UNC-Notre Dame Postgame Quotes

North Carolina vs. Notre Dame
Men's Basketball
3/5/2024
Dean E. Smith Center
Chapel Hill, N.C.
UNC 84 - N.C. State 51

UNC Head Coach Hubert Davis
On a Focused Senior Night:
"They have been really good at that all season, eliminating and turning down the noise and focusing on what's most important. What's most important was our preparation, our practice, and how we played tonight. Even in the huddle, guys kept saying, 'More to be done.' I think it was also a motivational factor from the standpoint that it was a desire for them to hang a banner and at worst be co-regular season ACC champions. That's something that hasn't happened in five years, and it was something that this group desperately wanted to do."

On An Emotional Senior Night:
"Yeah, it was just a really emotional night, seeing them with their parents on the floor. You're just thinking about so many memories, so many moments that you spent with each other… It was nice to be able to enjoy the moment of them being celebrated for what they've done. For this year's team, for what they've done for the program, this university, in this community, and it was just a continuation by the way they played tonight."

On Armando Bacot's Legacy at UNC:
"He is more than just what he means to this team. It's what it means to this program, this university and this community. I mean you think for himself and RJ what they've been through in their four or five years here at Carolina. Just the explosion of college basketball with the transfer portal and extra COVID year. They didn't know they were going to have to deal with that and NIL. For them, one of the things that I think is great about senior night that I hope never goes away. The tears of happiness are because you're happy, because you're sad, but also you're thinking about all the perseverance through the rainy days that have allowed you to experience tonight."

On Armando's Three-Point Ability/Shots:
"He can shoot the three and I have told him he can shoot it. I just want him to shoot it at the right time. That's because he's so good around the basket, I don't want him to go away from dominating points in the paint. I'll let anybody on the team use whatever is in their bag… I've given Armando permission to shoot the three, he can shoot it. I just don't want him to go away from what he does best and that's rebounding and dominating points in the paint."

On being ACC Regular Season Champions:
"We talked about it before the game, we talked about it after the game, and we talked about the opportunity to play Duke on Saturday and have a chance to win it outright. They were looking up in the rafters the last couple of weeks, and they were saying, 'There's some room right there next to that 2019 banner.' This is really important to them and they wanted this group to have something that was sustainable, and they were partially able to do it tonight, but we're excited about preparing and playing against a Duke team that's playing their best basketball thus far right now."

Armando Bacot:
On clinching a share of the ACC Regular Season Title:

"We haven't hung a banner in five years when it comes to ACC regular season, so just to be able to do it is just a special feeling."
On his three point shooting:
"I went into this game and I knew I wanted to make one three. The first one felt good, so I thought, 'I am going to shoot it again.'"

On being his last game in the Smith Center:
"It's crazy to think this being my last game here and how far I have come. I may not have been the best player to ever play here, I may not have scored the most points, I did grab the most rebounds, I may not have blocked the most shots, but I think in terms of players, no one has loved this school as much as I have."

On his emotions:
"It's over. All day I have been focusing on the game, even when I first got out there, the whole first half it just felt weird, thinking the whole time it's over. It really took me a minute to settle in because I just couldn't believe it, to get to this point and to think where I was my freshman year. It's just amazing. I just remember meeting Coach [Roy] Williams and him just being so honest and telling me I needed to get better. Day'Ron Sharpe and Walker Kessler coming in, I felt like a lot of kids in my situation would have transferred or quit. It just pushed me to go harder."

On what it means to play a fifth year:
"It meant the world to me This school, this community, the fans, my teammates, everybody…the coaches I am just so thankful to get this extra year it's all over now [at home] but we have so much left to play for."

RJ Davis
On the crowd's reception on senior night
"It felt great just to share that moment, especially with Armando because I came in here with him my freshman year, when he was a sophomore. To share that moment with all of the seniors and to hear the crowd cheering our names was a special moment for all of us."

On Armando Bacot's legacy at UNC
"His legacy is hard to beat. The way he's impacted not only his teammates, but the whole University has been special. His jersey deserves to be in the rafters, and I am just super fortunate to play with a teammate like him. He's been a great leader for us and has been dominant throughout his whole career. He's breaking records left and right. I feel like each year a new record is broken. One thing about him is he left a legacy that will be established for the rest of his life, and definitely hard to beat for his records."

Cormac Ryan
On the significance of tonight's win
"I was really just excited because I knew what was at stake for us. We've got lofty goals this year and getting a piece of the regular season title is definitely one of them. We knew that we had put ourselves in a position tonight to go out and win an important game. Being senior night, being the last time I will play on this court, I just soaked it all in and enjoyed the moment."

On the impact of senior night
"We knew we wanted to come out and play our best game of the year. We want to do that every night, but especially being senior night for some of Carolina's most legendary players, for seven of our guys, we wanted to go out on a high note. Which is always what you want to do on senior night. That gave us plenty of motivation to come out and handle business. I am really proud of the way we defended, shared the ball and executed offensively"

Harrison Ingram
On sending Armando off with a win.
"It means the world. Obviously, I have only been here for a year, but seeing how much this school means to him and how much he means to the school."

On Armando's 3's
"I was like 'Oh okay!' and then the second one, I knew it was money. We all know he can shoot when we have shooting drills in practice he'd always be surprisingly top 5."

On his scoring run in the first quarter
"We were going after a mismatch. We kept going with a play that Coach Davis always run and we run it over and over again till they can stop it. Screening my man and getting a post up with a smaller guy."

Favorite Cormac Memory
"He's always yelling. My favorite memory in the summer, we got into it in pick up and he started yelling at me. I was just like 'yo… chill'"

"We all call him old everyday, how do you have three senior nights?"

On Armando recruiting
"He was the main guy recruiting in the portal. He was the first to hit me up before Coach Davis. He's almost like the GM of our team and a player."

Jalen Washington
After his and Armando's two threes each
"I thought he was going to shoot a third one."

On staying focused before Duke game
"We know we've had games here in the first half that we weren't dialed in, so we knew we couldn't let our foot off the pedal and we got to dominate from the first half to the second half."

Evaluating RJ
"RJ has been one of the most consistent guys I have ever seen. In the offseason, I come in just to shoot, he is already there before me, full sweat. I feel like that's what you guys don't see and it's what makes him the best guard in the country."

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Harrison Ingram

Cormac Ryan

Jalen Washington

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