By R.L. Bynum
After losing 70% of North Carolina’s offense from last season, Coach Courtney Banghart’s team was picked to finish third in the ACC.
Now her No. 11 Tar Heels are the highest-ranked team in the league and getting plenty of national attention.
She laments that in June, she would have said that the Tar Heels had a long way to go to reach their goals. But the hard work since the summer has paid off, with Carolina off to an 8–1 start.
There’s still a long way to go as the Tar Heels try to keep improving, but it’s an impressive start.
“I spent a lot of time in the summer really talking and living and sharing and showing on film and drilling just the standard, the competitive standard,” Banghart said during a Tuesday press conference. “People assumed that we weren’t going to be better because of what we lost.”
When, where to watch, scouting the Longhorns, storylines, stats, comparisons and notes
Carolina still can get a lot better. Banghart estimates that star guard Reniya Kelly, who suffered a right knee injury last season, is still about 90% in her recovery and working toward the high level of play she produced over the first half of last season.
But the senior leadership of ACC Player of the Week Indya Nivar, the recent resurgence of Lanie Grant, the offensive fire off the bench from freshman Nyla Brooks ,and Ciera Toomey’s outstanding play inside have UNC on a roll.
“Honestly, I didn’t think we’d be able to defend as well this early,” Banghart said.
That progress will get a major test Thursday when UNC visits No. 2 Texas in the ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge (7 p.m., ESPN2).
If UNC were to pull off the upset, Banghart said it would fit the story she’s been telling all along — that her group is evolving faster than outsiders realized.
“We’re young enough that we’re going to be really good,” she said, adding that beating the No. 2 team would be a powerful way of showing it.
The Longhorns (8–0) looked like the best team in the country last week at the Players Era Challenge in Las Vegas when they beat then-No. 3 (now No. 4) UCLA 76–65 and then-No. 2 (now No.3) South Carolina 66–64.
UNC played the Bruins tough for one half before losing in Las Vegas and were competitive for much of an exhibition game in Atlanta against the Gamecocks before falling.
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“Their team’s a very good team,” Banghart said of Texas. “Another thing is their pressure. They make every entry difficult on all parts of the floor. You’ve got to guard really solid players.”
Banghart, whose team was dominant in wins over South Dakota State, Kansas State and Columbia to win a title last week at the Cancun Challenge, said that a challenging nonconference schedule was intentional.
“It was all by design; an opportunity to really figure out where our holes were and where we had to grow and what the standard was,” she said. “South Carolina has been setting the standard for a long time, and for us to be able to kind of see that from the beginning and make athleticism more of an equal, was great.”
Texas is loaded with stars, and that starts with junior forward Madison Booker (16.8 points, 7.0 rebounds 3.8 assists and 3.6 steals), who is the Preseason SEC Player of the Year and an AP Preseason All-American.
You can’t expect to stop the Longhorns by stopping Booker.
Sophomore guard Lee Jordan (14.6 points) and freshman Aaliyah Crump (13.2 points), are dangerous scorers, and senior point guard Rori Harmon is the program’s all-time assist leader (6.2 per game).
It will be a contrast between Carolina, which likes to get out in transition and has scored 82 3-pointers, and Texas, which has scored only 36 3-pointers, likes to set up its half-court offense and is proficient with mid-range jumpers.
“We’re just really different teams,” said Banghart, who sees the rebounding battle as a key to the game. “If you let them score, they’re going to press you. So that’s the obvious math of it, but it’s also the added challenge of the fatigue of that. When you get stops, you’re able to play against a compromised defense for a bit, and it’s harder for them to get into their pressure.”
Banghart said that her team’s depth and versatility will help.
“We have multiple primary ball handlers now, and that should be an advantage,” Banghart said. “The 3-point shot is a huge part of our offense, and you’ve got to play with space in order to allow that.”
The good news since Carolina got back from Mexico is that Blanca Thomas, who didn’t play in Cancun, has been fully cleared, giving the Tar Heels even more depth. Freshman Taissa Queiroz is still out but Jordan Zubich and Liza Astakhova, who each only played one game in Cancun, will be available.
