By R.L. Bynum
North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart is appreciative of what her team has accomplished, but clear-eyed about what it still needs to be heading into Monday’s trip to N.C. State.
With the rivalry game doubling as the Wolfpack’s Play4Kay game, Banghart suggested that it will be both a basketball test and a moment with weight beyond the floor.
It’s an in-state measuring stick for UNC (17–5, 6–3 ACC) in a challenging road environment against N.C. State (15–6, 8–2) at Reynolds Coliseum at 6 p.m. Monday (ESPN2). It’s also a snapshot of where two young rosters are in early February, when improvement matters as much as a team’s NCAA tournament résumé.
Banghart has talked all season about development, circling back to the kind of story that can get “undertold” in an era that celebrates quick fixes through the transfer portal.
The prime example is redshirt sophomore center Ciera Toomey, who is second on the team in scoring (10.5 points per game) and leads the team in rebounding (7.1). Her rise has been important following the loss of Alyssa Ustby and Maria Gakdeng. Banghart said Toomey’s improved play is the result of layered time and patience.
She noted that even when Toomey wasn’t playing much because of who was ahead of her, “she was getting better and better and better.”
Banghart pointed to the reality that Toomey missed her senior year of high school with a knee injury, then redshirted her first year in Chapel Hill, and now is making a jump through “concepts and speed and size and toughness.”
The simplest explanation, Banghart said, is the hardest one to manufacture.
“She just kind of stacked days,” she said, pointing to Toomey as a visible product of the staff’s job description. “We’re still listed as coaches, and so our job is to develop the talent that we have.”
That development shows up across UNC’s roster in different ways and at different speeds, and it’s part of why Banghart views the matchup with N.C. State as a parallel track. The Wolfpack have remade themselves after losing significant production from last season’s team.
When Banghart looks ahead to Monday, she doesn’t see a familiar rivalry with familiar faces. She sees two programs learning their newest versions.
“It’s the two youngest teams in the league going at it. How fun, right?” Banghart said, acknowledging that both teams have had to build new systems around new strengths.
A rivalry that rarely needs extra edge
In the ACC, rivalry games tend to come with their own gravity. Banghart expects Monday to look like many of the recent ones.
“We expect another one of these rivalry rock fights,” she said, predicting the kind of possession-by-possession contest that can make every rebound and every late-clock decision important.
The challenge in Raleigh begins with how N.C. State can challenge opponents, starting with Vanderbilt 6–2 transfer junior forward Khamil Pierre, who leads the Wolfpack in scoring (16.4) and rebounding (11.7).
“It’s hard to be a basketball fan and not respect what she’s been able to do,” Banghart said. “She’s got great touch around the rim. She can handle it, she can run, she’s got the pogo stick on the glass.”
What makes Pierre most difficult, Banghart said, is that she doesn’t merely create one problem. She creates several, and they stack.
But if UNC overcommits to Pierre, Banghart made clear that the Wolfpack has guards who will punish such tunnel vision. She described Zoe Brooks (16.3 points and 4.8 assists per game) as “one of the elite guards in our league for a long time,” and said Brooks has shifted into more of a scorer this season.
“She was facilitating more last year, and she’s quite capable of doing both,” Banghart said. She added that sophomore Zamareya Jones is “really explosive offensively.”
Then there’s Reynolds Coliseum.
Banghart acknowledged that environments like Monday’s are difficult to simulate. Experience helps, but even experience can only do so much if you haven’t felt a building’s noise press in on a possession. She compared it to playing a team like UCLA, when you can describe size and physicality but can’t really feel it until the ball is in the air.
“It’s hard to prepare for,” she said. “You go out; you roll it out.”
The version of the rivalry also lands in a scheduling pocket Banghart called “odd,” with a long lull followed by three games in seven days. UNC hasn’t played since its 77–71 overtime home win over Syracuse on Jan 25. After Monday’s game, the Tar Heels host Clemson on Thursday and visit Wake Forest on Sunday, Feb. 8.
She doesn’t have the luxury of redesigning the calendar, but she understands what it demands. It compresses learning and recovery. It also tests whether a team can carry a week’s worth of habits into a Monday game that can turn on a few possessions.
UNC’s depth advantage and puzzle
UNC’s roster is built differently from last season’s. Banghart said last year’s team had a smaller group that was healthy and dependable, and she “was dying for a little bit more depth.”
This season, the Tar Heels have more options, but Banghart admitted the cost of that depth can be a less predictable nightly baseline.
“Our job is to play to the strengths of them,” Banghart said.
Using depth can flip a rough stretch into a big run. It can also require Banghart to determine in real time, on the road, what combination will work.
Playing time for some players can vary wildly depending on the matchups and who the coaching staff thinks will be most effective in that game.
Sophomore UCLA guard Elina Aarnisalo had never played fewer than 14 minutes before logging only seven minutes in Sunday’s Syracuse win.
Freshman Talihah Henderson went from 19 minutes in the previous game to only four against Syracuse, while freshman Nyla Brooks went from eight minutes to 24.
Even Toomey hasn’t escaped that dynamic. She only played 12 minutes in the loss at Notre Dame on Jan. 11 and 18 minutes in the Feb. 18 blowout of Florida State.
“Whatever helps us win is the one I’d rather have,” Banghart said. “In games that we win, I’m so glad we have the depth. And in games that we don’t win, I wish we had the consistency.”
Bigger than basketball
The matchup is part of the Play4Kay event, which matters to Banghart for reasons beyond the game. She described the significance of being part of the event at N.C. State, where Kay Yow built a prominent program, and spoke about the way the cause reaches into every family and every locker room.
“This isn’t like we wear pink and we play a game,” she said. “There are a lot of conversations that are happening in locker rooms, a lot of conversations that are happening in living rooms, and then we get to bring those to light on national TV.”
Cancer hit Banghart’s program last year when Dana Gelin, the longtime main UNC women’s basketball media contact, lost her battle with breast cancer.
Banghart also shared a personal connection to Yow, recalling an interview during a graduate thesis project. The takeaway, she said, wasn’t a tactical lesson. It was a coaching one, and it still shapes how she wants to lead.
“Your authenticity is your superpower,” Banghart said, describing how Yow’s way of being matched her way of coaching. “You didn’t have to be anything besides the best version of yourself to find success.”
UNC season statistics
| 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. 2 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. 4 Texas | 8–2 |
| ——————————— | ||||
| 7 | Sunday | W, 82–40 | vs. Boston Univ. | 9–2 |
| 14 | Sunday | L, 76–66, OT | vs. No. 78 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 | W, 90–38 | at Boston College | 12–3, 1–1 ACC |
| January | ||||
| 1 | Thursday | W, 71–55 | vs. California | 13–3, 2–1 |
| 4 | Sunday | L, 77–71, OT | vs. Stanford | 13–4, 2–2 |
| 11 | Sunday | L, 73–50 | at Notre Dame | 13–5, 2–3 |
| 15 | Thursday | W, 73–62 | vs. Miami | 14–5, 3–3 |
| 18 | Sunday | W, 82–55 | at Florida State | 15–5, 4–3 |
| 22 | Thursday | W, 54–46 | at Georgia Tech | 16–5, 5–3 |
| 25 | Sunday | W, 77–71, OT | vs. Syracuse | 17–5, 6–3 |
| 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 No. 20 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. No. 20 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 |
Photo courtesy of the ACC
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