UNC Basketball: Relentless Improvement on Glass Pays Off Again

Armando Bacot’s offensive rebound turned into two RJ Davis free throws with 52 seconds remaining in Charlottesville on Saturday, with the No. 10 Tar Heels (21-6, 13-3 ACC) leading 50-44 against unranked Virginia (20-8, 11-6 ACC). This effectively sealed the eventual 54-44 victory.

The game-high 13 rebounds that Bacot pulled down, five of which came from the offensive end, helped the Tar Heels win the rebounding battle 43–39. UNC has now outscored 16 opponents in a row.

In addition to ending the program’s eight-game losing run in the rivalry when playing in John Paul Jones Arena (the Tar Heels’ longest on any opponent’s home floor in history), the week off to prepare helped maintain that run.

Hubert Davis, the third-year head coach of UNC basketball, subsequently discussed how his players’ training paid off, especially in light of their consistent progress in the rebounding category, even though they had been looking well there for months:

We knew what we needed to do to have some offensive success going into the game. One was to manage the ball, and I felt like we performed a better job of it in the second half. We had to get to the free throw line, and I felt like we performed better at it in the second half, for obvious reasons.

“Thereafter, we believed we could get some offensive rebounds during second-chance situations. However, we had to be relentless in our attacks, and we improved in that area in the second half as well.

“And Armando, simply being able to maintain possession of the ball and provide us with another chance to score and rest.”