Hubert Davis says Pittsburgh's physicality threw off Armando Bacot

For the second time this season, Pittsburgh defeated North Carolina with their 65-64 win in the Dean Smith Center. It was also the Panther’s third straight win in Chapel Hill. With this edition behind them, Hubert Davis thought a big key in this one was how their defense handled UNC’s Armando Bacot.

Davis said Pittsburgh’s physicality did a number on Bacot during his postgame press conference. He said it rushed Bacot within their offense and, at times, emotionally charged his performance to the point of frustration.

“I thought they did a really good job of being physical with him early,” Davis said. “I thought, at the beginning of the game, Armando was waiting for the double team. And the double team wasn’t coming. So one of the things we told him was just go, just score. It’s not coming and, if it does come, then we’ve practiced and prepared for that. We’ll give you outlets and we know how to attack it. At the end of the day, they just did a really good job defensively against (Bacot).”

“I think he got frustrated a little bit. I think, because of their physicality, he felt like he had gotten fouled. And I thought that, at times, got him emotional,” said Davis. “They just did a really good job on him and you have to compliment them for that.”

Bacot finished with his usual double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. However, he had to do most of his work from the free-throw line (9-15) as he shot just 3-10 from the field. That defensive effort obviously affected Bacot and apparently affected North Carolina as a whole as they shot just 34.8% from the field and 18.5% from distance as a team.

Pittsburgh has had the Tar Heel’s number for a little while now and, this time, how they defended Bacot had a lot to do with the victory. Neutralizing him is a big part of every defensive game plan against North Carolina as several other teams will now be looking at this tape in order to sniff out any other weaknesses with Davis’ team.