#ACCTipoff interviews with #UNC's Courtney Banghart, Lexi Donarski, Alyssa Ustby and Maria Gakdeng

me start you talked about how how you're healthy and everything last year because

of the injuries you probably couldn't go as deep as you wanted to play as fast as you wanted to what what are the

differences with more players more healthy players and quicker players that you brought in yeah yeah yeah a lot of

difference when you have your full roster right it starts with you can coach not manage right so there's a competitiveness that they bring that if

if they're not doing a certain thing you can replace them when you have no one to replace them with because they're injured it's it becomes more of a

management issue um also we just have much more offensive Firepower um and so the ball moves better we've got people

in better positions to play to their strengths um and so we've opened up the floor with both shooting and ball movement um and then we've got really

good players that were out I mean Sierra Tumi was a McDonald's allamerican and was the fourth ranked player in the country that was out all year um and of

course the influx of talent we've added um just said where's the better team how excited are you to see Sierra in uniform

she's so fun to watch man she's like a Brianna Stewart which I know is a giant comparison but that's the kind of the

kind of game she has um and uh she's just gotten a lot stronger having that year off I knew at one point I'd be

happy that she red shirted and it wasn't all year until the day after our last game and I said now I'm happy you red

shirted is she practicing with a team the last month or so she yeah she's been I mean she's been practicing since well

last season oh yeah she got a lot of strength work in and and some reps and things like that and then Blanca what

did she bring Blanca man she's good she's about she's all of 66 uh she can move she's got great size she's a great

leaper I mean she's a much better athlete than you'd imagine at 66 and she's guarding Maria every day just like Sierra's guarding Alyssa every day um

and so that's how you get better and in Laney Grant's guarding Lexi danowski every day and you know so you're just

you're getting better because of the The Experience on our team is pushing them really hard how do you kind of go about

balancing that you know I guess five position when you have obviously Maria who played a lot last year then you have

Tumi coming in you have Blanca How do you kind of go about gu balancing yeah well I think you get Blanca can come in

and really support Maria uh Sierra can come in and really support Alysa Sierra's more of a 34 um she's just a

giant um and and so and then you've got you know you just got depth at every position that um we just didn't have so

not only are we more skilled and deeper but we I mean and can can shoot it better and the ball moves more we just

have we have more Talent um and as long as we stay healthy you know we brought back uh obviously the three that are

here with me but then Ria and India had a lot of starting experience um and then you know all the pieces we just talked

about when you look at the current schedule on playing everyone once except

for Duke Hallelujah uh does that make each game you know a little bit more significant in terms of the league no I

think with the addition of Cal Stanford and um SMU have done if they if they're going to give us a true champion right

because remember for the first five years I've been here I've played Virginia Tech NC State Duke and Virginia

twice sometimes three times um every year I've been here um and now everyone's going to play play everybody

one time except for your rival which obviously that game we we never we always want to play Duke twice is you

get everybody one time so it's much more I think of it'll be a true champion um without kind of your schedule imbalance

it sometimes works for you works against you to play Kenny Brooks again so I mean

geez it's like I can't get away from anymore can I um yeah to have uh kuy's going to look a lot like Virginia Tech

so um it did and that's you know he's got also an influx of other Talent that' be great for car Michael

how do you see the allocation of playing to point card yeah that's a good question that's a good problem to have

it's a real good problem to have I mean uh Ria brings back a lot of experience before she got hurt she was playing

great um and obviously Kayla's working her way back and then you've got um you know Grace and Laney have both been

really good in practice obviously Grace is a fifth year and uh so yeah it's a

good problem to have it's a it's a this whole team will be by committee you know last year we

had for the last six weeks in the season I had guys that played 40 minutes a game three kids every game um so that means

they can't play hard enough they can't foul you know I can't hold them accountable right and now I have the opposite which is a good thing it's it's

going to be the whole team is going to be by committee um and of course we have talent as well so it that's helpful but

um yeah it's it's a little bit you know when you have six players versus 14 you

know you should be better Lany left high school early to come join you do you see

her I mean at her age making a b oh God yeah she's plenty good I wouldn't have let Laney come early if I didn't think

she could help us this year a fun fact about Laney is so she went to the same high school as Grace Townsen so before

covid they never played together because they're actually two years apart right Grace did her fifth year and Laney came

early so fascinatingly they're playing on the same college team even though they were two years apart in high school um with no interruption in their

athletic career um but yeah I wouldn't have let Laney um I wouldn't have let her come early if I didn't think she

