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Armando Bacot analyzes North Carolina's success rebounding

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•02/23/23
Caleb Love, North Carolina Tar Heels guard
North Carolina guard Caleb Love walks out onto the floor with his teammates for a game on Feb. 22, 2023. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

North Carolina pulled off a 63-59 win over Notre Dame on Wednesday night, but it certainly wasn’t an easy game. And if not for the Tar Heels’ success rebounding the ball, it might have gone the other way.

When the game ended North Carolina had a 52-33 rebounding edge, with 23 offensive rebounds. And it happened without monster rebounder Armando Bacot having one of his biggest nights.

“Like I was telling (Caleb Love) earlier teams have been making it hard, darn near impossible for me to get the ball, get clean looks,” Bacot explained. “So I’ve got to find ways to be aggressive and offensive rebounds, that’s something I can hang my hat on and get easy shots and get clean looks.”

Bacot did that, turning in a double-double with 16 points and 11 boards. But two others also had double-figure rebounding nights for the Tar Heels.

Leaky Black finished with 11 boards, while Pete Nance turned in 10 and the success rebounding powered the win.

“I mean Leaky, he’s been doing a phenomenal job, just getting offensive rebounds, and kind of being that Swiss Army knife for us and doing everything,” Bacot said.

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Success rebounding covered up lackluster effort

If North Carolina’s success rebounding hadn’t been quite so stark, the Tar Heels might have been on the wrong end of Wednesday night’s game.

There were a lot of simple things the Tar Heels did wrong, starting with effort.

“To get technical in terms of basketball, if you don’t get the energy, effort, and passion part you can’t get to that, it doesn’t make it,” coach Hubert Davis explained. “So until you check that box then you can get to the technical part. And so first half we coached effort and passion, and the second half we coached basketball.”

Once Carolina got things going, it all started to click.

North Carolina outscored Notre Dame in the second half 44-32, ultimately winning the game and securing a key resume-boosting win.

The Tar Heels will get a chance at another big resume lift on Saturday when they host No. 6 Virginia in a game that tips off at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN.