Clemson star P.J. Hall on Saturday at Littlejohn Coliseum was masterful and as important in UNC getting the win as anything else.
“They are great at ducking in and sealing,” Davis said. “And one of the things that we always talked about is you've got to play defense before you play defense. At this level, if you start playing defense when your man gets the ball, it’s just too late.
“So, I felt like before PJ and the post players were able to get positioned and looking for angles, I felt like Armando particularly did a really good job playing defense before playing defense. Beating him to the spot and making PJ catch the ball maybe one or two steps out further than where he wants it.”
Bacot held Hall to 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting from the floor, including 0-for-5 from 3-point range. On Tuesday night at Pitt, the Tar Heels limited Panthers’ star Blake Hinson to just 11 points on 4-for-16 shooting, including only 2-for-11 from the perimeter.
The Tar Heels’ stretch of road Quad 1 games continues this week as they head to NC State on Wednesday night matching a pair of teams with unblemished ACC records. UNC hosts Syracuse on Saturday.
