Dick Weiss on College Basketball
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.– For North Carolina, this storied ACC rivalry with neighboring Duke is more than just bragging rights on Tobacco Road.
It was about getting 6-11 fifth year senior Armando Bacot to reassert himself as the dominant player the last two years.
“In order for us to do what we want to do, we need that,” senior guard RJ Davis said. “We need him to be the dude down low. That is no chance of us achieving anything that we want without Armando putting up big numbers.”
Bacot must have been listening. The All-America big dominated the first part of this storied rivalry, scoring 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting, grabbing 10 rebounds, contributing five assists and coming up with two steals as the third-ranked Tar Heels smoked Duke, 93-84, before a roaring sellout crowd at the Smith Center.
Bacot won his head-to-head matchup with against Duke’s 7-0 preseason Player of the Year, setting the tone early with more aggressive edge in the low post. Along the way, the Tar Heels exposed the Blue Devils as a team without a true shot blocker, rim protector.
This was Bacot’s 77th career double, double.
“I think at the end of the day, the ACC runs through me,” Bacot said. “All the top bigs I’ve played against– going into every matchup, I feel like I’m going to win on those matchups. I take them a little bit more personally and I knew I would dominate.”
It hasn’t always been that way. Bacot learned a valuable lesson at Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas in November when Villanova, a Big East team, successfully bullied him during an overtime loss in the semi-final when Nova’s 6-8 powerhouse Eric Dixon scored 34 points.
After Bacot only averaged just 6.3 points and 6.7 rebounds the past three games and had just nine points in unexpected last second loss to Georgia Tech Wednesday, he met with third-year Carolina coach Hubert Davis and asked for advice.
Davis stressed being more aggressive when he got the ball close to the rim and then he and assistant Brad Fredrick put some wrinkles into the offense to get the ball to Bacot in better scoring position so he could create separation and avoid double teams.
Davis is growing into this job nicely. Carolina is 18-4 and sitting on top of the ACC with a 10-1 record. Davis is 5-2 against ranked teams this season, which could put the
Heels in a position to land a No. 1 seed if the trend continues. Carolina-Duke was the center piece of a triple header on ESPN that featured 4 Houston at 8 Kansas and 5 Tennessee at 10 Kentucky. Ironically, neither of those were had epic finishes. Kansas shot close to 70 percent in a win over Houston– the top defensive team in the country– at Allen. And the Vols scored 103 against Kentucky at Rupp. Carolina simply played harder against Duke.
Down here, there is a lot to like about this Carolina team, which has a much deeper and effective rotation than last season.
“There’s a hunger and thirst with this group, individually and as a team, to be the best it can be and it comes from many different directions,” Davis said.
Bacot and senior guard RJ Davis are self-motivated veteran stars who came back to school rather than take their chances in the NBA draft. His two transfer starters, Ingram from Stanford, and fifth year senior guard Cormac Ryan from Notre Dame, are good fits who more interested in winning than showcasing their skills for pro scouts. And freshman point guard Elliott Cadeau seems unfazed by the enormity of the storied rivalry.
This was a breakout game for Ingram, the multi-versatile 6-7 junior who scored 21 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, made five threes and had four steals. Ingram spent two days brooding about the Georgia Tech loss. “I must have watched the tape five times,” he said. ‘Twice the night of the game. But last night, I slept 10 1/2 hours, got up and was ready to
go. I’ve been looking forward to this game since I got here. I watched five or six Carolina-Duke games in high school. And I got to see one of them live on my visit before I signed with Stanford. I remember all the kids at my high school (St. Mark’s Prep of Dallas) was jealous.
“It was pretty exciting, running out of the tunnel and seeing all those people pumped for the game. The noise when Armando scored our first basketball was so loud, it must have broken the sound barrier.”
All Ingram wanted to do after the game was go to Franklin St. with his sister, a Duke student, and watch the students celebrate.
This program is all about tradition. Bacot was the first Carolina player with 25 points 10 rebounds and 5 assists in this rivalry in the since Charlie Scott in 1971. And Carolina had its best offensive performance since mid-January in a win over Syracuse. Carolina jumped out to a 45-35 lead at half and then never let the Blue Devils get closer than seven.
Freshman Jared McCain had 23 points and 11 rebounds for Duke (16-5, 7-3) and Filipowski added 22. Both teams shot over 50 percent, but Duke, which came into the game as the ACC’s leading three-point shooting team, shot just 5 for 19 and 2 for 11 in the second half.
That wasn’t what concerned Duke coach Jon Scheyer the most.
“You can play really well and compete your butt off and still lose to them because they’re a really good team,” he said. “But we didn’t compete to the level that you need to have a chance to beat this team tonight. And that’s what I’m disappointed about. Hopefully, it’s a onetime thing. We’ll get back to work Monday.”
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