Carmichael Comments: Competitiveness At The Highest Level

Carmichael Comments: Inside Carolina Women's Basketball
Vol. 2, Edition 9: Competitiveness at the Highest Level
By: Matt Krause
@MattKrausePxP

It's sometimes said that one can divide a college basketball season into three parts. The journey begins with non-conference action, where a team learns about their makeup and competitiveness in a given year. The ultimate goal is the last phase of the season — the month of March's postseason drama.

In between, though, lies the meat of the schedule. The portion of the campaign that separates contenders from pretenders, conference play.

For the Tar Heels, conference play began on Monday with the start of the gauntlet through one of America's toughest women's basketball conferences, the ACC. This season, the start of conference play also meant the ACC debut of head coach Courtney Banghart. For 20 seasons as a player, assistant coach, and ultimately a head coach, Banghart's conference home was the Ivy League. But now, it's the tradition-rich ACC. In fact, two of Banghart's three assistants (Joanne Aluka-White and Carrie Moore) are also brand new to the ACC. Only Tim Taylor, who previously worked as an assistant at Virginia, has experienced the league.

Monday's 70-62 triumph over Pitt, Carolina's first ACC opening win since a Jan. 3, 2016 victory over Clemson, was the official beginning of the Banghart-ACC story, but the allure of the experience was on her mind since the hiring process last spring.

"Part of the reason why I took this particular job was that I wanted to coach in the best conference in the country against the best coaches in the country," she said. "To be challenged night after night after night, this is competitiveness at its highest level."

She's right. Nothing against the competition of the Ivy League (just look at Saturday's 66-63 Yale win over the Tar Heels at Carmichael), but the academic-centric, non-scholarship group has sent just one at-large team to the NCAA Tournament ever. (Would you be shocked if I told you it was Banghart's 2016 Princeton team? No? Okay, carry on.) The ACC, on the flip side, led the nation with seven at-large bids in 2019 alone. That sounds like competitiveness at the highest level to me.

"I'm looking forward to the tangible moment as well as the intangible 'here we are, we're in the ACC now, it's time to go,"" Banghart said before Monday's game.

And go the Tar Heels did.

With a disappointing first home loss just 48 hours prior on Saturday, Carolina withstood several Pitt runs and another sub-40% shooting day to walk away with the eight-point victory. Madinah Muhammad led the team with 20 points, while Taylor Koenen and Janelle Bailey also reached double figure scoring with 16 and 10 points, respectively.

Even though the Tar Heels didn't play their best game of the season, Banghart knows how hard any ACC win is and to appreciate the moment.

"I think resilience is the right word," she said. "It wasn't an easy one for us. We played a little bit tired, but great respect for this league so any win in the league is a good one. We'll take it."

The deeper dive into the numbers reveals a mixed bag for Carolina. The Tar Heels won rebounds 47-39, but lost turnovers 15-11. Especially in the ACC, though, there's just one number that counts.

"This was one where it wasn't about the numbers, it was about finding a way," Banghart said. "After the Christmas break, it's always a tricky one coming out, so we found a way, and that makes us 1-0 in league play, we'll take it."

Regardless of where the rest of this maiden Atlantic Coast voyage takes Banghart and her team, they'll always be able to say it began 1-0.

Here's what else caught my eye this week…

Bennett The Scorer

In Saturday's loss to Yale, Shayla Bennett matched her career high with 25 points, an effort that included three made three-pointers. The performance was a deviation from Bennett's typical role as the Tar Heels' starting point guard, but was necessary to keep Carolina in the game.

"Shayla is a distributor," Banghart explained. "She's a passer, she has a high basketball IQ, she understands how important it is to get everybody involved. I couldn't be prouder of her because throughout the game she understood we continued to stay cold across the wing and post, and she had to call her own number."

Positives In Defeat

Make no mistake about it — the setback to Yale was disheartening. You want to win every game. But every single contest proves valuable if you can learn and improve. In Banghart's eyes, the Tar Heels fought harder and adjusted better in the Yale game compared to Carolina's first loss of the season, Dec. 15 at Alabama.

"When we played against Alabama and we didn't play very well, we didn't necessarily respond to adversity in the game as well as I had hoped," she said. "Throughout the Yale game, we couldn't find a rhythm offensively, but they stuck together. That showed enormous growth."

That growth didn't result in a win on Saturday, but it helped teach Carolina about what it takes to find a winning formula in ACC play and beyond.

"If you battle hard and you're accountable, you'll win a lot of games," Banghart said.

Veteran Bounce-Back

Another factor in the Yale setback was a tough day for the Tar Heel captain, Taylor Koenen. The Minnesota senior scored a season-low two points, only the second time all year she was held to single digits in scoring. Her one made field goal also marked a low point for the season. However, Koenen responded Monday with a 16-point showing against Pitt that saw her go 6-for-13 from the floor and 2-for-6 from distance. She also pulled in nine rebounds in the win over the Panthers. A bounce-back like that is what Banghart expects and hopes for from her captain.

"I thought Taylor played like we needed," Banghart said. "She's the captain of this team and she cares about winning. She proved that today, and it's awesome to see."

Up Next

2020 begins for Carolina with a double dip of games in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a result of the ACC's expanded 18-game conference schedule, both Virginia and Virginia Tech will join Duke and NC State as teams that Carolina will play twice in the course of a regular season, and the road matchups against both of the ACC's Old Dominion representatives await first.

The Tar Heels will tangle with the Cavaliers on Thursday night, January 2, at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville at 7:00 p.m. Carolina will be looking for its second straight win over Virginia after a 70-53 triumph in Carmichael last season. Coverage on the Tar Heel Sports Network begins at 6:30 p.m. with the Reeds Jewelers Pregame Show. Catch the call on WCHL 97.9 FM in the Triangle, or worldwide via GoHeels.com, the GoHeels app, or the TuneIn app (search "North Carolina Tar Heels").

Then, it's off to the New River Valley for a second visit to Cassell Coliseum in as many years and a Sunday showdown with the Virginia Tech Hokies. Carolina rallied 81-69 last Jan. 24, and will be in search of another road win in the 2:00 matinee. Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. with the Reeds Jewelers Pregame Show. Again, catch the call on WCHL 97.9 FM in the Triangle, or worldwide via GoHeels.com, the GoHeels app, or the TuneIn app (search "North Carolina Tar Heels").

That's all for now! Talk to you next year (get it?) and Go Heels!