NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - NORTH CAROLINA VS SOUTH CAROLINA

March 24, 2022

Courtney Banghart

Greensboro Coliseum

North Carolina Tar Heels

Sweet 16 Media Conference

COURTNEY BANGHART: Well, it's good to be back. All the Greensboro have always been so kind to us. There's not a lot of coaches that are still getting to prepare their teams for challenge, and it's an understatement how grateful I am to be in this position.

I know very well that I haven't made one shot, I haven't had one assist, I haven't gotten one rebound, but my team has done a lot of all those things. I'm certainly looking forward to leading them in this next opportunity, which is against a very, very good South Carolina team in a great venue.

So just real excited to be here.

Q. Coach, after the Arizona game you talked a lot about five-on-five basketball and making sure that you did that. I think Miami did a similar strategy in their last game. Do you take a lot away from that last game, and have you still been harping on that five-on-five idea?

COURTNEY BANGHART: We've been five-on-five all year. It's the beauty of our game. We're in one of the very few sports that you play both sides equally. Playing late in March you have to be a two-way player and a two-way team.

As much as we have to focus on ensuring that we make South Carolina's job to score difficult, we also have to generate good looks for ourselves on offense.

So we're really breaking the game down to both sides of the ball and putting ourselves in the best position versus a very good team.

Q. Courtney, obviously, you have watched tape of South Carolina now. What's going on with their defense there? They seem to be playing at a different level.

COURTNEY BANGHART: They're playing with great energy. Their bigs are meeting screens. They're playing out in the perimeter more. They're using their length. They're shrinking the court with their length, size, and physicality. Their guards are getting right on your hip and making things difficult both with the ball and without.

Their defense is -- so easy to talk about their athletes. It's so easy to talk about their sportability, and it's so easy to talk about Aliyah Boston. You're right. Their defense is underappreciated. They're great on that end as well. It's one of the great teams in women's basketball.

Q. Last time you were in Greensboro it didn't quite go as you wanted. How did you regroup with this team to get ready for NCAA Tournament and make it back to Greensboro?

COURTNEY BANGHART: I think the last time we were in Greensboro we were playing against another Top 25 team that played really well and we really didn't. What we did was showed the defensive breakdowns in particular. I thought we played with the least accountability we had played all year.

And after the game I had told them that it's the only time all year that I thought we beat ourselves, and that's a sign of a very, very good team. The next time we play, which will be against somebody, somewhere, which ended up being SFA in Arizona, we're not going to beat ourselves. It's going to take a very good basketball team to beat us, and they responded.

It has nothing to do with Greensboro. I have great affiliation with Greensboro. We didn't play well. This particular team didn't play well the last time we played here, but that was more to do with -- I don't know if it was fatigue or if it was eyes ahead to the next thing, which was possible.

At that point we knew we were really in that host or not host hunt, and, yeah, we just weren't focused on the right things.

But we got back to where needed to be.

Q. It's interesting because you guys were the last second round game to be played, but the rest of the Region won their games on Sunday. So I'm wondering, what has rest and relaxation been like, and recovery been like for you guys when everyone else has had a 24-hour head start?

COURTNEY BANGHART: It's a great point. We were the last game of the second round and we're the first game of Sweet 16, and we had a 3,000 mile travel day in the middle of that, right?

Rested is -- it's very rare you get to talk about inexperience being an advantage, right? Everyone starts. COVID seniors this year. I start four COVID freshmen, and maybe that's a good thing, because they don't seem quite so tired as I am.

But we didn't leave until Tuesday morning, which allowed us to at least try to keep their sleep schedule as much as possible on target and let us use the full day of travel as a work day.

We were not home 24 hours, so thank God for industrial laundry machines and the fact that this is the same outfit I wore at some point last week. So we just went laundry and then put stuff back in our bags.

It's interesting how that worked out. I don't think it was anyone's intention, but we've gotten a very short period of time to rest, so it might be a good thing because we don't have to reset. We're just still going.

Instead of a Thursday-Sunday ACC week, it's a Monday-Friday ACC week.

Q. Being that you guys are very familiar with Greensboro, is that an advantage, disadvantage? Or with everything like you just mentioned, the quick turnaround, does that help you out because you don't have to go as far and you are familiar with the area you're playing in and the arena you're playing in?

COURTNEY BANGHART: I hope it helps us that we don't have to reset. Literally I feel like we've -- I could be in Tucson still. I'm not exactly sure where I am. In terms of being in Greensboro, I'm not sure it's an advantage quite yet, because literally my clock is still working.