could help us this year CU her clock will start coach mentioned that the team seems like it's on another level inside

why do you feel that way what has led to to that connection I think part of it is honestly sometimes as coaches you just

get lucky right like last year we had to do all these summer activities and all these things because as a coach you know

that you're they're going to have to work on chemistry right so you know that's something that could limit their success this year we haven't done one

thing I haven't taken them anywhere I haven't played a pickleball tournament I haven't taken them white wi rafting I haven't we don't need to like the the

chemistry is real um and they have formed it right so they don't need my help right um and so I give them a lot

of credit I think also it's sometimes it's just dumb luck the influx of the new guys have added such good positivity

and then the the guys that are here um really care about program Grace came from a team where she has some great

scores that she could get pass to but also she get light it up as well what kind of addition does she add to your

team she is so fast y'all I mean she's faster than Alyssa I know Alissa doesn't like to hear that but she beat her in

the mile she beat her in the in the Sprints kid is so fast um and so she's a

a downhill Threat all the time and she's small so she gets into spaces and she's got a ton of college experience so uh

she'll be an impactful player for us for sure you had the same scoring leader last three years and I know you prefer

balance but who do you see as a scoring leader coming into this season oh God

Maria's much improved um Alyssa can shoot now that makes a big difference um Lexi will have more ball movement so

she's got more um The Freshman can score Sierra is a as a problem I mean I don't

know yet it's a little we haven't even scrimmaged anybody it's a little early to tell how would you describe just alysa's grow the I mean not just this

offseason but just it HTS that I would start with that I mean I think you know when she first got here I'll be quite honest she wasn't great with her handle

so you played her in the post cuz she couldn't really handle the ball right now she rebounds and goes herself is our best break right um so started with her

ball handling uh and then we worked on her round the basket finishes you know being able to finish right and left with her footwork and pivoting game and you

guys saw the that's had um and now and then and then last year I really worked on how to facilitate uh and this coming

year it's had it's how to be able to shoot from three so she has put the time in um and as a coach it's been so

rewarding because she has been a different level player and she's talking to the WNBA coaches she just keeps

moving up the draft board because her game gets added you know um and this is that last step for her to be a great Pro

is early on and just continuing to grow that throughout the year did you all get to do anything special like did you you

know is there like at dinner that out or like game nights or anything like that quite a few game nights yes um we went

to a couple really nice dinners like we all went out to a steakhouse together or Habachi but yeah it was a lot of fun how

do you think you've improved in the off season yeah I think one of the big focuses for me was just continuing to

develop my offensive game and go off the dribble more um not just being content with staying at the three-point line but

making something happen for myself or others by using my attack how about to a different do you

see the the way the offense runs in the transition with so many quick guards and

so much depth yeah I mean it's been it's been a lot of fun it's been a lot of fun

to continue to see our growth practice after practice and just see the potential that we do have I mean it it

just seems Seems like last year you guys couldn't go as many players because of

the injuries and whatnot and it kind of limited the aggressiveness how how is that going

change this year everybody's healthy so far yeah yeah we're all healthy and we

do have a lot of depth so that will help us this year too and talk about the the

newcomers the guards uh what do you like about them yeah Trey can really score

the ball in a variety of ways so she brings a whole another dimension to our offense which is awesome Grace is so

fast that she really helps us push the pace offensively which really helps us a lot because a lot of us do like to get

out and run so she's can really Drive our transition game which is very helpful um Lany has been a great impact

freshman so far again she can score the ball in a variety of ways she can play the point guard if we need her to she

can do a lot of things offensively and Jordan can really shoot the ball so it's been fun to we have a lot of floor

spacers this year so just a lot more space offensively for everyone so I think you mentioned maybe you think

it'll be more than a catch and shoot three quarter this year this year yeah we've been well we've been working a lot

in the offseason on just being more comfortable with different attacks and different finishes and pull-ups and

stuff like that to have a more versatile shot chart and I feel like the Personnel that we have really allows for that

because we play really well together and we have a lot more space offensively what were the emotions of seeing six

teammates leave the offseason are you you w you welcome some really talented

players but seeing that kind of transition yeah can you repeat the beginning of that question the emotions

of seeing six teammates we like that yeah I mean it's always hard but that

was me the year before so just really embracing all of our new people and making them feel welcome is one of the biggest priorities because that they

were very good to me when I had first gotten to campus is it are you be able to help the the two transfers kind of

adapt because you just went through that yeah definitely yeah we're we're very close and just they know that I'm there

