Can Wake Forest slow down Armando Bacot?
Wake Forest faces a daunting road test on Wednesday night as they travel to Chapel Hill to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels. Carolina sits at 9-5 (1-2 ACC) and has struggled with inconsistent play all season long. They have wins over two quality teams in No. 23 Charleston and No. 24 Ohio State, but they also dropped four straight from Nov. 25-Dec. 4 and fell to Pitt just a few days ago. It’s uncertain which UNC team will show up to play on any given night. However, the one constant has been the play of Armando Bacot, averaging a career-best 18.5 ppg on 56.7% shooting so far to go along with 11.3 rebounds per contest. He’s been on a tear over his last five games, recording four double-doubles and four outings of 20 or more points, including a 28-point, 15-rebound effort in the Tar Heels’ OT win over Ohio State.
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Unsurprisingly, Bacot will be Wake Forest’s toughest matchup come Wednesday night. Containing him will certainly be a collective effort — and it's very tough to do. Making him as uncomfortable as possible and forcing other players to beat you is the best approach.
Recent matchups
Wake Forest’s battles with North Carolina over the past two seasons are a perfect example of the two ways things can go when you face off against Armando Bacot. On Jan. 22, 2022, Wake Forest blew the doors off the Tar Heels in a 98-76 home victory. In that game, Bacot scored 12 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, but had an inefficient shooting night, going just 4/12 from the field. He also picked up four personal fouls — his tendency to get into foul trouble is something I’ll get into more later. With Bacot struggling, Brady Manek added 22 and R.J. Davis scored 18, but no one else was in double figures. Granted, Jake LaRavia, Alondes Williams and Daivien Williamson all went nuclear in that game and combined for 73 points, but my point still stands — contain Bacot and UNC loses some of their offensive identity.
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The Deacs’ 2021 matchup with UNC was a different story. Bacot finished with 18 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals on a remarkably efficient 8/10 from the field. On that night, Bacot largely got whatever he wanted on the offensive end and led the Tar Heels to an 80-73 victory. Bacot always demands an excess of attention on defense, but especially when he’s cooking like that. In turn, this frees things up for his teammates — Caleb Love and R.J. Davis combined for 33 points and both shot over 50% from the field.
Who will guard Armando Bacot?
7-1 center Matthew Marsh will definitely be matched up with Bacot, at least to start the game. This is an interesting matchup for several reasons. First of all, Marsh has a height advantage over the 6-11 Bacot, and has around 15 pounds on him. Marsh has the physical tools to bother Bacot, but No. 5 in blue has displayed time and time again that he can win almost any matchup. Size plays a big role in post matchups — but its not everything. Marsh is a young player, and Bacot's experience and craftiness around the rim are big reasons why he is so good. Marsh has managed to play strong, straight-up post defense most of the time this season, and his ability to execute on that end of the floor will be critical in giving the Deacs a chance to win.
In fact, the Marsh-Bacot matchup is nothing new — Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes referenced the UNC game last year and Marsh’s ability to use his size to square up with Bacot down low in a recent press conference.
“He’s a hard guy to move,” Forbes said of Marsh. “I remember last year when we put him in against Carolina, [Bacot] was trying to post him up a couple times, and he gave me a look saying 'Damn, this dude is big.'"
However, Bacot is also markedly quicker and has far better ball skills than Marsh. As a result, it will be a by-committee job to contain him — the more agile 7-0 Davion Bradford could shift in off the bench to change things up, and Andrew Carr will almost certainly find himself matched up with Bacot at various points. Freshman center Zach Keller has fallen out of the rotation of late and I can't imagine he sees the floor in this game, unless the team is ravaged with foul trouble. Keller has nice touch around the rim, but simply doesn’t have the physicality yet to match up with an all-conference talent like Bacot.
Armando Bacot as a defender
While Bacot is certainly a lot to handle as a scoring threat and a rebounder, it’s also important to consider how he’ll impact this game on the defensive end. Bacot averages 1.3 blocks per game and at 6-11 is an imposing presence around the rim, however in games that have slipped away from North Carolina in the past few seasons, Bacot and other Carolina players have been exploited on the defensive end.
Wake Forest point guard Tyree Appleby excels at driving the basketball, but he’ll have his work cut out for him getting looks close to the cup with Bacot looming. But with Appleby running the pick and roll with Marsh, Bacot can be drawn away from the basket. Appleby excels in this set and is adept at creating looks for himself and his teammates off of screens. Marsh is frequently the screen-setter in this situation, so Bacot’s ball screen defense will be on full display as well.
I took a look at some of the tape from UNC’s loss to Iowa State earlier this season to get a better gauge for Bacot’s tendencies in situations where his man leaves to set a high screen. There were multiple instances where Bacot plays drop coverage, giving the guards plenty of room and resulting in easy buckets for the Cyclones. To me, this stands out as a situation where Appleby could thrive and cause some trouble for the Tar Heel defense as both a passer and a scorer.
One of the keys in this one will be for the Deacs to match Bacot’s physicality on both ends. When Wake has the ball, this means attacking the hoop and potentially trying to get the senior in a little foul trouble. Going back to Wake’s 81-70 win over Duke a few weeks ago, Steve Forbes’ group shot 26 free throws, entered the bonus with over 12 minutes to go and forced Jaylen Blakes to foul out in the second half. Against Virginia Tech, the narrative was much the same — 26 team free throws and four Hokies finished with four fouls.
To that end, if Bacot has had an Achilles heel this season, it’s been foul trouble. He’s recorded four fouls in seven contests and has had to spend considerable time on the bench in a few of the team’s losses. For example, he tied his season low in minutes (28) and picked up four fouls in UNC’s 12-point loss to Indiana. In that same loss, the Tar Heels shot below 34% from the field as a team and put up just 65 points. Bacot’s absence from the offense in some key moments gummed up the works and gave the Hoosiers an edge.
This metric aligns well with Wake Forest’s team identity of late, which is to play with physicality and earn shots from the stripe in times when the offense may not be firing on all cylinders. Tyree Appleby went just 2/8 against Duke but drilled 13 of 14 FTs and helped the Deacs stave off a comeback bid from the Blue Devils. When you’re facing a player as dynamic, physical and experienced as Bacot, a span of a couple minutes when he’s forced to ride the bench could make all the difference.
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Ben is a managing editor and lead contributing writer for Deacons Daily. Ben has a year of experience as the Sports Editor for the Old Gold & Black, and a year of experience as the publication’s print managing editor. He has a journalistic profile of over 40 published news and sports pieces for the Dayton Daily News.