But we've shot on these rims before. I think it's also just good for women's basketball. You've got two giant programs with giant traditions, giant legacy, superstars that will be in attendance from both sides. It's played in Greensboro. You got North Carolina-South Carolina.

For the basketball purists, you're welcome. It's a really awesome environment for a basketball game.

Whether it's home court advantage or it's short travel time, this is the stuff you live for, so everything else is a detail.

Q. The NCAA has talked a lot about doing more to promote women's athletics, and we've seen some differences with the women's tournament this year. What are your thoughts on that, and is it enough? What's the limit for how they can promote women's athletics in particular, the tournament, big games?

COURTNEY BANGHART: The things that were low-hanging fruit they addressed, right? The marketing has been better. The accessibility to see it on TV has been better. The things that could be handled right away, they did some things, and it's been noticed and appreciated.

I think our game is at the right -- it's very marketable right now. I've given my whole life to women's basketball, and with the two Ivy League degrees that I have, there's a lot of people that are still questioning that. My parents included.

At the same time, it's the best it's ever been, and so in some way I'm contributing to what is the game being as healthy as it is, and people are see that now. My mom sent me a text that said, I don't know what you've done to me, but I've literally watched women's basketball all day.

She didn't come to Tucson. Then Mack Brown, our football coach, sent me almost the exact same text. I'm obsessed with your team, but now I'm watching the teams you might play. Just having it on TV and having it more accessible to our fans, people are falling in love not just with the stars of our game, but with teams.

That's the progression. First, okay, you got all these stars. I watch Sue Bird and Stewie and et cetera. Now it's people are watching teams. The steps that still have to be done, of course, right? Once this TV contract is up, let's make sure we're our own entity.

The units issue is a big deal. It's a big deal. And people are -- I know the other argument, well, it all comes from the same pot. If I'm our athletic director and my university makes more money if my men's team advances, I'm going to be at the men's game and I'm going to invest more money in the men's program, because it's basic mathematics. You get a women's -- women get a pat on the back. Thanks for doing a good job. There's no financial incentive for our team to be great, right, so that needs to change.

You also can talk about the marketing opportunities. If you have to first give to the men's tournament in order to give to the women's tournament, it's going to look like everybody is really into the men's tournament.

Well, there are plenty of companies that would prefer to support women's basketball over just the men's basketball tournament. There are things that will take more time because it's a lot of legal and legislative processes.

I know I give a lot of credit to Craig Robinson on the NABC side. They're not resting either. They know that women's basketball is a strength. It's not an appendage.

For as long as I'm sitting in this chair I will make sure that I continue to contribute to ensure that our product is a strength.

Q. Even though you're just an hour away from home, South Carolina tends to bring a circus a little bit sometimes. Do you anticipate that? How do you think your team will react?

COURTNEY BANGHART: I think the crowd will be -- we're playing for something important, so the crowd will be -- it won't be quiet, and it shouldn't be.

If you're going to spend this much time doing something you want to make sure it matters, and there won't be anybody in the coliseum on Friday at 7:00 that will realize that this doesn't matter to anybody. It matters to everybody.

The Carolina Blue, we probably only had about 100 fans to their 8,000 or 9,000, and our crowd was loud. I can only imagine what ten times that crowd is going to be for Carolina.

Then South Carolina, their crowd has woken up. Dawn has forced their crowd to wake up with all the work that she's done.

And so, yeah, there won't be an empty seat and there will be a lot of headaches leaving that gym for how loud people felt they were supporting their teams.

Q. Another big change off the court this season, besides the low-hanging fruit, as you say, is name, image, and likeness. How did you address that with your players? Did you address that with your players? Kind of what type of guidance did you give them? I would imagine that maybe they're getting more attention now that they're in the Sweet 16 as well.

COURTNEY BANGHART: Yeah. The name, image, and likeness, the biggest thing I think we tried to understand is that the impact, not just the potential positives, but the potential negative. It's such a comparative culture. If you look around and you compare, that could make you feel less than.

I tried to get ahead of that and talk instead about everybody is marketable in their own way, and we're not all going to look at it and do it the same way. Because if so, then there's going to be someone who is the best at that way.

And so I think to be thoughtful instead of this is the way. Like some, Deja Kelly has done a lot through her social media platform. Well, for people that haven't invested so much time in their social media, that's probably not the best way for them to go about it.

