Nate Oats: "We're not going to be intimidated by Armando Bacot"

On Thursday night, the UNC basketball program will face Alabama in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Heading into the game, the focus is obviously on the headline players. For Alabama, Mark Sears is their guy, as he's been one of the nation's top scorers throughout the season.

Of course, North Carolina counters with RJ Davis and Armando Bacot, a dynamic duo that aims to lead the Tar Heels back to the national championship game.

Although Bacot's a strong presence in the post, Alabama's head coach Nate Oats says his team won't be intimidated by the Tar Heels' big man, as he made the following comments on The Paul Finebaum Show.

“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. 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.”

Sure, no one expects Oats to come out and say that his team would be intimidated by facing a very good player. However, the way Oats spoke about Bacot and Davis was simply somewhat disrespectful.

Yes, he admitted that both players are good, but then proceeded to name players who Alabama faced off against this year in a way that made it seem like those players are overall better basketball players.

We know this UNC basketball team is fueled by things like this, so maybe Oats comments will spark a fire under Bacot as he looks to extend his collegiate basketball career at least another game.

As Michael Jordan stated in "The Last Dance," "I took it personally."

Time to take it personal against the Crimson Tide on Thursday night.

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