Armando Bacot: ACC teams 'definitely' played with a chip on their shoulders
The North Carolina Tar Heels, led by Armando Bacot, are one of four ACC teams to make it to the Sweet 16. That’s the most of any conference, which is surprising to some given the general perception that it was a down year for the ACC.
As Bacot explained, he knew about the perception of the ACC and believes that other teams in the conference did as well, and, because of that, he says that teams definitely played with a chip on their shoulders to get to this point.
“Definitely. You see it every year,” Armando Bacot said. “I think, especially since, like, 2018 when…and all of them left. I feel like the respect for the ACC just in general kind of went down. But you look at every year in the tournament we’ve always got a couple, multiple teams…deep in these rounds.”
“There’s a lot of stuff that goes into it. I think most ACC programs are playing a high-level non-conference schedule too, so I think that really plays a factor. I feel like other conferences might not be as strong or they’re kind of manipulating it in a way some sense.”
The four ACC teams to make it to the Sweet 16 are North Carolina, Duke, NC State, and Clemson. However, Bacot feels that there were even more deserving teams in the conference that were overlooked.
“This year was really crazy because you look at how great NC State has been playing and how great Duke has been playing. Clemson too has been great, but you look at teams like Pitt who’s beaten three or four of those teams that I just named. Also too, UVA, they obviously got out, but this year there were a lot of ACC teams that were deserving that didn’t get a chance to make it in,” Bacot said.
“Hopefully everyone sees after this year how competitive ACC basketball is and how good the teams are.”
North Carolina will look to move onto the Elite Eight on Thursday night when the Tar Heels take on Alabama. The winner will go on to play either Arizona or Clemson.
Nate Oats on UNC matchup: We’re not going to be intimidated by Armando Bacot
Heading into the Sweet 16, Alabama head coach Nate Oats made it clear that the Crimson Tide won’t be intimated by Armando Bacot inside.
“The good thing with us is we’ve played three really good nonconference teams back-to-back-to-back that all had really good post players. And they’re all in the Sweet 16. We also played Clemson, who had PJ Hall,” Oats said.
“So Carolina’s got Armando Bacot. We’ve been in these games. Now we went 0-4 in those four games, but we’ve played guys like this. We’ve been in them. We were up nine in the second half on Purdue, whose got the best big in the country. So it’s not like we’re going to be intimidated by Bacot.”