Courtney Banghart, UNC WBB Go International Route To Build 2025-26 Roster

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Liza Astakhova arrived in the United States for the first time with one bag and a slate of classes awaiting her.

>>> Welcome to the new home of Inside Carolina! Reactivate your account for $1 <<<

Courtney Banghart and her North Carolina staff recruited Astakhova from Russia, where she played for the Russia-PBL and the Moscow Basketball Association. The 6-foot-2 forward comes in as a true freshman after averaging 4.7 points in 19 minutes per game overseas last season.

Banghart recently posted a video on social media about the process of getting a player in from overseas, from admission into the school, securing a student visa and working out the travel to actually get her to the Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Banghart spoke on Monday at ACC Tipoff about her pursuit of overseas players like Astakhova in the team’s recruiting efforts.

“FIBA has a bunch of tournaments throughout the summer, especially U20s, U18s, U16s, whether it’s in Romania or Turkey or Portugal,” Banghart said on Monday. “And we’ve been really aggressive at making sure that we keep eyes on the international space, as well as the transfer portal, as well as the high school space. I feel like with the brand of Carolina, I owe it to make sure that we’ve really scoured all of our bases. The international (players), you start seeing them in those major FIBA championships, and then the recruiting process begins.”

North Carolina has three international players on the roster going into the 2025-26 season. Taissa Queiroz of Brazil returns to the team after joining last spring, Elina Aarnisalo of Finland joins by way of the transfer portal after playing her freshman season at UCLA and Astakhova has arrived as the most recent addition.

Banghart detailed the logistics of Astakhova’s arrival in her social media post, saying that Astakhova flew from Russia to Serbia and spent a week in a hotel room by herself. Her visa didn’t permit her to travel through another European country, Banghart said, so she later had to fly through Turkey to get to the U.S. From there, it was a matter of getting through customs in Raleigh. Banghart had her first in-person interaction with Astakhova upon her arrival in the States.

On Monday, Banghart said that Astakhova has adjusted well so far.

“Her parents have never been here, and she showed up two days after classes started, got here after midnight, went to an 8 a.m. math class and is doing really well on the court and in the classroom,” Banghart said. “So some kids are just built different. She’s one of them.”

Banghart recruited Aarnisalo before her freshman year when the team was searching for a point guard, but the team ultimately signed Richmond transfer Grace Townsend, who had played four years of college basketball before coming to Chapel Hill.

The Finnish guard averaged 5.1 points, 3.4 assists and 2.2 rebounds in 37 games as a freshman with the Bruins last season while shooting 43.7% from the field, 27% from three and 77.4% from the free throw line. She started in 10 of those outings and played 20.9 minutes per game. Aarnisalo, who finished second on the team in assists per game to Kiki Rice’s season average of five, recorded five or more assists 12 times as a freshman.

Queiroz, a 6-foot-1 guard from Brazil who graduated from Santa Rosa (Calif.) Cardinal Newman, will play her first season this fall after not playing in the spring, though she did practice with the team last semester. She was selected to play with the Brazilian National Team during its WNBA Tour this summer, as the team faced the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever.

Astakhova, Aarnisalo and Queiroz will all debut this fall for a North Carolina team that went 29-8 last season and reached the Sweet Sixteen. UNC’s top-three scorers — Alyssa Ustby, Maria Gakdeng and Lexi Donarski — all graduated after last season. The Tar Heels will open the season on Nov. 3 at home against North Carolina Central.

International recruiting, Banghart said, opened things up for the Tar Heels as they built out their roster for the upcoming season. 

“It allows you not to give yourself a border, quite frankly,” Banghart said. “Go get the best player who fits your needs that fits in with what we’ve got. And they’ve been remarkably low maintenance and really grateful, and they come with a lot more basketball experience. They’re not playing AAU and all of that, they’re playing professional basketball.”