UNC at ACC Tipoff: 'This group is really special'

Ankles and knees or neither or just

Oh I'm just gonna my leg

Good morning everyone and welcome to the 2024 AC C

women's tip off

Happy to introduce the UN C Tar Hills to the

stage

Courtney B head coach Courtney Banghart going into her sixth

season

We next have a uh Lexi Darsy the grandma of

the uh AC C now and Alyssa V and then

Maria Gang welcome ladies

Um Courtney I guess we'll start with you

Just kind of give us an overview of the team

right now kind of what excites you about this upcoming

season beyond the fact that we're healthy

Oh Jeez that's big news

Um Yeah I think um this is a really connected

group

Um uh it's a very popular time to talk about

those type of of words but it's not a word

I would have always used

Um And this group is really connected with one another

We've got a healthy blend of experience uh with a

lot of youthful talent

Um And most importantly our experience um really tangibly sheds

to their to their peer group in a really uh

connected way

Um And we're healthy Yeah

At least right now knock on everything you know

Um no we've got um some guys off a red

shirt who we know will help us

We've got some young guys who we know will help

us and uh we know we've got some great experience

here that will uh that will lean on all year

It almost seems like your veterans ha have been with

you and they've got a lot of experience but you

got a lot of youthful pieces that I think you're

gonna have to rely on

Can you talk about how you've had to blend the

two groups Yeah

You know we've got we also had two off the

transfer portal who come in with a lot of experience

who've been just a really great ad they fit our

needs

But with Renay and India and these guys there's a

lot of basketball that's been played already um uh in

their careers for us and then you bring um Sierra

Toomey off of her red shirt year

Um and then you bring in a really talented trio

of freshmen that they really don't act like freshmen

I mean it's been a really great adversity response group

Their skill sets are different from one another

Um the practices are uber competitive

Um you know I get to coach this team more

than manage this team uh so far which has been

really fun as veterans and we'll start with you

Uh Lexie do you understand that comment that Kosher made

she gets she doesn't have to manage you guys

Did you always understand that Maybe as a younger player

Yeah I don't know

Probably not but this group really is special

The chemistry that we have on and off the court

already this early in the season is truly special and

we're just excited to see that continue to grow throughout

the year

Alyssa I've always kind of described your game as your

Swiss army knife because you did so many things to

impact the game

Is there anything that now you've added going into your

final season to your repertoire Yeah going into my final

season just expanding my range and being able to comfortably

shoot the three and also be able to make shots

at the three

And so that's just been a big part of my

game

And I've also learned a lot of different moves and

picked up a lot of things from my teammates because

we have a really talented group and we're constantly um

iron iron sharpens iron

And so we're constantly every practice working hard and making

each other better in many different ways

Maria I want to ask you to speak on your

head coach um adversity last year

Um And I think what's really remarkable to me is

the number of red shirts that that UN C has

and players stay that's not typical in this day and

age anymore

Injury people leave or not playing people leave

What is it about Courtney's leadership that makes people gravitate

to this program and want to play for her

Yeah with with CV I think what you see is

what you get uh I think she's a very honest

coach and she's gonna tell you what it tell you

what it is

And I think with the players that didn't get to

play last year they they dealt really well with us

as teammates but also as a coach she's a leader

She knows what she's talking about she knows how to

effectively coach

And even though we had a lot of injuries this

past year uh we still managed to get you know

to the second round of the tournament

So I think with these new pieces and now that

we're healthy we're gonna make it a lot farther

Um having everybody healthy having the pieces that you have

style of play gonna be similar to what we've seen

or is there anything new we should expect Oh me

I'll take that

Yeah

Um Beginning of the play

No no it's good

Yeah

You know this particular each group has its own different

vibe and this group is uh is much easier to

score the ball than we've had a really tough time

scoring in the past few years

Um and the ball stuck at times right And so

we're we're now playing off of close outs better where

um these guys are playing in a lot more space

because the ball is moving better

Um Alyssa's ability to shoot has allowed us to now

expand our range

Um same thing with uh Sierra is a great shooter

from that spot as well

Um So it's just more space to operate like he's

doing more off the dribble

I think we have a good blend of last year

because we were so injured

Um a lot was leaned on on these guys and

