Carmichael Comments: The Million-Dollar Question

CARMICHAEL COMMENTS: Inside Carolina Women's Basketball
Vol. 3, Edition 7: The Million-Dollar Question

The final score wasn't what the Tar Heels wanted. Miami had come in to Carmichael Arena and handed Carolina a 69-59 defeat on Sunday afternoon, the Tar Heels' first double-digit loss of the season. To add insult to injury, it was Carolina's first home loss of the campaign and gave Miami a sweep over the Heels for the first time ever.

Despite the outcome, second-year Carolina coach Courtney Banghart was excited. Yes, a 10-point loss stings. But the signs of growth and progress from a team that returned just three healthy players from last season are evident in the way that the Tar Heels execute offensive and defensive game plans.

"When we roll the tape back and look at the shots, I like the shots we're getting," Banghart said postgame on Sunday. "We're moving the ball a whole lot better, and there's much more fluidity on that end."

This brings us to the elephant in the room. The million-dollar question. The "whatever cliché you want here" situation.

How do you turn progress into better shooting numbers? How do you turn better shooting numbers into wins?

Even though Carolina is playing better on the offensive end of the floor, the shooting numbers on Sunday were, quite honestly, ugly. The Tar Heels shot just 31.6 percent (24-for-76), a number that breaks down to 6-for-34 (17.6 percent) from three and 18-for-42 (42.9 percent) from two-point range, where a majority of the shot attempts were layups. In multiple sequences on Sunday, the Tar Heels saw at least three looks at the bucket on an offensive possession and were unable to cash in.

"The things that we've asked them to get better at, they're getting better at," Banghart said. "We've got to make layups."

A factor that did swing the shooting numbers a bit on Sunday was the Tar Heels' ability to crash the offensive glass and extend possessions thanks to a 25-7 edge in offensive rebounds. While a large number in the offensive rebound department is thanks in part to missed shots, it also speaks to a team's effort and physicality, which against Miami is a major measuring stick for Carolina.

"(Miami) is a tough matchup for us right now," Banghart said after facing the Hurricanes for the second time in a month. "Obviously, we're playing so many young guys, and this is the most physical team in the league."

In a weird year thanks to COVID-19, the rhythm of practicing and playing has been skewed by postponements (more on that below). Still, the combination of more game experiences and extra time in practice is the closest thing to a magic formula for pushing the young Tar Heels forward.

"This is not a team that sits in their dorm room," Banghart said. "They've been in the gym. They're working hard, and we're getting a half hour of shots up every day. If you're going to put the time in, over the course of a season, you're going to like your numbers."

So even in a loss, when fans and media can overreact, those who get paid to analyze and teach basketball recognize when progress is made.

"As a coach, I can't help but watch the whole picture, and the team is getting better," Banghart said.

Here's what else caught my eye this week…

A Long Break
By the time the Tar Heels returned to play on Sunday, the break between games reached 21 days. Carolina's Dec. 20 game with Wake Forest sent the Tar Heels into a planned 11-day layoff for the Christmas break, but the trio of postponements that followed only dragged the delay longer to Jan. 10.

The 21-day gap between games is the second-longest in the midst of a season in program history. In just the second year as a varsity program, 1975-76, the Tar Heels had a 34-day break between a Dec. 6, 1975 game with NC State and a Jan. 9, 1976 game against College of Charleston. Even since that time, we've only seen one break of a similar length to this recent pause – December of 1983, when Carolina visited East Tennessee State on Dec. 10, then didn't play again until Dec. 30 against Virginia Tech in a neutral court game in Fayetteville. That's a 20-day span.

One person who is familiar with such a long layoff is Coach Banghart. Princeton, her former employer, unlike Carolina, holds its mid-academic year exams after Christmas during the month of January. While Carolina and its ACC brethren do see a decreased game load around exam time, it's not as pronounced as Princeton, which doesn't play at all during the January exam time, which sometimes lasts up to three weeks. In Banghart's final season at the New Jersey Ivy League power, in 2018-19, her Tigers played a Jan. 5 game with Penn, then didn't take the floor again in competition until Feb. 1 against Columbia, a whopping 27 days without games that seems unfathomable to those not familiar with the intricacies of Ivy League scheduling.

"In the Ivy League, you don't play during exams, and Princeton's exam period is 21 days, so I'm as a coach used to it," she explained before Sunday's game.

Even if Banghart is used to a lengthy in-season intermission from games, her players certainly aren't. While extra practice time isn't necessarily a bad thing for a young team still in the process of developing and enhancing skills, the monotony of practice without the chance to play immediately was evident among the Tar Heels.

"I'm looking at these eager kids that just want to play a game, and I keep having to say 'Nope, it's just me, we're going to practice'," Banghart said.

100 Games, 40 Double-Doubles
Sunday's game with Miami was a monumental one for a fixture in Carolina Blue, as Janelle Bailey made her 100^th career appearance for the Tar Heels. The All-ACC center from Charlotte has started 99 of those 100 games, and ensured the milestone game would be a memorable experience for her and Tar Heel fans by posting her 40^th career double-double. Bailey's 18 points and 15 rebounds each led Carolina in the loss, and continued an upward trend for the senior. She entered the season with 37 career double-doubles, yet it took until the first Miami game on Dec. 14 for her to record one, with 14 points and 13 rebounds against the Hurricanes. Now, Bailey has notched a double-double in three of the Tar Heels' last four games, and seems to be rounding into form even with a deeper roster around her.

With 40 double-doubles in 100 games, she now has posted a double-double in 40 percent of her games (easy math there), and ranks third on the NCAA leaderboard for career double-doubles among active Division I players.

Up Next
Thanks to Duke's cancelation of the remainder of its season, the Tar Heels' scheduled game this Sunday is off the schedule. That means just one game for Carolina this week – a Thursday night home showdown with Virginia Tech at 6:00 p.m. The Hokies swept the season series last year, taking a 76-70 win in Blacksburg on Jan. 5 and a 71-61 victory at Carmichael on Feb. 9. Still, Carolina controls the all-time series 19-8. Virginia Tech is no doubt hungry for a win, sitting 6-4 overall yet just 1-4 in the ACC. Three of those four ACC losses for the Hokies have occurred by six points or fewer, including a 56-54 setback at Georgia Tech on Sunday. Needless to say, this is a game that will stabilize the season a bit for the winner and push the loser into a spot of uphill climbing.

Our Tar Heel Sports Network coverage of the 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.

In the meantime, check out this week's edition of the Courtney Banghart Show on the Tar Heel Voices podcast channel. Fans can listen after Wednesday morning 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