Covering Carolina sports beyond just men's basketball and football — with the most complete women's basketball coverage
North Carolina’s tradition of overall athletics excellence continued as the Tar Heels earned their fifth consecutive top-10 finish in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings. UNC’s run to the College World Series and fourth consecutive top-five finish in the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships helped the Tar Heels finish seventh for the eighth top-10 finish in the last nine seasons.
For the second ACC/SEC Challenge, Carolina’s women will play at home again and this time, they face one of their former teammates.
Just as in the previous two seasons, North Carolina’s men’s and women’s basketball teams will play on separate nights at the Jumpman Invitational at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center.
When Trayanna Crisp drives to the basket, she does it with a verve uncommon among guards in women’s college basketball. The 5–8 incoming junior, who will transfer to North Carolina after two seasons at Arizona State, is built like a linebacker and has similar strength and determination. Instead of getting to the quarterback, she’s getting to the rim.
After being a key part of Carolina’s resurgence in the last four seasons, Deja Kelly will play her fifth college season at Oregon, which lost 21 games last season and hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2022.
Arizona State guard Trayanna Crisp will transfer to North Carolina. The 5–8 guard, who will be a junior next season, posted the news Sunday afternoon on Instagram, saying that she was, “Letting God Lead the Way.”
Deja Kelly won’t return to Carolina for a fifth college season, saying she is a “Tar Heel for life” but that it’s time to move on.
Carolina honored the best athletes and performances of the last year at the annual Rammys on Monday night. The top male and female athletes were no surprise, as All-American guard R.J. Davis and four-time NCAA championship diver Aranza Vazquez took home the top honors.
Former UNC center Anya Poole will play her fifth college season at Clemson. Poole announced the decision in an Instagram post on Monday afternoon, saying, “welcome to the jungle.”
Co-captain Alyssa Ustby is returning to UNC for a fifth season, saying that she’s “not ready to go yet.”
North Carolina is third in the national Directors’ Cup standings after the winter sports. Future ACC member Stanford is No. 1 with 977 points, followed by Texas at 746.5 and the Tar Heels at 733.5. The Tar Heels led the standings with a 1.5-point lead over Stanford after the fall sports, but the Cardinal earned 606 points from winter sports compared to 361 for the Tar Heels.
Ali Zelaya will play her fifth season at UNCW. The 6–4 Zelaya, who entered the transfer portal on April 1, is the third of the six Carolina players to enter the portal to commit to a school after commitments by Paulina Paris to Arizona and Teonni Key to Kentucky.
Reclassifying to play an entire freshman season before turning 18 is far from a conventional route for women’s basketball players. But 5–10 five-star point guard phenom Lanie Grant, the 2024 Gatorade Virginia Player of the Year, has defied convention since getting her first scholarship offer three months after turning 13.
Incoming UNC five-star freshmen Drake Powell and Blanca Thomas will compete in the 23rd Jordan Brand Classic on Sunday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Former North Carolina forward Teonni Key has committed to play for former Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks at Kentucky.
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