Carmichael Comments: A Step Forward

CARMICHAEL COMMENTS: Inside Carolina Women's Basketball
Vol. 3, Edition 4: A Step Forward

To those that remember the Final Four runs of the 1990s and 2000s, it's a prerequisite. For those who understand the growth process to return to women's college basketball's biggest stage, it's a necessary and monumental step.

You see, the North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball team has had a mid-major non-conference problem in recent years. In the five seasons prior to this current campaign, Carolina had dropped seven home games to programs from outside the sport's six largest conferences. There were plenty of dominating wins in that span, just a smattering of frustrating toe-stubbings that exposed a lack of consistency.

And it's not to take anything away from the 2018-19 Maine Black Bears. Make 16 threes in a game and you deserve to win. Or the 2017-18 Mercer Bears. Carolina was one of their whopping 30 wins that season. These were solid, well-coached basketball teams – but they needed x's and o's and a bit of luck to get past an ACC team.

If the ceiling at Carolina is cutting nets on the last night of the season, or even hearing your name called as an at-large following a grueling ACC season, taking care of business at home in non-conference play is a great place to start. Thursday's 98-28 blowout over South Carolina State was fun and record-setting, but it put Carolina in the tough position of perhaps being overconfident with a difficult, veteran, and talented Charlotte team arriving on Sunday.

So would a young group of Tar Heels be ready?

"I put that on our older guys," Carolina head coach Courtney Banghart said pregame on Sunday. "I said, 'Our season has now shifted, and this is what experience is all about.' They know that, in terms of how important energy and accountability is."

The energy was there. The accountability was there. And while the game was a grind, Carolina prevailed 81-75.

The 40-minute mental test featured 11 lead changes, six ties, and neither team ever held a double-digit lead. With less than two minutes to play, Carolina trailed, 73-72. That's a textbook spot for an inexperienced team to crack. Instead, we saw a 9-2 run to put the 49ers away.

"What a great basketball game," Banghart said after the final horn. "We knew Charlotte was one of the premier mid-majors in our region, and they showed it. Good growth for my young team, and we needed something like this."

The third all-time triumph against Charlotte ensured a second consecutive 5-0 start for Carolina, a feat that hasn't been achieved since the 2011-12 and 2012-13 campaigns. And even with a truncated non-league schedule, Carolina was still unblemished outside the ACC in the regular season for the first time since 2006-07.

On the outside, it's a minor accomplishment compared to the grand goals for this season and beyond, but a team of Tar Heels that is still gelling avoided the consistency letdown. For Banghart's grand rebuilding process, this isn't minor in any way – it's a major step forward.

Here's what else caught my eye this week…

It's Watts, Again
Courtney Banghart's trust in her veteran players to bring the energy and the accountability into the showdown with the 49ers meant a weight on the shoulders of graduate student Stephanie Watts from the opening tap. Watts, inserted into a Carolina starting lineup for the first time since Feb. 17, 2019, played a season-best 34 minutes against her hometown team and produced a balanced line of 17 points, six rebounds, and four assists. Seven of those 17 points were scored at the free throw line, helping ice the game late.

Carolina has now trailed in the second half in two games this season (High Point and Charlotte), and Watts has combined to score 38 points across those two games. Stephanie Watts 2.0 seems like it can be summed up in one word: clutch.

Historic Day at the Foul Line
The ability of Watts to get to the free throw line wasn't accidental. In Charlotte's most recent game prior to the Carolina showdown, a home game with Wake Forest, the 49ers allowed the Demon Deacons to shoot 21-for-25 at the charity stripe. Banghart and her staff decided that the line would be a critical element to the Tar Heels' Sunday game plan – at both ends of the floor.

"We really tried to sit and defend without fouling, and to be aggressive on offense," Banghart said.

That aggression brought out another character trait of this Tar Heel team in Banghart's eyes.

"I think it shows the grit of this team," she said. "We were a little bit anxious on offense, but we kept going. We attacked with our dribble and found gaps well."

