By R.L. Bynum

CHARLOTTE — Courtney Banghart has gone from managing her Carolina roster to coaching and dealing with many tough decisions about who to play instead of worrying about the report from the athletic trainer.

Instead of wrestling with bad problems, Banghart is happily pondering good problems and reveling in her team’s outstanding chemistry. She’ll allocate playing time “by committee” a year after barely having a quorum at times.

There were plenty of offseason team-building activities before last season because she saw that the team needed to work on chemistry. There was none of that last summer.

“That’s something that could limit their success,” Banghart said of bad chemistry. “The chemistry is real, and they have formed it. They don’t need my help. I give them a lot of credit. I think also sometimes it’s just dumb luck that the influx of the new guys has added such good positivity, and then the guys that are here really care about the program.”

As the injuries kept piling up last season — particularly in the backcourt — she navigated the ACC’s challenges with a short bench and up to three starters playing all 40 minutes some nights.

She lost five-star 6–4 freshman stretch forward Ciera Toomey to a knee injury before the season, started the season without forward Teonni Key and had guards Kayla McPherson, Reniya Kelly and Paulina Paris all miss time with injuries.

With the season less than a month away, Banghart was happy she had no injuries to report.

“A lot of difference when you have your full roster,” Banghart said Wednesday at ACC Tipoff. “It starts with you can coach, not manage. There’s a competitiveness that they bring that if they’re not doing a certain thing, you can replace them. When you have no one to replace them with because they’re injured, it becomes more of a management issue.”

When all the point guards were unavailable last season, Banghart had to shift Deja Kelly, who transferred to Oregon, to point guard. If there are injuries this season, Banghart has plenty of options.

Who will get the bulk of the time at point guard between graduate 5–5 Richmond transfer Grace Townsend, 5–8 redshirt junior McPherson, 5–7 sophomore Reniya Kelly and 5–9 freshman Lanie Grant?

“It’s a good question,” Banghart said. “That’s a good problem to have. It’s a real good problem to have. I mean, Reniya brings back a lot of experience. Before she got hurt, she was playing great. And, obviously, Kayla’s working her way back. And then you’ve got Grace and Laney, who have both been really good in practice. Obviously, Grace is a fifth year, so it’s a good problem to have.”

Two graduate players — 6–1 forward Alyssa Ustby and 6–0 guard Lexi Donarski — both averaged more than 33 minutes per game. Donarski played at least 38 minutes 16 times. Ustby did that only nine times, and it would have been more if not for foul trouble.

The minutes wore them down, but Carolina will have the depth to reduce the load for both of them this season. The same goes for reducing the load for 6–3 senior center Maria Gakdeng.

Five-star 6–5 freshman Blanca Thomas will back up Gakdeng at center and Toomey will back up Ustby.

“We can not only just share those minutes, but those minutes are valuable because we have girls that can come off the bench and that can make big shots, can average consistent numbers,” Ustby said. “That’s something that we haven’t had before. And so that’s something that’s really positive.”

Sure, there are locks to get a lot of playing time, but plenty of players will make significant contributions.

“This whole team will be by committee,” said Banghart, lamenting the problems created by last season’s depth issues. “They can’t play hard enough. They can’t foul. I can’t hold them accountable? And now I have the opposite, which is a good thing. The whole team is going to be by committee. And, of course, we have talent as well, so that’s helpful. When you have 14 players versus six, you should be better.”

The roster makeup should also cut down on the number of possessions when the ball “got stuck.” The team is quicker and has more weapons.

“We just have much more offensive firepower, and so the ball moves better,” Banghart said. “We’ve got people in better positions to play to their strengths. We’ve opened up the floor with both shooting and ball movement, and then we’ve got really good players that were out.”

Toomey’s long-awaited college career is about to start. Banghart is happy that she redshirted last season and has four years ahead of her as a Tar Heel.

“She’s so fun to watch,” Banghart said. “She’s like a Breanna Stewart, which I know is a giant comparison. But that’s the kind of game she has, and she’s just gotten a lot stronger.”

There is also plenty of excitement to see Thomas, a Charlotte product, bring her dynamic game to the Tar Heels.