I've said -- it's like what I tell my freshmen when you arrive. You don't have to drink your first beer in the first week or meet your best friend in the first month or meet your boyfriend in the first semester. Ease into this thing. Ease into this thing.

I think the same thing about the NIL. Let's ease into what you want your impact to be and how you want to connect it to your identity. Those conversations are evolving and elaborative. It was a little easier in the case of Deja because of her -- right now I think the NIL attached to the marketability of your social media platform, and that's where she's been so impactful.

We have our athletes that will be powerful in their own way and have been, and that's something we're going to sort through.

Q. You mentioned that being young helps you physically. I was wondering, does it help you mentally at all just with the crowd noise? You're not going to come -- it feels like your team doesn't come in scared at all. Does that help with -- does the youth help with that?

COURTNEY BANGHART: I think the great thing about our team is that we're youthful on the scout. I always show when we do our personnel scout, I can't tell you how many times the other team has four to five -- look at NC State. They're all COVID seniors, right, or as I tell them, some of their rosters are older than I am it feels like.

Our guys have just -- I told them that story has been told. We're not going to keep telling it. I was saying this in December to them when we started league play. If you worry about what you're not in life, that's really sad. Have you to focus on what you are.

I don't think my guys feel young. I guess you can ask them. Instead they feel like they're a really good team that has had to continually prove that. We've lost to four teams all year long. Four. One of them is a one seed. We lost to them twice. Then we've also beaten a one seed.

We've not lost to anyone outside the top 25. We've beaten, of course, plenty in the top 25. Our margin of victory is sixth in the country. We're a really good basketball team, and we felt like we've been -- we wanted to show that after we went undefeated in nonconference and wanted to show the league that, we did show the league that. We picked seventh and finished third. Then we thought we would be hosting and weren't, so we had to prove it.

I told them one-point win doesn't get you anything, right? You got to go hammer. They did that. This is just a really good team.

Yeah, they're young. Good thing is I don't think they're worried about what they're not. I think they're focusing on what they are.

Q. Courtney, you guys are here. Creighton is here. You talked about the growth of the game. You know, maybe 10, 15 years ago all these regionals would have been one, two, three, four.

COURTNEY BANGHART: Totally.

Q. What does that say about where the sport is going that there can be a couple of teams who weren't expected to be here still playing?

COURTNEY BANGHART: Yeah, when the brackets came out I thought it was going to be my current team and then my past team, Princeton, both of us, in this Sweet 16. I think for Creighton and some of these mid-majors, it shows that basketball has just never been in a better spot.

It's hard to win in March, and there's way more better teams than when I was getting into the game. There's just -- all you can do is prove it.

Then in terms of us, I don't really put ourselves in the Creighton category because I don't know how we're not a four seed. I don't know how Notre Dame is not a four seed. I don't get it. Part of it is actually the transfer portal has made our media and our voters have to work harder.

I mean, there were voters that never saw us play, and they're voting for the top 25. That's not okay. They're voting because that all kind of matters.

So I think people are looking at, well, I saw them last year. Well, our team is totally different. With the transfer portal, so is Louisville and so is, et cetera. I think this whole transfer portal people keep talking about how it changes your roster management. It actually means your media has to work way harder to get it right.

Q. This is a little bit of deja vu for North Carolina. North and South Carolina met in 2016 in the Sweet 16. Tarheels lost by two. I know you weren't the head coach.

COURTNEY BANGHART: We were 30-0 at Princeton that year. I was focusing on what I was doing.

Q. I love it. Got to stay focused. But what's the key to being the underdog taking on a top seed, taking them out of the tournament?

COURTNEY BANGHART: I think it's the concept of you don't have to beat them ten times. I think there's -- sometimes I think we would have beaten Arizona more than we lost to them, but it doesn't matter for South Carolina.

We just got to beat them once, right? We scrimmaged them to start the year, so we've gotten our hands on them a little bit. We've seen them and been up and down against them. You guys wouldn't believe a word I said if I came up here and said I don't think they're very good.

They're an excellent team and a testament to the growth of our game and what Dawn has done. We're excited for the opportunity and a chance to show how good we are too.

Our game plans will be curtailed to our strengths, and as will theirs be. Dawn -- I know Dawn well and her staff well. They don't think we're bad. They will be prepared for this game. I know that. What a great opportunity and what a great experience for the fans, the media, and the country.

Thank you.