they didn't perform um over fatigue over the course of

that last six weeks as much as they wanted

So they all really got in the gym and got

better

So the experience pieces are better

But we yeah the the offense will be very different

I think we'll still have a similar um defensive toughness

but the offense will look very different

We don't I mean I I know you guys are

hoping that by the time you're experienced you know the

offense but it's totally different this year

So we got a bunch of new guys DJ Wilkerson

from 90.9

0 I'm sorry used to it

The Sports Nerd podcast

I'm sorry

Um my question for you is um you have a

great blend of offense great blend of defense you can

rebound and block shots like no other

What part of your game do you feel like you

still need to work on I think over the summer

something that I've definitely worked on is my shooting my

midrange shooting um kind of like that pick and roll

pick and pop kind of action

So being able to make those shots and not just

finish around the basket but a little bit further out

And just working on that throughout the summer has been

really effective and I definitely think it's gonna help me

um grow as a player

Obviously the transfer portal era is crazy how jarring was

it to have six players transfer And then you bring

in uh all these new covers and then you have

the staff changes

How how jarring was that all for you and the

players Yeah I wouldn't I wouldn't use the word jarring

at all

I mean transfers I don't know what people with the

with the right language is on it but you're never

surprised right And and and and it's a two way

decision most of the time right It's very rarely and

I'll speak I'll speak for just Caroline

It's very rarely someone would walk into your office and

say I'm transferring and you're like oh my gosh that

was only your decision right Um And so you know

what the great thing about the portal is it lets

you kind of reinvented your team um and add as

needed and also subtract you know at times

And so the the two guys we had 44 year

seniors last year right And so you can't keep all

four seniors otherwise you can't get a freshman class from

a numbers perspective right So we wanted to honor their

four year careers and and um ensure that we had

an opportunity to grow our program at the same time

So getting Trey and uh Grace out of the portal

we were able to like with Maria and LEXI pick

a kid that is exactly what the existing group needs

Um And so you know I think there's if you

had asked us in uh in on February 1st what

the roster is gonna look like Um I I think

we all would have would have picked this roster you

know again it's not something that the media likes to

think

It's this like jarring experience where someone all of a

sudden your team changes but you know that's just not

how it is inside the lines

Jeremy Granderson ESPN Charlotte question for Alyssa you said on

a podcast before how you were the fifth pick up

of your incoming freshman class and that you brought the

class ranking down but looking forward now fifth year going

in

What can you reflect on how has your journey been

And can you just talk about how you've developed over

this time Yeah I think looking back to that it's

been a a big trust the process kind of journey

and but I attribute a lot of my successes to

my teammates because they've taught me a lot of things

that I didn't have like the resources to learn from

when I was um in middle school and high school

and trying to figure out what my basketball career would

look like

And also just being a part of an incredible program

that has coaches that are invested in my development

I've just been really fortunate to have and I'm really

blessed to be on this path and grateful for the

opportunity and especially this fifth year ahead Lexi

Um over the summer you went to and helped coach

at the Davis camp

Can you talk about that experience and talk about that

experience in helping young women develop their game It seems

to be a passionate part of um who you are

as a person

Yeah I really enjoy running camps and training younger kids

Um We run a camp in all of our hometown

We're all from La Crosse Wisconsin and we got a

great turnout

We had a lot of fun and we look forward

to continuing to do that in the future Courtney with

the addition of the Sorry I didn't mean to startle

you with the addition of the three new teams to

the AC C

Is there anything that you and your staff did differently

this off season in preparation or is it just yeah

new teams new people

Um You know I think you know we've been in

that mid pod for all five years

I got to play Virginia Tech and their best run

in history twice or three times every year

Um we got to play NC State in one of

their better runs twice a year

Um Got to play Virginia in their rebirth and got

to play Duke right Where everybody else maybe not playing

those teams twice

Right

So the uh I am the proponent of yay welcome

Dallas Stanford and SMU I'm looking forward to playing everybody

one time in our rival twice

I think that will be a better true champion um

in our league and less based on where you are

are located in terms of who your double round robin

is

Um So I think our you know we also expanded

