Armando Bacot, UNC basketball overwhelm Duke with a vintage trait of the Tar Heels
Hubert Davis is a preacher of pace.
In his third season as the head coach of UNC basketball, Davis wants the Tar Heels to stay on track with keeping the tempo at a high level.
The third-ranked Tar Heels saw it, felt it and produced that necessary pace in a 93-84 win against No. 7 Duke on Saturday night at the Smith Center.
Armando Bacot felt that speed more than anyone on Roy Williams Court in the first 12 minutes.
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Bacot got a brief break during the first timeout at the 14:19 mark, but the next stoppage didn’t arrive for nearly seven minutes as the Tar Heels (18-4, 10-1 ACC) and Blue Devils (16-5, 7-3) maintained a frenetic pace.
“I thought this game was probably the best we’ve ran,” Bacot said. “I mean, y’all saw me. At the 12-minute timeout, I was dying.”
Grabbing his hips and leaning over to grab his knees, Bacot kept telling himself to “hold on.” Relief arrived at the 7:33 mark in the form of a Bacot foul. Did he do it on purpose to force a stoppage?
“Yes,” Bacot said with a smile.
It was one of the few times Duke was able to slow down Bacot and the Tar Heels. He became just the second player in UNC history to finish with 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against the Blue Devils.
What Hubert Davis said about UNC basketball vs. Duke
UNC showed off its uptempo chops with 12 of its 16 fast-break points in the first half and built a double-digit lead.
It was the most fast-break points for the Tar Heels since dropping 20 on Syracuse. UNC is 6-0 when it reaches at least 16 fast-break points.
“It was good (pace). In the first half – I’ll give you an example – they made a basket and, boom, we got a layup. I told the guys, 'That’s the pace I want; I think we can go faster. That was the perfect example – that’s the way we want to play,' ” UNC coach Hubert Davis said.
“Whether it’s a made basket, miss, turnover, out of a timeout, free throw, let’s go. I felt like the way that we transitioned from defense to offense has been a strength of us all year. That’s why defending and rebounding is so huge for us.
“We defend and rebound, that means we get to have some fun and we get to go in transition. I think the guys are every day starting to understand that and starting to buy in to defending and rebounding, because then they get to run and they get to score. I thought our pace was good.”
There were two layups that came fewer than eight seconds after a Duke basket in the first half. In the second half, there were two more, including Bacot’s exclamation-point dunk for the final points of the night.
RJ Davis, Harrison Ingram, Seth Trimble felt the pace bothered Duke
UNC is 39th in adjusted tempo, according to KenPom.com, and Duke sits at 164 in that metric.
The Tar Heels are on track to be the fastest team in Davis' three seasons as head coach.
UNC hasn’t played at this pace since finishing sixth in tempo in the 2018-19 season, which ended with the Tar Heels winning the ACC regular-season title and earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, UNC was 99th in that metric for its slowest tempo since 2003.
RJ Davis, who finished with 17 points, and Harrison Ingram – who had 21 points and 13 rebounds – could feel UNC’s uptempo emphasis bothering the Blue Devils.
“Our pace was really hurting them,” RJ Davis said.
“We were able to get the ball out in transition, get downhill and that’s what was working. Whether it was getting layups for ourselves, finding the bigs or spraying out for 3s, we really relied on our transition offense and our pace was working well.”
Ingram had similar feelings, adding that “no team can run” with UNC.
“Some games we get away from that when teams get us in foul trouble or they slow the game down,” Ingram said. “At the end of the day, if we get the game going at our pace, we feel like nobody can beat us.”
Trimble, who had 10 points at the rim, agreed.
“I think when we’re out running on missed shots and made shots, we’re elite,” Trimble said. “I think we saw that (against Duke.)”
It was on full display from start to finish for the crowd of 21,750 at the Smith Center. The final blow came with just under 10 seconds left as Bacot sprinted down the court for the final time against Duke, catching a pass from Trimble before throwing down a two-handed jam to punctuate UNC’s win.
“The last thing (Hubert Davis) said before we went out there was, ‘Have fun,’” RJ Davis said.
“We did a good job of just enjoying the moment, and just going out there and playing Carolina basketball.”
Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at @rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Hubert Davis notes UNC basketball’s pace in Tar Heels’ win vs. Duke
