By R.L. Bynum
Courtney Banghart didn’t need a whiteboard to diagram the message: UNC women’s basketball isn’t just building — it’s evolving fast.
With a roster retooled through precision in the portal, a freshman class loaded with length and swagger, and a schedule built for statement wins, Banghart explained during a 38-minute summer press conference why year seven might be the season the Tar Heels stop knocking on the door and start kicking it in.
The sting of a Sweet 16 loss to Duke still lingers. Banghart used the offseason to evaluate and improve — but also sees how close UNC is to breaking through.
“Two Sweet 16s in four years means you’re 80 minutes from a Final Four,” she said. “We have to keep finding ways for those 80 minutes to go in our favor.”
The Tar Heels’ nonconference schedule hasn’t been officially announced, but she confirmed that the Tar Heels will play UCLA and Fairfield in Las Vegas. Earlier on Tuesday, UNC announced that it will play an exhibition game in Atlanta on Oct. 30 against the reigning national runner-up, South Carolina. It was previously announced that the Tar Heels would play at Texas in the ACC/SEC Challenge and meet Kansas State, South Dakota State and Columbia in Cancun.
“I’m excited about our nonconference schedule,” said Banghart, whose players finish summer workouts on Friday. “We have a little bit better sense of who our team is. We’re sort of in the thick of it on the recruiting side. Everyone’s kind of settled. So it’s been a great summer.”
With 10 players returning, there will be plenty of competition for starting spots, and Banghart said she had no idea who her first group will be. Junior Reniya Kelly figures to be the point guard, but the rest of the lineup isn’t clear. Senior guard Indya Nivar, who started 34 games last season, is back, as well as sophomore guard Lanie Grant, who was sixth on the team in minutes.
“I’d be surprised if [the rotation is] anywhere near as tight as it has been, if we stay healthy. We’ve got the depth now to play faster, defend tighter, and rely less on anyone playing 32 hard minutes,” she said. “We love nothing more than being able to recycle bodies through. It’s really hard to play as hard and as efficiently as you need to for 32 minutes a game, right?”
Banghart lost three starters: five-year starter Alyssa Ustby, center Maria Gakdeng and guard Lexi Donarski. But for the third time in six offseasons, more players transferred in (former UCLA shooting guard Elina Aarnisalo and former Louisville forward Nyla Harris) than out (guard Tray Crisp transferred to Mississippi State).
The freshman class includes two five-star wings (Nyla Brooks and Taliyah Henderson) and a four-star guard (Taissa Queiroz).
Banghart says that Brooks hugs her every day and says that her goals are to get better and to learn.
“She brings a lot of joy, but she brings a lot of competitiveness and experience,” Banghart said. “She had this play in practice [Monday] where she literally laid out to save a ball behind the basket and ended up being a tip to a three for her team to win it.”
Carolina has never officially announced the commitment from 6–1 Russian guard Elizaveta Astakhova. She isn’t in Chapel Hill yet, and Banghart said that she couldn’t talk about her at this point.
The staff’s ability to secure both transfers quickly in April, before new regulations took full effect, was a strategic win for the program. Or, as Banghart put it, to “prepay rosters” before the rules changed. UNC’s fundraising infrastructure gave them an early edge during a chaotic portal cycle that challenged many programs nationwide.
Banghart said that Harris and Aarnisalo will be impact players, and reacted with a “whoa!” when she saw that Harris was in the portal, knowing that she was losing Ustby.
“We were really targeted in who we were looking for. Nyla Harris has been a bear to handle on the other team for so long,” Banghart said. “She wanted to have an enhanced offensive role. She wanted to be developed in a way that Alyssa had really expanded her game with us. I don’t even know if she took any other visits besides ours. That was a really quick process.”
Aarnisalo played in the Final Four last season at UCLA after UNC came up second in her recruitment out of high school. However, the rising sophomore from Finland was happy to make the move, having made only two visits.
At the age of 16, she was in the same league as former UNC guard and WNBA first-round draft pick Stephanie Watts, averaging three times as many points.
“We knew we wanted more facilitated guard play, but we weren’t going to step below a certain level,” Banghart said. “I’ve loved her game for a long time. She’s really shifty. She makes really good decisions. She has great floor vision, can pass on the move, can pass all different ways, on all different planes. And, so, I think she’ll [help] other people play to their strengths. We sometimes lacked facilitators last year, kind of across the guard spot, and she can dribble, shoot and pass in so many different ways.”
On-court identity shifting.
With more perimeter shooting and ball movement expected, UNC’s offense is evolving. The days of more low-post-centric strategies that Ustby and Gakdeng led will give way to more new possibilities.
“Our post players have much more range, and so we’re going to have more spacing,” Banghart said. “Our offense will be quite different than it’s been, and that’s OK. Our job as coaches is to play to the strengths of our best players. And our best players [last season] typically have been inside.”
Helping with that shift, Banghart said, is the offseason improvement of sophomore Blanca Thomas and redshirt sophomore Ciera Toomey, as they try to fill the void inside left by Gakdeng while also giving the Tar Heels two players who can knock down a jumper.
“Both Ciera and Blanca allow us to play with a lot of space,” she said. “They’re good with the ball in their hands. They’re really good passers. They can really shoot it. It allows us to play a little bit different way, which allows our guards to have more space.”
The two go head-to-head in practice and Banghart said that their bodies look different from last season. Thomas was solid on defense but struggled on offense and was outside of the rotation for most of the season.
Toomey came to UNC with lofty accolades but had trouble finding her footing after redshirting during her first season in Chapel Hill.