our national footprint which I think is important in a

basketball conference

Um We've added a great academic institutions um to the

league

So you know I I think this is gonna be

we haven't done anything to uh strategically or tactically different

um because we're just adding more elite teams to the

league conference sir

Yeah

All right

I'll uh let me ask you what what what did

BIAA this year to the pro court this season Yeah

they definitely add a lot

Uh Sierra is definitely uh one of our post players

but she can also shoot the ball really well from

the three

So I think um having a player that can do

that at the four is really effective for the five

you know and Blanca is like a good a five

post up player and she's gonna be really good a

really good freshman I think coming in

So she's been playing really well in practice and I

think she's been doing really well with adversity and they're

gonna be really good this year

Would it be easier to side with those two editions

I believe so

Yes I think they've gotten a lot better over the

summer and since Blanka got here um and Sierra has

been here for a year so she's been working on

um defense offense

So I think they're gonna be really great

Yeah

Um this one for Courtney

Good to see you

Um you talked about obviously the offense kind of wanted

to elaborate on that

You mentioned uh you know maybe at times it was

you know a little stagnant stagnant the ball stuck things

like that

How have you gone about I guess fortifying an identity

on the offensive side with this new group and how

would you describe I guess offensive identity of this year's

team Yeah

Well it's funny I've been head coach for almost 20

years and um we've had really good defensive teams but

Christie remembers that my teams can play offense right

Um and so you know what what what is being

a little if I'm being honest for the last six

weeks of the season we had you know we had

five posts all healthy and we have five guards all

not healthy right If you're gonna play basketball without five

without a position it's a little bit easier to play

with five with guards

Right

Um and so our offense was really packed in so

they were re we were relying on outside shooting

Um and we didn't have a ton of outside shooting

outside Alexi who was really blanketed

And so you double you could double in the post

um all the things

And so when you're when you're limited you know it's

really remarkable what their energy grit and defensive uh toughness

brought them right Um Given all of that but we

just have a lot more space now and within the

ball moves much much more fluidly right And so now

you're playing against close outs or against shifting defense not

against a shell right Um And so our actions we

have we have more fluid actions or we can play

with more freedom in space

Um And so um our actions are very different what

you guys will see but really it's what you're gonna

notice the most is the spacing and the and the

and the movement of the ball um is is what

you're probably gonna notice the most

Shelby Swanson with the Raleigh News and Observer

This one's for um just any of the players you

guys touched on it earlier but just some of the

challenges of last season with all the injuries

What are the biggest takeaways lessons that you guys took

from that I think one of the biggest takeaways when

you have a lot of teammates that go down with

the injury is how important those individuals still are to

the whole we've had a lot of those injured individuals

be able to constantly pour into the girls that are

playing at practice and in games and be able to

point out things and just utilize their high basketball IQ

in order to keep pushing the needle and pushing our

team forward

Although they can't be inside the lines

Question for LEXI uh you're known to be a great

shooter but a lot of those looks are coming off

of catch and shoot opportunities

Also wrapping coach into this too

You talked about having more spacing

How important is it to have people like Alyssa and

Maria to be able to find you when you're trying

to navigate Awful

Yeah it's very important

A lot of my looks last year were often catch

and shoot threes and a lot of the times it

was from either a post feed or an attack from

these two right here

Um I would say something that we've been working on

since like what coach was saying that our spacing is

a lot better the floor is open um is working

on me attacking more coming off the dribble and getting

more variety of shots

Yeah

And also you know Maria's got more now one D

one coverage um which we're forgetting that that what she

did last year being double teamed or kind of playing

against S A all year

Um and same with Alyssa being able to expand

I mean now Alyssa can pop and shoot now which

which she really was limited in last year which again

so that crowd is easier for her to be doubled

as well

Um And so not only is uh is it gonna

be easier for for a for LEXI to run off

of actions and get looks but her responsibility is also

gonna be to the other people looks with the dribble

now that there's more space in which to do it

Maria Melissa Lexi coach Bangar

Thank you very much Un C Look out go hills

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

You had to wear your neutral