Armando Bacot reacts to Duke fans throwing bottles at players

There is no feeling sweeter for North Carolina fans than a season sweep over Duke, and the Tar Heels completed one on Saturday evening in the Blue Devils’ own home arena.

Behind 31 points from ancient super-senior Cormac Ryan, UNC went into Cameron Indoor Stadium and basically controlled the ballgame from tip to finish to assert themselves as the clear big dogs in the rivalry this year. Of course, on the flip-side, such an experience is wretched for Duke fans and they sure let the Carolina players know just how much they had ruined Saturday night in Durham.

After the game, as Tar Heel players and staff sauntered off the court, Blue Devil fans showered them with cups, water and ice to signify their displeasure at the game’s result. Those actions became a major storyline and talking point coming out of the night, but UNC star Armando Bacot said he really didn’t take much offense to the whole ordeal. He just chalked it up to good ole rivalry shenanigans.

“Oh, that’s great. I mean, rivalry like this, I mean, we win the game, they throw drinks on us, it’s amazing,” said the senior center. “I mean, shout out to them. They came out.”

Bacot did say, though, that the Duke home crowd wasn’t quite the advantage this year that it had been in the past.

“Like I said earlier, it wasn’t like regular years in a sense where you could really feel the fans. Today, I felt like we just went out there and played. I mean, it was a little loud, but it wasn’t the same Cameron Crazies as we’re used to”

Reporters were a bit surprised to hear that opinion on the Duke fans and asked if that’s more a credit to the veteran nature of this Carolina team, especially with a roster of guys who have played in Cameron before.

“It’s just a different team, man. We don’t really get nervous, right,” said Armando Bacot. “We may lose but we’re not going to be nervous in any situation. We just came in here with that edge to us that we’ve had all year.”

A main reason why the crowd was so limited Saturday was that UNC gave the Blue Devils no room to breathe. They jumped on top early and never really relinquished control, thus eliminating an electric atmosphere.