Women's Basketball

[kjcooper]

Based upon the responses above it appears that more people are watching the UNC women's basketball team this season. Have mentioned it before Banghart is doing an incredible job of establishing this program to be a major contender in women's basketball. The next step in her journey is to continue to garner fans enthusiasm and support and be able to fill all the seats when the team plays in Carmichael, similar to what University of South Carolina and ND. Final score UNC 79 to Louisville -75, amazing win as stated without Ustby and Toomey.
Stats from today's game:
FG% UNC - 49 and Louisville 39
3Pt % - UNC 45 and Louisville 31
FT% - UNC 81 and Louisville 81
TO's - UNC 10 and Louisville 9
Rebounding UNC 27 and Louisville 42, this was expected with Ustby, and Toomey out, in addition to Maria Gakdeng fouling out.
Scoring leaders Lanie Grant and T. Crisp with 19 each
Rebounding Maria Gakdeng - 11
Assist - Reniya Kelly
Going to share a lot of stats and information for those who do not follow the women's program, will try to be brief.
UNC women currently have the longest winning streak in the ACC at 7, with Notre Dame losing at NC State today.
UNC women are the only team in the country that is undefeated on the road this season, does not include their neutral court lost to UCONN earlier this season.
UNC currently have one of the best freshman guard in the country in Lanie Grant, she reclassified and should be in her senoir season in high school basketball. Remember that name she's going to be star in women's college basketball.
Currently UNC is in 3rd place in the conference, following ND at 15 and 1, NC State at 14-2 and UNC at 13-3.
Overall record for UNC is 25 -4 and 13-3 in conference play. They have two games remaining in the regular season, next at Duke on 2/27/2025 and Virginia at home on 3/2/2025 before the start of the ACCT.

 

[Archer2]

Can she coach men’s basketball?

 

[kjcooper]

Can she coach men’s basketball?

Have to give this team credit, even the coach at NC State admitted that during his 15 years in the league, this is the best defensive team he has seen at UNC.

 

[Archer2]

One of the biggest things for me in evaluating a staff is whether or not the team is fundamentally sound. Watch the women’s team’s fundamentals and then watch the men’s team. Night and day.

 

[tcb22]

BIG game at Duke tonight--Thursday. On ESPN at 7:00

 

[gregkb14]

Tight one so far. Dook was up 7 after the first quarter, but we are up 1 at half. Ustby still out and missing our starting PG Reniya Kelly tonight as well.

 

[kjcooper]

For those who were able to watch the game last night, sort of figured without Reniya Kelly this team would struggle. Lanie Grant the freshman is going to be an outstanding player, but no disrespect to Townsend she commits way too many turnovers. Without Ustby, M. Gakdeng is being double team a lot, and Toomey and Thomas being freshman they are not ready for the physical play of college basketball. It's impossible to win when you have more turnovers as they did in the 3rd quarter than points. Still proud of the team they competed hard even though they were short handed.
Stats from the game:
Final score Duke 68 - UNC 53.
FG% - UNC 44.2 , Duke 40.6
3Pt FG% - UNC 45.5 , Duke 39.1
FT% - UNC 71.4, Duke 7.0 : Blanca Thomas is going to be a good player, but she needs to work on her FT% this off season.
Rebounds - UNC 30, Duke 33
Turnovers - UNC 20, Duke 8 : This was above their normal per game which is around 10 to 12, this shows the effect of Reniya Kelly not playing. Of the 20 TO's Grace Townsend had 6, and Maria Gakdeng had 5.
Scoring leader : Lanie Grant had 17 points
Rebounding leader : Maria Gakdeng had 7
Assist : Grace Townsend had 4
Summary: This game was lost with the turnovers, this team check all the other boxes in this game. UNC women still have a chance to finish in the top 4 which will be a double bye in the upcoming ACCT. Their last game is at home against Virginia on 3/2/2025, before the ACCT.
UNC record is currently 25-5 and 13-4 in conference play. They are tied for 3rd with four teams: Florida State, Duke and Louisville with each team having one game left before the ACCT.

 

[tcb22]

It's going to be difficult to hold the double bye.

 

[kjcooper]

Not totally hard, here's the scenario's for a double bye.
(1) They need to beat UVA this Sunday at home for the below items to be in play.
(2) Duke is playing at Florida State, if Florida State wins they will claim the 3rd spot, since they own a win over UNC earlier this year.
(3) If Duke wins it will drop Florida State to 5th with Duke claiming the number four spot.
(4) Louisville plays at ND, hard to believe ND will lose 3 games in a row.

For UNC to get the 3rd seed, Duke needs to beat Florida State, and ND needs to beat Louisville. Since UNC defeated State they will earn the 3 seed over Duke since Duke lost to NC State. The top two seeds will be either ND or NC State, the seeds of 3 through 6 will be decided on Sunday. Hope this makes sense?

The women's ACCT start on Wednesday, going to an exciting tournament with so many rank teams involved in the tournament.

 

[tcb22]

Bad loss today. Where did our defense go in the 2nd half? Gave up 48 points!

 

[gregkb14]

Yea, normally this year we can count on our defense…
Anyone heard a status on Ustby or Kelly???

