Nate Oats on UNC matchup: We're not going to be intimidated by Armando Bacot
Alabama has a tough task up next in the NCAA Tournament. After pulling away late against Grand Canyon over the weekend, the Crimson Tide will now face North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
The Tar Heels have a talented roster, led by big man Armando Bacot and guard RJ Davis. However, Alabama feels like it matches up just fine heading into the matchup.
“The good thing with us is we’ve played three really good nonconference teams back-to-back-to-back that all had really good post players. And they’re all in the Sweet 16,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said Tuesday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “We also played Clemson, who had PJ Hall.
“So Carolina’s got Armando Bacot. We’ve been in these games. Now we went 0-4 in those four games, but we’ve played guys like this. We’ve been in them. We were up nine in the second half on Purdue, whose got the best big in the country. So it’s not like we’re going to be intimidated by Bacot.”
Alabama got off to a tough start to the season, dropping three straight games against Purdue, Creighton and Arizona in nonconference play, before finishing the year strong.
Alabama played a tough schedule, both in nonconference action and in SEC play, and Nate Oats believes it prepared his team for hard games in the NCAA Tournament, including UNC.
“RJ Davis is good. We played one of the best wings in the country in Dalton Knecht, and there’s other good players in the SEC,” Oats said. “We’ve got [to face] two of them on the same team, so we’ve got to put a package together that covers both Bacot and Davis.”
With that said, what makes North Carolina so difficult to defend is that it’s not just those two. The Tar Heels also have an excellent supporting cast around Davis and Bacot. Still, Oats believes his team is ready to compete.
“They’ve also got Cormac Ryan, who went 7-for-9 from 3 against us when he was at Notre Dame. Now he’s at North Carolina. [Harrison] Ingram went 5-for-6 from 3 against Michigan State. So Carolina’s Carolina. They’ve got five-star players,” Oats said. “But our guys are starting to really get locked into the defensive side of it and guard. I think we can put together a scouting report. We’ve just got to play hard for 40 minutes, which we did against Grand Canyon.”
Alabama held Grand Canyon to only 61 points, after its previous eight opponents had scored 80 points or more. Playing sound defense is critical to the Crimson Tide continuing their run to the Elite Eight.