NC State, UNC take spotlight in Triangle hoops and women’s college basketball
Thursday night all eyes will be on the Triangle.
When it comes to college hoops, that’s nothing new. This time, however, it’s ladies night.
There are six ACC schools ranked in the top 25 and two of them will meet Thursday night in Raleigh.
Rivals N.C. State, ranked No. 5 in the AP Top 25, hosts No. 19 North Carolina. Up the road in Durham, Duke (17) was scheduled to host Georgia Tech (16). Wednesday afternoon the ACC announced the game was postponed due to COVID issues within the Yellow Jackets’ program. As Wolfpack head coach Wes Moore put it during his media availability “it’s a tough neighborhood.”
For the last few seasons Moore has been the king of the hill. N.C. State (12-2, 3-0) has won consecutive ACC Tournament titles, been consistently ranked in the top 25 and was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament a year ago.
Not too long ago, though, the Tar Heels and Blue Devils were right there, consistently cutting down the nets in Greensboro — remaining in the national conversation. UNC and Duke both went through coaching changes, the Blue Devils on their third coach since 2000.
It appears as if North Carolina (13-0, 3-0 ACC) and Duke (10-2, 1-1) have settled into a groove with their new leaders, Courtney Banghart and Kara Lawson.
Lawson’s first season was canceled due to COVID-19. She’s quickly gotten Duke back on track after missing a complete season, but gave props to Banghart and Moore on what they’ve done over a longer period of time.
“Obviously those teams and those coaches are much more established than us at their respective institutions and then as coaches and staffs in general,” Lawson said. “I think I’d be doing our kids a disservice and our program a disservice to put ourselves where they are. We just need to keep growing and keep getting better.”
Banghart, in her third year in Chapel Hill, made it to the NCAA Tournament a year ago and now has the Heels off to their best start in league play since the 2012-13 season.
Banghart has built her roster with a bunch of skilled offensive players who have locked in on the defensive end this season. She also rolls out a young team with four sophomores in the starting five. That sounds like a team that’s primed to make a run in the future, but it’s making some noise now, nationally.
“I don’t know if I would have thought three years ago that we’d be here this quickly,” Banghart said. “I just give a lot of credit to the players that trusted the mission, put the work in to make sure we are ready to be where we’re at.”
Where they’re at is the top of the ACC in scoring (83 PPG), just above N.C. State (81.2). The Heels’ average margin of victory is 32.3 points, again, just above the Pack (23.3). UNC has two of the top 10 scorers in the ACC in Deja Kelly (17.5) and Alyssa Ustby (14).
Moore’s team has no issue putting the ball in the basket, but knows they better play some defense if they want to knock off UNC. In Chapel Hill a year ago, the Heels shot 40% from the field (42% from 3) in a seven-point win. If Moore has one gripe with his team, it’s how they are playing on the defensive end of the floor.
“We’re going to try to slow all that down,” Moore said. “We haven’t been playing defense really to the level we would like to be.”
BACK AND FORTH
Even though N.C. State is ranked higher and won the most recent meeting, 82-63, it hasn’t been a cakewalk for Moore over Banghart. The complete opposite, actually. The teams have split regular season meetings since Banghart took over. In fact, Moore is currently in a position to serve some familiar revenge to Banghart.
During the 2019-20 season, Banghart’s first, Moore and N.C. State rolled into Chapel Hill 15-0, ranked No. 9 in the country. In her first meeting against the Pack as the Tar Heels’ coach, Banghart led UNC to a six-point win at home. It’s been a seesaw match since.
“Well, yeah, they are pretty good,” Moore said in reference to the splits. “They give scholarships over there too.”
Since the start of the 2013-14 season, Moore is 9-8 against North Carolina. N.C. State leads the all-time series 60-53. This is the first time since 2014 that both teams are ranked in the AP Top 25. Reynolds Coliseum announced the game is sold out for Thursday, adding to the excitement for the first meeting this year. Duke’s success early this season only creates more Triangle buzz around women’s hoops.
“It’s really awesome having three (teams) that are in the top 20,” Banghart said. “We’ve talked about it being a basketball state in a basketball conference and we’re proving it. If this doesn’t excite the state of North Carolina, that’s really sad.”
Dating back to the preseason, Moore noted how tough the league would be, with super seniors and so much talent returning. Moore purposely scheduled a tough non-conference (South Carolina, Maryland, Indiana, Georgia) to prepare his team for the ACC grind. In recent years he’s had to battle Louisville, Notre Dame and Florida State for conference supremacy. Now two of his biggest threats are a short trip up Interstate 40. The Big Three could all make a run at an ACC crown and separation at the top starts Thursday night. Regardless of the outcome, Banghart knows Thursday as a whole is huge for the league and the area.
“I challenge any other region to talk about (being) able to see such good basketball,” Banghart said. “Talented players from all over the country have chosen to play here in the Triangle and are going at it against very good teams over and over again. We’re bringing more and more eyes to the ACC which I think is the premier basketball conference. So yeah, they’re all big weeks, but when two of them (ranked teams) get to play each other, it makes it really cool.”
Staff writer Steve Wiseman contributed to this story.
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 3:48 PM with the headline "NC State, UNC take spotlight in Triangle hoops and women’s college basketball."