Thomas was excellent on defense last season and will complement Toomey to make UNC even more of a force inside.x
| Team | League | Overall | NET* | WAB* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 13 Duke | 16–2 | 21–8 | 10 | 13 |
| No. 12 Louisville | 15–3 | 25–6 | 13 | 10 |
| No. 16 North Carolina | 14–4 | 25–6 | 19 | 14 |
| N.C. State | 13–5 | 20–9 | 23 | 27 |
| Syracuse | 12–6 | 22–7 | 40 | 31 |
| Virginia Tech | 12–6 | 22–8 | 41 | 34 |
| Notre Dame | 12–6 | 20–9 | 24 | 23 |
| Clemson | 11–7 | 20–10 | 44 | 40 |
| Virginia | 11–7 | 19–10 | 36 | 49 |
| California | 9–9 | 18–13 | 53 | 60 |
| Stanford | 8–10 | 19–12 | 42 | 56 |
| Miami | 8–10 | 16–13 | 58 | 65 |
| Georgia Tech | 7–10 | 12–17 | 76 | 109 |
| Florida State | 5–13 | 10–20 | 107 | 138 |
| Wake Forest | 4–14 | 14–16 | 121 | 134 |
| SMU | 2–16 | 9–21 | 220 | 209 |
| Pittsburgh | 1–17 | 8–23 | 262 | 238 |
| Boston College | 1–17 | 5–26 | 247 | 283 |
* — Through Sunday games
Thursday’s results
No. 16 North Carolina 82, Virginia 70
No. 12 Louisville 69, Georgia Tech 50
Notre Dame 72, Syracuse 62
Miami 79, Pittsburgh 58
N.C. State 65, Wake Forest 58
No. 13 Duke 80, Florida State 52
Stanford 87, SMU 57
Clemson 70, California 63
Sunday’s results
No. 16 North Carolina 74, No. 13 Duke 69
Virginia Tech 83, Virginia 82
Georgia Tech 79, Miami 49
N.C. State 93, Pittsburgh 43
Stanford 85, Clemson 50
Syracuse 90, Boston College 65
Notre Dame 65, No. 12 Louisville 62
Florida State 77, Wake Forest 74, OT
California 78, SMU 34
End of regular season
ACC tournament
Gas South Arena
Duluth, Ga.
March 4–8
| Date | Day/ month | Times/ scores | Opponent/event (current rank) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | Exhibitions | |||
| 18 | Sunday | W, 76–66 | vs. Davidson | — |
| 24 | Saturday | L, 72–68 | at No. 19 Maryland | — |
| November | Regular season | |||
| 2 | Monday | L, 91–79 | Oui-Play in Paris vs. No. 14 Oklahoma | 0–1 |
| 8 | Sunday | L, 84–39 | Ally Tipoff in Charlotte vs. No. 1 South Carolina | 0–2 |
| 11 | Wednesday | W, 109–40 | vs. N.C. Central | 1–2 |
| 14 | Saturday | 4 p.m. | at Penn in Palestra | ESPN+ |
| WBCA Showcase | Orlando | |||
| 19 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | vs. Texas Tech | ESPN2 |
| 21 | Saturday | 5 p.m. | vs. Alabama | ESPN+ |
| ——— | ||||
| 24 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Gardner-Webb | ACCNE |
| 27 | Friday | 7 p.m. | vs. Army | ACCNE |
| 29 | Sunday | 4 p.m. | vs. Brown | ACCN |
| December | ||||
| 2 | Wednesday | 7:15 | ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge vs. No. 9 LSU | ESPN2 |
| 6 | Sunday | 2 p.m. | vs. Elon | ACCN |
| 9 | Wednesday | 11 a.m. | vs. Winthrop | ACCNE |
| 13 | Sunday | 6 p.m. | vs. N.C. State | ESPN |
| 17 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | vs. Georgia Tech | ACCN |
| 21 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. Norfolk State | ACCN |
| 28 | Monday | 8 p.m. | vs. UNCW | ACCN |
| 31 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | at Syracuse | ACCN |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Sunday | 2 p.m. | at Clemson | The CW |
| 7 | Thursday | 8 p.m. | vs. Wake Forest | ACCN |
| 10 | Sunday | 3 p.m. | at No. 7 Louisville | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 17 | Sunday | 4 p.m. | vs. Boston College | ACCN |
| 21 | Thursday | 8 p.m. ET | at California | ACCN |
| 24 | Sunday | 2 p.m. ET | at Stanford | ESPN, 2 or U |
| 28 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | vs. No. 13 Notre Dame | ESPN |
| 31 | Sunday | 5 p.m. | vs. No. 5 Duke | ESPN |
| February | ||||
| 4 | Thursday | 7 p.m. | at Miami | ACCNE |
| 7 | Sunday | 6 p.m. | vs. Virginia Tech | ACCN |
| 14 | Sunday | 2 p.m. | at SMU | ACCNE |
| 18 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | at Pittsburgh | ACCN |
| 21 | Sunday | Noon | vs. Florida State | The CW |
| 25 | Thursday | 8 p.m. | vs. Virginia | ACCN |
| 28 | Sunday | 4 p.m. | at No. 5 Duke | ESPN |
| March | ||||
| 3–7 | Wed.-Sun. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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