 

[kjcooper]

March 5-9, 2025
First Horizon Coliseum • Greensboro, N.C.
(All Times ET)
Wednesday, March 5 (First Round)
Game 1: No. 13 Syracuse vs. No. 12 Boston College, ACCN, 1 p.m.
Game 2: No. 15 Pitt vs. No. 10 Virginia, ACCN, 3:30 p.m
Game 3: No. 14 Clemson vs. No. 11 Stanford, ACCN, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 6 (Second Round)
Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. No. 5 North Carolina, ACCN, 11 a.m.
Game 5: No. 9 Georgia Tech vs. No. 8 Virginia Tech, ACCN, 1:30 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 2 vs. No. 7 California, ACCN, 5 p.m.
Game 7: Winner Game 3 vs. No. 6 Louisville, ACCN, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, March 7 (Quarterfinals)
Game 8: Winner Game 4 vs. No. 4 Florida State, ESPN2, 11 a.m.
Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. No. 1 NC State, ACCN, 1:30 p.m.
Game 10: Winner Gm 6 vs. No. 2 Notre Dame, ESPN2, 5 p.m.
Game 11: Winner Gm 7 vs. No. 3 Duke, ACCN, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 8 (Semifinals)
Game 12: Winners Games 9 vs. 8, ESPN2, Noon
Game 13: Winners Games 11 vs. 10, ESPN2, 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 9 (Championship)
Game 14: Winners Games 12 vs. 13, ESPN, 1 p.m.

 

[kjcooper]

UNC women did not play up to standard today as stated by tcb22 above. The stats below will show their ineffectiveness on defense today, no doubt they miss the play of PG Reniya Kelly, who is a great defender and a double digit scorer. Not to mention that Ustby has not played since departing the game after 2 minutes against NC State. UNC depth was not able to overcome Kelly and Ustby loss, relatively this is a young team outside of Maria Gakdeng, Townsend, and Lexi Donarski and Ustby who will be departing after this year. This UNC team has only two junior, two sophomore, and the rest are freshmen.
UNC 75 - UVA 78
FG% UNC 43 - UVA 49
3Pt FG% - UNC at 21 % and UVA at 48% - UVA shot 11-23 on three pointers, this was a losing formula for UNC.
FT% - UNC at 85 and UVA at 79
TO's - UNC 14 and UVA 14
Rebounds - UNC 39 and UVA 29
UNC Leading scorer - Maria Gakdeng - 25 points
UNC Leading rebounders - Maria Gakdeng and Grace Townsend tied with 9
Assist Leader - Maria Gakdeng 5
Still unclear on the status of Reniya Kelly or Ustby, guess we will find out Thursday at 11:00 am.

 

[tarheel0910]

Seems like we've had injury issues every year under Banghart. Might be time to evaluate the S&C team and philosophy.

 

[kjcooper]

Still have not heard much about the PG Kayla McPherson, heard that she has redshirted this season due to multiple injuries over the course of her career. She has so much potentials, if she can just stay healthy. Toomey had surgery after her HS senior year, and redshirted last season. Not sure who the S&C manager is, but it's may be something which they need to address.

 

[kjcooper]

Based upon what's being said from Banghart is that Kelly and Ustby will be ready for the NCAAT, nothing was mentioned about them for the upcoming ACCT. Without a deep run in the ACCT, UNC will probably miss out on hosting the first two games of the NCAAT at home.

 

[kjcooper]

UNC women advanced with a 78 to 71 victory over BC. Ustby did play but Reniya Kelly did not, it's based upon a day to day situation. BC played perhaps their best game of the season shooting the 3 pointers, and UNC is adjusting to Ustby being back into the starting lineup. Tough game coming up tomorrow against Florida State, they are going to need Reniya Kelly. Will provide stats later on.

 

[kjcooper]

A. Ustby finally returned to the UNC lineup today, she played 25 minutes. Box score 11 points on 5 for 10 attempts, snared 6 rebounds and was 1 -1 on Ft's.
Stats for the game:
FG% UNC - 44 and BC -43
3PFG% - UNC 41 and BC -46. Note BC is not a good 3 point shooting team, they shot extremely well today which was unusual.
FT% UNC 61 - and BC 88. Even though UNC shot almost as twice the amount BC did, this is an area that has been a weakness not only this season, but last season as well. It all depends on who's shooting the FT, which one or two poor FT shooter can diminish team's performance.
TO's - UNC 15 and BC 18
Rebounds - UNC 38 and BC 32
UNC team leaders:
Points - Lexi Donarski - 20
Rebounds - Maria Gakdeng - 8
Assist - Indya Nivar - 5
One thing of concern against Florida State tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., is if Reniya Kelly is unable to play this will probably not bode well for UNC. Not calling her out but with Grace Townsend starting at PG this team will not win against Florida State. Townsend went 3-12 shooting today, and had 3 turnovers. Even in a reserve role she had issues with T/O's. Hope she proves me wrong tomorrow.

 

[ohio tarheels]

Based upon what's being said from Banghart is that Kelly and Ustby will be ready for the NCAAT, nothing was mentioned about them for the upcoming ACCT. Without a deep run in the ACCT, UNC will probably miss out on hosting the first two games of the NCAAT at home.

Interested in your thoughts as of this morning I’ve seen them hosting as a 4 seed?? I would think UNC’s resume deserves the 4 seed even with loss to FSU tomorrow unless strange things happen across the country

 

[gregkb14]

We were projected as a 3 seed before the loss to Dook (understandable) and the loss to UVa (not good). But both without Ustby and Kelly. So I’d think that would be slightly taken into consideration.

 

[kjcooper]

Interested in your thoughts as of this morning I’ve seen them hosting as a 4 seed?? I would think UNC’s resume deserves the 4 seed even with loss to FSU tomorrow unless strange things happen across the country

Firmly believe that they secured a four seed with the win over BC today, and can possibly host two games at Carmichael With a win over Florida State tomorrow, they can probably secure a 3 seed, and maintain it with a win over GT or NC State on Saturday, even if they fail in the Championship game.
With a 3 seed in the NCAAT they will not have to play a one seed until the regional finals. The committee always seems to put them into the same bracket with South Carolina as a number one seed. It's been quite a few years since UNC women have been seeded this high going into the NCAAT. UNC women always play SC closer than most teams do in the NCAAT, due to their relentless defense.