As we approach the Christmas holiday, the most successful basketball team on Carolina’s campus isn’t playing in the Dean Smith Center. They’re about half a mile up the road in Carmichael Arena. The UNC women’s basketball team is not only ranked No. 8, but it already has two ranked wins on a neutral court.
Carolina has another challenging neutral-site matchup with No. 14 Michigan later this month. After that, ACC play begins on December 29 against Florida State. The league once again looks to be one of the best in the country, with Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, NC State and Carolina all ranked inside the Top 10.
UNC head coach Courtney Banghart said the prospect of another hyper-competitive conference is an exciting one.
“It’s a really great league, top to bottom, side to side,” she said. “It’s an awesome conference. Really well-coached, lots of great athletes, really good teams, unique styles. It’s gotta be one of the very best, if not the best in the country this year.”
But before the Tar Heels get to conference play or the game with Michigan, they have two more non-conference home games in Carmichael against Wofford and USC-Upstate. The games aren’t the most eye-catching matchups for fans or players, but Banghart said her group of players will be up to the task, no matter the opponent.
“Whenever you can continue to utilize your depth, it allows you to hold people to a standard,” said the fourth-year head coach. “We’ve got a lot of guys that we think can help us, and those that give us the most on a day-to-day basis will play the most. That helps too. But I think I’ve been really lucky that through the recruiting process, we’ve made sure that that level of competitor is valued on the way in, so that I’m not having to come up with these gigantic speeches to generate enthusiasm.”
Including Wednesday night’s win against UNC-Wilmington, Carolina has won 13 consecutive non-conference home games under Banghart, a streak which stretches back to the 2020-21 season. That was the freshman year for UNC’s core of Deja Kelly, Alyssa Ustby, Kennedy Todd-Williams and Anya Poole, each of whom have been locked into the starting lineup since the beginning of last season.
That core four has seen UNC rise from ACC mediocrity to the Sweet 16 last year and now the Top 10 in the latest AP Poll. It’s been a meteoric rise for a program which before last season had not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2015. And according to Banghart, the team is intent on rising even higher.
“What we’re trying to do is go from 8 to 1,” she said. “The margins there are so thin. I hope our standard remains and I hope we’re continually climbing. That’s what we’ve been good at over the last couple years. When you see us week-to-week, month-to-month, we’re better.”
It’s been more than 28 years since the women’s basketball program won the national championship, but if Banghart has her way, some new decorations could be in the Carmichael Arena rafters sooner rather than later.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati
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