Chapel Hill, North Carolina On Sunday afternoon in a sold-out Carmichael Arena, the No. 21 North Carolina Tar Heels got the biggest win of their season — and one of the biggest in the Courtney Banghart era — when they upset their rival, No. 12 Duke, 74-69.
With the win, the Tar Heels avenged a loss to Duke from two weeks ago, greatly boosted their chances of being a host team in the NCAA tournament and notched their first win against an AP top 25 team this season. Oh, and they did it all against a capacity crowd on national television and on Senior Day.
After the game, I asked Banghart about her message to the team during two moments of adversity in the game — the media timeout in the first quarter, when UNC was down 10-3 and only had one field goal, and when Duke took the lead for the first time in the second half with 5:29 left in the fourth quarter.
“We had our senior night last night, and Indya (Nivar) spoke about her experience, and she talked about how resilient and connected this group is,” Banghart said. “And I just kept leaning on that, right? I said in that first media timeout, ‘Resilience and connection is what we do and what we’re going to show.'”
Or, as the players say when they break a huddle, “It’s us.”
While the Tar Heels began the season ranked No. 11 and with hopes of not only returning to the Sweet 16 but making it further, by mid-January, they had dropped out of the AP poll altogether. In crunch moments, the team regularly fell apart. In a mid-December battle with Louisville for ACC supremacy, North Carolina led 66-63 with 19 seconds remaining but missed key free throws down the stretch and then scored zero points in overtime. Against Stanford in early January, a similar thing happened: a fourth-quarter lead, missed free throws and bad defense in the waning seconds and an overtime loss at home. The next game, North Carolina traveled to South Bend to face Notre Dame, and, as Banghart said, “didn’t get off the bus.” The Fighting Irish embarrassed them, 73-50.
The team captains came together after that Notre Dame loss and came up with the slogan, “It’s us.”
“We obviously hit that point in the season where we dropped a couple games we may not have wanted to drop, but it was part of the season,” Lanie Grant told reporters in early February after North Carolina beat NC State. “Our one goal is March, and to prepare well for March and for the ACC tournament. You get so bogged down in the moment, sometimes it’s hard to see what the actual goal is. We had a decision to make — were we going to just kind of let the season go and all do our own things, or were we going to make a conscious effort to come together?
“And I think what really drove that decision was our love for each other and our love for this place and this program and our seniors — India, Nyla (Harris), they mean so much to us. So there was never a moment where we knew we wouldn’t get it together. It was just a matter of when, not if.”
Since coming together over those two words, the Tar Heels have won 12 of their last 13 games, with the lone loss being to Duke two weeks ago. North Carolina is the third seed in the ACC tournament, meaning they have a bye until the quarterfinals on Friday, and the team has a very good chance at being a top-16 seed in the NCAA tournament no matter what happens in Duluth. Those preseason goals are all well within reach.
“It’s us … it’s just a reminder that no matter what we may hear, what we may see, we’re all on our own individual paths, but at the end of the day, it is us,” Grant said.
“It’s just so them,” Banghart said. “It’s a season by them, for them.”
In fact, after the Notre Dame loss, Banghart did some reflection on her own. While her players were coming together as a collective, she realized that she might need to take a different approach to help them reach their potential.
“We had gotten good because I was hard on them, harder than I’ve been at any team. I think I started to realize with me being so hard on them, and then they lose, they’re starting to only see their negatives,” the coach said last month. “I had to really do the opposite. I’ve kind of taken a full turn and instead I’m kind of speaking confidence into them and reminding them that, ‘Lanie, there’s things you don’t do well, let’s talk about things you do do well.'”
These days, Banghart doesn’t have to search hard to come up with positives.
Add Comment