“She’s good,” Banghart said. “She can move. She’s got great size. She’s a great leaper. She’s a much better athlete than you’d imagine at 6-6. She’s guarding Maria every day, just like Ciera’s guarding Alyssa every day. That’s how you get better. And Laney Grant’s guarding, Lexi Donarski every day. You’re getting better because of the experience on our team is pushing them really hard.”

And Banghart is happy to coach all that talent rather than be a manager like she was a year ago.

Year	No.	Players	Pos.	Height
Freshman	5	Liza Astakhova (LEE-zah uh-STAH-koh-vuh)	W	6–2
Freshman	7	Nyla Brooks	W	6–1
		Brooks brings dazzling skills, confidence to UNC
Freshman	3	Taliyah Henderson	W	6–1
		Long wait, journey for 5-star freshman Henderson after second knee surgery nearly over
Freshman	26	Taissa Queiroz	G	6–1
		Queiroz came to USA from Brazil to chase her dreams
Sophomore	17	Elina Aarnisalo (EH-lee-nah AHR-nee-sah-loh)	G	5–10
		Aarnisalo brings flash, IQ and pro experience to backcourt
Sophomore	0	Lanie Grant	G	5–9
Sophomore	34	Blanca Thomas	C	6–5
Sophomore	1	Jordan Zubich	G	5–11
RS sophomore	21	Ciera Toomey	F	6–4
RS sophomore	4	Laila Hull	W	6–1
Junior	10	Reniya Kelly	PG	5–7
Junior	15	Sydney Barker	PG	5–6
Senior	2	Nyla Harris	F	6–2
		It was hard for Harris to say ‘no’ to UNC again
Senior	24	Indya Nivar	G	5–10

Class of 2025

Player	Rating	ESPN rank	Position	Height	Hometown
Nyla Brooks	Five star	No. 13	Wing	6–2	Alexandria, Va.
Taliyah Henderson	Five star	No. 27	Wing	6–1	Vail, Ariz.
Taissa Queiroz	Four star	No. 77	Guard	6–1	Santa Rosa, Calif.
Liza Astakhova	—	—	Wing	6–1	Moscow, Russia

Date	Day/month	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
30	Thursday	L, 91–82	No. 3 South Carolina in Atlanta	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 90–42	vs. N.C. Central	1–0
6	Thursday	W, 71–37	vs. Elon	2–0
			WBCA Challenge Las Vegas
13	Thursday	L, 78–60	vs. No. 4 UCLA	2–1
15	Saturday	W, 82–68	vs. Fairfield	3–1
			———————————
20	Thursday	W, 85–50	at N.C. A&T	4–1
23	Sunday	W, 94–48	vs. UNCG	5–1
			Cancun Challenge Cancun, Mexico
27	Thursday	W, 83–48	vs. South Dakota St.	6–1
28	Friday	W, 85–73	vs. Kansas State	7–1
29	Saturday	W, 80–63	vs. Columbia	8–1
	December		ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge
4	Thursday	W, 79–64	at No. 2 Texas	8–2
			———————————
7	Sunday	W, 82–40	vs. Boston Univ.	9–2
14	Sunday	L, 76–66, OT	vs. No. 13 Louisville	9–3, 0–1 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 84–34	vs. UNCW	10–3
21	Sunday	W, 93–74	vs. Charleston Southern	11–3
29	Monday	8 p.m.	at Boston College	ACCN
	January
1	Thursday	Noon	vs. California	ACCN
4	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. Stanford	ESPN
11	Sunday	1 p.m.	at No. 18 Notre Dame	ESPN
15	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Miami	ACCN Extra
18	Sunday	2 p.m.	at Florida State	The CW
22	Thursday	8 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
25	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	The CW
	February
2	Monday	6 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN2
5	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ACCN
8	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
12	Thursday	6 p.m.	vs. SMU	ACCN
15	Sunday	1 p.m.	at Duke	ABC
19	Thursday	6 p.m.	at Virginia Tech	ACCN
22	Sunday	Noon	vs. Pittsburgh	ACCN
26	Thursday	7 p.m.	at Virginia	ACCN Extra
	March
1	Sunday	Noon	vs. Duke	ESPN
			ACC tournament
4–8	Wed.-Sun		Gas South Arena, Duluth, Ga.
			NCAA tournament
20–24	Fri.-Mon.		First, second rounds
27–30	Fri.-Mon.		Regionals Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif.
	April
3, 5	Fri., Sun		Final Four Phoenix