“She really needed this offseason,” Banghart said of Toomey. “It’s the first offseason we’ve had her the entire time, which has been amazing. This will be a breakout [season]. Absolutely. I have full confidence in that. She’s had 26 days of consistent performance. She’s been practicing instead of [being] out and in [practices] and some of the things she’s had to go through in her career. I think she’s proving her accolades, right, and she’s also proving that everyone’s journey is different.”
Revenue sharing brings stability
Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham announced that women’s basketball would be among four sports to receive revenue sharing money. Although most of the funding will go to football and men’s basketball, Banghart’s program is also receiving support, as is the baseball program.
“I think we feel really good about the support we’ve been given,” Banghart said. “That’s kind of the new age. You can’t just compete in basketball or football or some of these revenue sports because you like your team. You have to invest in them in different ways, and give some of the revenue they were earning back to the athletes who were earning it.”
The confusion of two Nylas
Banghart has a problem similar to what Coach Hubert Davis dealt with last season, when he had Jae’Lyn Withers and Jalen Washington, both with first names pronounced the same. It’s been a problem when she yells out “Nyla” and both Brooks and Harris respond.
She asked her players to solve this problem and they said just to call them Brooks and Harris.
“I’m doing what I was told,” Banghart said. “So, I yell, Harris, Harris, Harris. Nothing. Dead. Nyla — they both look at me. So, no, nothing has stuck yet.”
There is time before preseason practice starts to figure that out.
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| Year | No. | Players | Pos. | Height | |
| Freshman | 11 | Kate Harpring | PG | 5–10 | |
| Freshman | 52 | Noelle Bofia | F | 6–4 | |
| Sophomore | 3 | Gabby White — W | G | 5–10 | |
| Sophomore | 7 | Nyla Brooks | W | 6–1 | |
| Sophomore | 26 | Taissa Queiroz | G | 6–1 | |
| Junior | 34 | Blanca Thomas | C | 6–5 | |
| Junior | 1 | Jordan Zubich | G | 5–11 | |
| Senior | 21 | Ciera Toomey | F | 6–4 | |
| Senior | 4 | Laila Hull | W | 6–1 | |
| Senior | 5 | Sophie Burrows — X | G | 6–2 | |
| Senior | 8 | Achol Akot — Y | F | 6–1 | |
| Senior | 10 | Reniya Kelly | G | 5–7 | |
| Senior | 15 | Sydney Barker | G | 5–6 | |
| Senior | 13 | Chloe Clardy — Z | G | 5–9 |
W — Virginia transfer; X — Syracuse transfer; Y — Oklahoma State transfer; Z — Stanford transfer
Former players transferred
| Player | Class next season | Pos. | Hgt | Next school |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elina Aarnisalo | Junior | G | 5–10 | UCLA |
| Lanie Grant | Junior | G | 5–9 | TCU |
| Taliyah Henderson | Sophomore | W | 6–1 | Clemson |
| Liza Astakhova | Sophomore | G | 6–2 | BYU |
UNC schedule
| Date | Day/ month | Time, TV | Opponent/event (rank in final poll) |
|---|---|---|---|
| October | Exhibitions | ||
| 18 | Sunday | 1 p.m. | vs. Davidson |
| 24 | Saturday | 1 p.m., Big Ten Network+ | at No. 20 Maryland |
| November | Regular season | ||
| 2 | Monday | 2:30 ET | Oui-Play in Paris vs. No. 12 Oklahoma |
| 8 | Sunday | 5:30, ESPN | Ally Tipoff in Charlotte vs. No. 2 South Carolina |
| 11 | Wednesday | TBA | vs. N.C. Central |
| 14 | Saturday | 4 p.m., ESPN+ | at Penn in Palestra |
| WBCA Showcase | Orlando | ||
| 19 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | vs. Texas Tech |
| 21 | Saturday | 5 p.m. | vs. No. 24 Alabama |
| ——— | |||
| 24 | Tuesday | TBA | vs. Gardner-Webb |
| 27 | Friday | TBA | vs. Army |
| 29 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Brown |
| December | |||
| 2 | Wednesday | 7:15, ESPN2 | ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge vs. No. 8 LSU |
| 6 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Elon |
| 9 | Wednesday | 11 a.m. | vs. Winthrop |
| 13 | Sunday | TBA | vs. N.C. State |
| 17 | Thursday | TBA | vs. Georgia Tech |
| 21 | Monday | TBA | vs. Norfolk State |
| 28 | Monday | TBA | vs. UNCW |
| 31 | Thursday | TBA | at Syracuse |
| January | |||
| 3 | Sunday | TBA | at Clemson |
| 7 | Thursday | TBA | vs. Wake Forest |
| 10 | Sunday | TBA | at No. 11 Louisville |
| 17 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Boston College |
| 21 | Thursday | TBA | at California |
| 24 | Sunday | TBA | at Stanford |
| 28 | Thursday | TBA | vs. No. 9 Notre Dame |
| 31 | Sunday | TBA | vs. No. 5 Duke |
| February | |||
| 4 | Thursday | TBA | at Miami |
| 7 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Virginia Tech |
| 14 | Sunday | TBA | at SMU |
| 18 | Thursday | TBA | at Pittsburgh |
| 21 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Florida State |
| 25 | Thursday | TBA | vs. No. 19 Virginia |
| 28 | Sunday | TBA | at No. 5 Duke |
| March | |||
| 3–7 | Wed.-Sun. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte |
Photo courtesy of the ACC
