Everything North Carolina's Courtney Banghart said after exhibition loss to South Carolina

North Carolina women’s basketball head coach Courtney Banghart spoke to the media after the Tar Heels dropped a neutral-site exhibition to South Carolina in Atlanta, GA.

Here is everything she had to say.

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Opening Statement

“First off, thanks to the group that put this on. We knew we were going to have a lot of young guys out there, and to have an opportunity to see a very high-level game in November is exactly what we want. We want to have exhibition games where there’s no margin of error. There’s lots of margins of error. We knew this was going to be a slim margin of error. We weren’t necessarily sharp enough yet, and that’s okay, it’s November.”

“You know, the fact of the matter is, is that we gave up 91 points. Some of that is, they’ve got they’ve got first-round draft picks. I get it right. A part of that is that we need to be better. Things that happen all the time, at times. Offensively, I’ve asked these guys to learn a lot, a totally new offense than what it was a year ago.”

“Defensively, we’ve got different strengths and different coverages. There’s a lot of learning happening with this young team. Outside of (Nyla Harris and Indya Nivar), it’s basically freshmen, sophomores that you saw tonight, with two of our guys being held out. And so, you know, with that youthfulness, you expect some of the loose play that we had. And so it’s good to see where we’re starting. It doesn’t matter where you start. For either side, they’re going to they’re going to get better; it’s a good team, and we can, we’ll get better too. But hope you guys enjoyed the game.”

Courtney, seemed like your transition offense was really giving them a lot of problems, especially in the first half. How are you able to exploit that?

“Yeah, that’s a good point. Part of these November games early is that your conditioning isn’t necessarily, probably, on either side where you wanted to be. There’s an element of game concentration, there’s an element of game pace, there’s an element of game execution that is a different level you could ever practice, no matter how many days you use our guys, our practice guys. And so I wish we could have kept playing, right? We just ran out of gas at times, and that’s part of it. But their transition gave us problems too. You know, these are two good teams, two great programs, and so heavyweight fight, I gotta take the advantage you can, you know, we took advantage of their transition, they took advantage of ours.”

You say you play games like this to learn about your team early and learn what you need to work on. What did you learn tonight?

“I learned that our leadership is really strong. I mean, these two have a whole lot of you. If you take out who we lost last year, then you take out Reniya (Kelly) and you take out Blanca (Thomas), there’s a lot of youth. There’s a whole new system. And so a lot has rested on these shoulders. I celebrate Indya (Nivar), who’s been here the longest, you know, the team that was out there tonight, a lot of new the way that they understand the standard that you have at North Carolina.

I thought there was a lot of bright spots there. Nyla Harris, everything is new for her. She’s got a lot of experience with this program, and so I give these two first off, a lot of credit. Our leadership. We learned what see in practice, is that our young guys are here to compete. You know, they’re here to compete, and they’re here to help us win basketball games, and they need to get sharper at certain things, but they put the time in to do better. These guys have challenged them, and they’ve leaned into the process. So there’s a lot to like on this game.”

What can you tell us about Reniya and Blanca and their return?

“Yeah, you know, this was such a great opportunity, but our seasons right around the corner, too. And so we don’t want to put anybody at risk that isn’t fully clear to do that. So you saw them moving around. And so, you know, we feel very confident that they’re joining us soon, but unfortunately, tonight wasn’t the night.”

Can you share what they were dealing with?

“No.”

What goes into stopping Raven Johnson’s flow, and just her production overall

“The thing that separates it, Raven’s really been really good, actually, on the defensive side of the ball, she’s a difference maker there. She puts a lot of pressure at the point of the ball, you know, and she gets her hands around things. So she’s just a menace defensively, right? And that gets tired, right? Yeah, offensively, you’d love to have a four-year starter. That would be great, right? You know, but every team has. It’s next year, there’ll be a lot of young guards on South Carolina’s roster, and we’ll have a lot of experience. It’s just the nature of college athletics, right? Especially if you believe in the development of your own roster. So I think where Raven maybe needs more shine is the fact that defensively, she’s a difference maker. She’s a distraction.”

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Courtney, could you speak to Nyla’s game?

“Yeah, she’s a problem. She’s (been) a problem for three years, sort of like what (Ta’Niya) Latson was, and now for a fourth year, but we’re glad that this problem is now on our side. What I think is really great about Ny’ is that she chose to come and knew that we were going to challenge her, right? We knew that you’re not going to be very close to your senior year. You’re here to get better. Yeah. Indya has done a great job being right by her side and pushing when needed. And I give Nyla a lot of credit, becausewas playing good at Louisville, right? We’re asking her to do more. We’re asking her to do more with the ball in her hands. We’re asking her to do more with the ball not in her hands. We’re asking her to defend in different ways, and her competitive spirit, in combination with her genuine joy. It’s just it’s a wonderful piece to our team. And you know, I can be hard on her because I have high hopes for her, right? And that’s why she came, that I can enjoy her too.”

Can you speak on Ciera Toomey?

“Yeah, yes, she’s, you know, she went from available, and she’s trying to become reliable, as our whole roster is, right? We got a lot of available guys, and we got to have more reliable guys. And she took a step forward in being reliable. She almost got a double-double. She took care of the basketball, no turnovers. And she hasn’t played so long; she doesn’t have a pivotal role in our program. So again, it’s so early for these kids, and don’t forget, for Ciera, her first meaningful game is against a really good number two team in the country, right?”

“And so we have high hopes for her. She’s gonna have to play better as well. I think our interior game without Blanca bears on them now, and they have, they have to be better. But yeah, she’s much better than she was a year ago, and she’s earned bit of it.”

What was the trigger for the turnovers?

“Yeah, you know, 15 turnovers in November. I don’t know, against the number two team. I mean, I thought E(lina Aarnisalo) was a little loose with the ball, you know, etc, but a little bit loose with the ball, we’re not quite as crisp on where our angles, where our cuts are when we’re playing quick or playing fast.”

“But this is one game. It’s a great opportunity for you all to see them, but I’ve seen this team now for 75 days. We are better, we’re crisper, but I think some of those turnovers were, honestly, it’s just early. It’s just early. This is a little bit messy about basketball on both sides, but not as messy as it probably could’ve been, given that it was two really good teams.”

Can you speak to the positives of the run at the end and the first few minutes of the game?

“Yeah, I mean to ask for him in the second half is great, to outscore them on the final score is better, right? You know, but as I said, in the locker room, there’s going to be people that are going to say, there’s no quit, I get it. That’s sports talk, right? That’s not something we’re going to celebrate in this program, because that’s not what we do, right?”

“It’s so easy to quit on Tuesday, it’s so easy to quit in the fourth quarter. It’s so easy to quit on Sunday. But I just haven’t seen that from this team, this program. But I think again, I think it’s hard to really understand how many young freshmen and sophomores, and even mean, I guess we only have only had two upperclassmen play today, that’s a lot of young people, and they just, again, these guys have infused them with confidence and urgency. And so that’s just going up and up and up, right? So there’s a lot to work with there. And they’re not perfect, but there’s a lot to work with here. So in the second half, I thought they came in with what we needed when these guys got tired.”

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