College hoops reporter Jeff Goodman of Stadium wasn’t the only one that had harsh words for the UNC basketball program earlier in the season. But his words calling the Tar Heels ‘soft’ stuck with the team.
And on Thursday when the Tar Heels met the media in New Orleans, Goodman was face to face with the team and head coach [autotag]Hubert Davis.[/autotag]
To Goodman’s credit, he actually asked Armando Bacot about the ‘soft’ comments instead of shying away from the subject. Goodman’s question was “Armando, how much did you hear that you guys were soft earlier in the year. How much did that motivate you? or did it not really affect you guys?”
Bacot had the perfect answer as he thanked Goodman for saying that the team was soft.
“When you said it, it definitely pissed us all off. I’m not going to lie,” Bacot said with a smile via Tar Heel Tribune. “Yeah, it was something — it was kind of upsetting just because I didn’t think we were really a soft team; I think we just weren’t playing together. We were going through tough stretches and growing pains as a team. We have a lot of new faces, a lot of new players, a new system we were implementing. We were just really figuring it out.”
Head coach Hubert Davis also thanked Goodman, saying that he couldn’t be mad because the reporter was right.
Since then, UNC has toughened up and has played a lot better leading into this Final Four against Duke. But the Tar Heels will have to be tough once again on Saturday night if they want to take down the Blue Devils.
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