ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2021

Armando Bacot

North Carolina Tar Heels

Postgame Press Conference

North Carolina 81, Virginia Tech 73

Roy told us a little bit ago that he continues to push you, and we've heard him say that a lot over the last year and a half. Has that kind of sunk in for you, and is that motivation for you and one of the reasons that you've played so well of late, especially in the second half tonight?

ARMANDO BACOT: Yeah, I mean, Coach, he knows how to get under my skin. I'd probably say he's the hardest on me on the team. I mean, yeah, it's definitely motivating. I get a note and I'm kind of pissed off, but I want to go out there and win, so it's all good. I know he means good by it, too, so...

Q. Aside from RJ's scoring tonight, what have you seen that's different in his game, especially when he's at the point, the way he kind of manages things and sees things out there that is a sign of his growth in the last five or six weeks?

ARMANDO BACOT: Yeah, I mean, when he's aggressive, he's harder to stop. He can shoot it. He's so quick, small. He can get in different spots easier than a lot of guys with just his size. I mean, his facilitating has been getting a lot better, so he's been great. He's just growing.

Q. When you say that Roy gets under your skin, what do you mean by that? Did he know how to push your buttons from day one, or has he slowly figured it out over time?

ARMANDO BACOT: 100 percent. I'm telling you he's just relentless when it comes to me. He's always riding me every single day. It's always he's just at me. He knows how to get me in that mood, and it turns me up, so I had to go out there and go crazy.

Q. Is there something specific he says or does?

ARMANDO BACOT: He just uses the word soft a lot, and I don't like when he's saying it. And he kind of was trying to say that he was punking us, so I just had to just go out there and just show it.

Q. On the subject of possibly being punked, was there any sort of adjustment like technically that you all had to make at halftime? You only had two offensive rebounds in the first half and then you turned it way up in the second half. Or was it just a matter of effort as opposed to something technical?

ARMANDO BACOT: Man, I thought they had a good strategy at the beginning. They was doing a good job of just boxing us out, meeting us early. We got four good bigs so eventually we knew they was going to wear down and that's in the second half. Every player was going to the boards, so eventually it was go to wear down and -- started fouling, getting fouls, so it just made it a lot easier.

Q. What does this win say to you about the maturity of this team now? Is this a game you feel like you guys would still have won probably a month ago, or do you feel like you guys have made steps forward?

ARMANDO BACOT: Definitely wouldn't have won this game a month ago. We're just getting better and just tapping into our full potential. We know it's win or go home, and we know we sold ourselves short at the beginning of the year. We know there's a lot of games we know we could have won. Every game we played this year, I felt like we were the more talented team, it's just teams have outplayed us. Now, it's just finally -- everything is starting to click, and once everything click, we're going to be a scary team with just how talented we are.