Hubert Davis discusses limitations on Armando Bacot during injury return

In North Carolina‘s victory over Louisville on Saturday, the Tar Heels got a pleasant surprise when their star big man Armando Bacot returned from injury to play in the game. His return helped spark North Carolina’s offense as they went on to win 80-59. After the game, head coach Hubert Davis discussed the process of getting Bacot back on the court early, along with his limitations.

“I didn’t think he was even going to play. I mean, he didn’t practice the last two days,” said Davis. “So we had off Wednesday, (and) practiced Thursday and Friday; he didn’t practice. He didn’t do dummy offense, nothing. After every practice, he kept saying, ‘Coach, I’m progressing pretty well.’ And I would say, ‘okay, that’s great. But look, I’m never going to put you or anyone of the players in a position where you could get injured. Just keep working out.’ As I told everybody before, absent of Armando, we got enough in our bag to win any game.

“It’s kind of difficult, in terms of monitoring, you don’t want to play him a lot of minutes, but if you take him out and he sits, he gets cold. I would have taken him out earlier, but I wanted to keep him warm, I wanted to keep him safe, and I wanted him to play because he’s really good.”

Bacot wasn’t apart of the plan

Bacot had a significant amount of playing time in his return to action. He ended up recording 25 minutes on the court. Bacot would also finish the game as one of five North Carolina players to score double-digit points. And for good measure, the Tar Heels star forward delivered yet another double-double securing it before the first half gun with 11 points and 10 rebounds. He finished the game with 14 points and 16 rebounds.

Still, while Bacot has a solid game, it was a surprise to Davis. Not because his level of play was unexpected but because his star forward wasn’t expected to play at all. Davis didn’t have Bacot in his game plan at all.

“My preparation was that him and Pete (Nance) weren’t playing. I have everything lined up in terms of what direction we needed to go from the standpoint of putting Leaky at the five and going small but that is who Armando is. He’s about this team and this program, even though he’s not 100 percent. We don’t win this game without him. He’s just fantastic.”