Riding High on Armando Bacot, How Can North Carolina Improve Their Chances of Clinching the NCAA Title

The North Carolina Tar Heels have a brilliant 8-3 record in the ACC. They occupy the top spot in the conference and the 11th position in the AP Polls. They have lost only three matches and that too against top-ranked teams. One game they lost against the Villanova Wildcats with an 81-83 margin in overtime. Taking the game to the OT only shows the skill of this team. It is a testament to their dedication and never give up spirit.

But despite being a top team, the North Carolina are lacking something. This makes them less intimidating against the top-ranked opponents. If the North Carolina continue this run of affairs, they might make it to the knockouts but suffer heavily later on. Despite putting up tough fights, the opponents will edge past them. Also, if they don’t rectify the issues now, it will only add insult to injury when they analyze it after heavy losses.

How have the North Carolina performed?

In the other two games they were defeated by the UConn Huskies and the Kentucky Wildcats. While against the Huskies they had upended by a decent margin of 76-87, against the Wildcats they reached too close but were ultimately subdued by an 83-87 margin. Against the Huskies their forwards Harrison Ingram and Armando Bacot gave their best, besotting 20 and 13 points respectively. Their guard RJ Davis also didn’t back down as he soused a game-high 26 points. Bacot on the other hand also contributed exceptionally in defense, grabbing 13 rebounds in the process. Thus, he smashed a double-double.

While another guard Cormac Ryan stepped up along with Davis against the Kentucky, smashing 20 and 27 points in the process, Bacot didn’t particularly have a great outing in that match. He could only basket 9 points with 6 rebounds. The results would have been different had the 23-year-old created more opportunities and propelled his team over the finish line.

What the North Carolina needs right now is more depth. They might have won the matches if they had more players performing. Whenever we speak of the Tar Heels it’s always three to four players who have been performing since the season’s start. But getting depth suddenly is a difficult thing since the athletes would need to accustom themselves to the current NCAA season and then work hard to identify their role in the team. This would also mean many rotations by the head coach Hubert Davis.

Another thing that the North Carolina lack is good rim protection. They have an average of a paltry 4.5 blocks per game of all the players in their roster combined. This has encouraged their opponents to go ahead with their offensive plans whereas the Tar Heels have failed to stop them. A better rim protection would translate into lesser points being scored by the rivals which would eventually make it easier for the Tar Heels to edge past their competition. 

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The problem at hand feels little difficult to make up for, and things would have been different if they had taken care of it in the past.

Can they go back in time?

Additionally, the Tar Heels need a guard who can obstruct the point of attack. And it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the team needs someone like the Butler Bulldogs guard Posh Alexander. Alexander has been an imminent addition to the Bulldogs team, having nabbed rebounds in double figures twice. He has also been extremely efficient with his assists providing as humongous as 11 assists in the match against the Texas Tech Raiders.

He is no less in terms of points, basketing 21 points against the California Golden Bears. On the team front, Alexander leads in two departments of assists average and steals average with 5.2 assists per game and 2.1 steals per match. He has played the connector role well and carved a place for himself in both offense and defense. Talking hypothetically, if the Chapel Hill team had got Alexander on their roster it would have bettered their defense at the same also leading to more assists. 

Their defense inefficiency was exposed during their game against the Kentucky. The North Carolina failed to stop guards namely – DJ Wagner and Rob Dillingham. While Wagner soused 14 points, Dillingham thrashed 17. Their guarding inability helped the Kentucky rack up 87 points and outfox the Chapel Hill team by a narrow margin of two points in both halves.

Other players such as forward Aaron Bradshaw and guard Reed Sheppard also took full advantage of the opportunity presented to them smoking 12 and 11 points respectively. Due to the defensive problems of the North Carolina, the Kentucky found space and created opportunities for themselves. The North Carolina can however turn things around if they take care of these things.

How can North Carolina make up?

Our entire analysis presents us with two major things. Firstly, the North Carolina can push Bacot to amp up his game. Secondly, they need to guard better especially to have solid rim protection. It subliminally reminds us of their guard Caleb Love who chose to transfer to the Arizona. This season he has dropped an average of 16.5 points per game and improved his rebounding abilities considerably from the previous year, seizing 5.3 rebounds per contest.

It is a thing of regret but had the North Carolina known that Love would ameliorate his rebounding abilities they would have made sure that Love sticks with them. However, things are not too late right now since the Tar Heels have been great at their game irrespective of the flaws. 

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All they need is may be Bacot to perform the guarding role that the Tar Heels have been missing and with him bearing the onus they can be one of the most lethal teams in the knockouts.