Carolina's 25-for-37 performance matched an identical 25-for-37 at the line on Dec. 8, 2019 against North Carolina Central for the Tar Heels' most free throws made and attempted under Banghart (Carolina also shot 37 free throws on Nov. 28, 2019 against Temple). To find a greater number of free throws attempted, you'd have to flash back to Feb. 6, 2014 at Georgia Tech, when Carolina took 40 trips to the line, and to locate a greater number made, it's even earlier in that same season – 28 on Dec. 21, 2013 against High Point.

Sportsmanship on Display
If it wasn't obvious on paper headed into Thursday night's game, it was obvious by the waning minutes that South Carolina State was overmatched. The Bulldogs dressed only eight players in the midst of a slow program rebuild and trailed 98-28 with less than a minute to play. Carolina freshman guard Kennedy Todd-Williams had the ball in her hand with a chance to contribute to a pair of milestones. First, one more bucket and Carolina would reach the elusive 100-point threshold. There's always something glamorous about reaching the century mark, especially when Carolina hasn't done so in over two years, and hasn't done so at home in nearly seven years.

Then there was the matter of Todd-Williams' personal milestone. Her stat line read 14 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists. Despite the storied history of the Tar Heel program, Carolina's record books are devoid of even one triple-double. Todd-Williams could have easily been the first. All she had to do was pass the ball to an open teammate, and the triple-double would be hers, with a 100-point team milestone to boot.

Instead, KTW calmly dribbled the ball to waste the remaining time. It was an incredibly classy move toward South Carolina State and showed what sportsmanship is all about. The triple-double can wait.

Didn't Even Watch the Tape
Normally, coaches will pore over game tape to analyze each decision and outcome of a game once the final horn has sounded. With a 70-point margin of victory against South Carolina State, that practice wasn't required come Friday. In fact, Banghart didn't even watch the tape.

"If I'm being honest, I didn't watch it back," she said. "Instead, I turned our focus to areas we know we had to get better in moving forward given that our season starts today – in terms of increased competition – so our margin of error goes way down."

Up Next
Buckle up, because here comes ACC play. For the first time ever, the ACC will play 20 conference games – up a pair from the normal 18 due to the ongoing pandemic. With 20 conference games comes an early conference season start. Carolina will experience the grind of ACC competition four times before Christmas, a stretch that begins with two road games.

First, the Tar Heels try and avenge two losses from last season as they meet Tobacco Road rival Wake Forest on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem. Wake dealt Carolina an 82-79 heartbreaking loss in overtime on Feb. 23 last season, then followed with an 83-73 triumph in the opening round of the ACC Tournament on Mar. 4. Despite last year's speed bump, Carolina has a stronghold on the all-time series, winning 64 of the 80 meetings.

Our Tar Heel Sports Network coverage of Thursday's game begins with the Reeds Jewelers Pregame Show at 5:30 p.m. Catch the call streaming worldwide for free on the TuneIn app (search "North Carolina Tar Heels Women's Basketball"), GoHeels.com (click "listen" on the women's basketball schedule), and the GoHeels app. Additionally, fans in the Triangle can tune in on WCHL 97.9 FM/1360 AM.

As if a road game against a longtime rival isn't tough enough, the Tar Heels will tangle with the nation's No. 2 team, the Louisville Cardinals, on Sunday afternoon. Carolina has beaten a top 10 team in each of the last two seasons, and will look to make it three years in a row while stopping a seven-game slide against the Cardinals in the process.

Our Tar Heel Sports Network coverage of Sunday's game begins with the Reeds Jewelers Pregame Show at 3:30 p.m. Catch the call streaming worldwide for free on the TuneIn app (search "North Carolina Tar Heels Women's Basketball"), GoHeels.com (click "listen" on the women's basketball schedule), and the GoHeels app. Additionally, fans in the Triangle can tune in on WCHL 97.9 FM/1360 AM.

In the meantime, check out this week's edition of the Courtney Banghart Show on Wednesday morning on the Tar Heel Voices podcast channel. Fans can listen by clicking here, or by searching "Tar Heel Voices" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe to the channel to automatically receive each episode! Additionally, the show will air on WCHL on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m.

That's all for now! Go Heels!

-Matt