for them if there's anything that I can help with Ley this is your last year ofil how do you feel about that finally

having yeah I don't know if that parts fully set in it's it's crazy um but just

really trying to soak everything in and just embrace the whole student athlete life and spend as much times with my

teammates as I can and get to as many UNC sporting events as I can just all the things to really enjoy my last year

were talking about the team chemistry super super tighten it and coach said you all have had to do anything this

year to kind of establish that what has that been like for you with all the different teams you've been a part of yeah honestly it's special like the way

that this group gets along is truly special and this early on to be this

connected and like people are so excited to be to the gym an hour before practice just so we can all hang out and talk and

mess around and all that and we're excited during practice because we're having so much fun with each other that just the energy surrounding the whole

program and all of the team is is just so much fun to be a part of has that allowed right move forward there you go

um tell me a little bit about um just the new offense you're kind of chatting about it but feels like the ball is

getting stuck less that's something that um coach bang Hart talked about what I

mean what was the change you think like what was the switch that is just making

things go it seems so far at least in the scrimmages I think what college basketball teams do in summers is they

have like different plans for how they're going to develop their team I think in years past we were like in the

summer we're like we already started like full team practices and less like individual workouts this summer

everybody was required to have like two or three individual workouts on top of any other team practices and that was

new yeah and so that was new obviously within the hour constraints but that was new because we were investing in our

personal development and I think that was a really good use of our time because we developed confidence in all

these pieces and that's something we didn't have last year because we the ball got stuck in certain places that it

was hard to get out of and it's it's tough when you're a player who doesn't have the ball in their hands all the

time because you get less reps at it and you get less opportunity to build confidence and it's hard to just grab

that out of thin air and so having a style of offense where everybody is constantly touching the ball and being a

part of like being a part of the offense what we're trying to do instills confidence in individuals to go make

plays and so it's not like oh I I got the ball I got to now do something with it and I haven't gotten the opportunity

to practice this and so I think just really being more intentional about our time over the summer has really been

what's been the big change sure thank you you've been asked this already but can you kind of explain or take us

through the uh the process of you know deciding to come back for that fifth year and also the things that you're looking to get out of you know this

final year of college yeah so my final year of college obviously from a personal level I'm looking to improve

like my three-point shooting and my free throw percentage and I felt like I could

I felt like I could do that here so over the summer I knew that my coaches would invest in me with their their time by

helping me restructure my shot and so choosing back choosing to come back to Carolina was important to me because I

wanted that development in this final summer and that's exactly what I've gotten and I knew that's what I was

going to get and so I couldn't find I couldn't find a reason or see a reason why I should leave UNC just because also

because of how important this team is to me and the girls that are here and the community that surrounds Carolina it's something that's really special to me

and I'll never take it for granted and so choosing a fifth year those are pretty pretty easy decision for me but I

made sure to take my time with it so I knew the decision was right did you get any sort of pro feedback at all after

last season um not necessarily directly at all okay no got you and then one thing again you mentioned the

three-point shooting I know last year you didn't take quite as many as you had in PR not that you ever took a ton but

uh was there kind of a you know reason you scal back the attempts and are you looking to you know kind of increase the amount that you yeah I faced some

challenges last year that uh prevented me from shooting thre and so trying to

keep that off for people Scout for as long as possible which did not take long people to figure out um was tough but

with like the right amount of rest and being able to like take the time to even restructure my shot has been really

helpful and I've feel so much more confident about it and I'm shooting multiple threes of practice and making a lot of them his well what have you

changed what have you done technically um so it's more mechanical mechanical

details and so just like basically the ball path is what I was really focusing

on and so it took like I probably every day for a couple months straight I was

just doing like your basic form shots but really being intentional about like how the ball is like sitting in my hand

and where where are the where on my fingertips is the ball and like following through because I had like a

different shot path where I was pulling the ball instead of like instead of pushing the ball through the path the natural path that was supposed to follow

and so that was a hard habit to break but I'm really glad that I stuck to the boring in mundane actions every single

day in order to develop a great product so not much like actual structural changes to like your arm placement or

anything not not necessarily yeah cuz I would I would pull the ball up instead of like pushing up and that's like it

seems really simple and it's like easy to talk about but it's really hard to do especially now that we're in live

practice I'm glad I got those like really slow reps cuz now I can do it without even thinking you were part of a

class that really changed the program around what were the emotions of you be of all

the others transferring you being the only one left to play the fifth season

yeah no it is a really emotional piece um especially because I came in as the

lowest ranked recruit of that class and there wasn't many like high expectations

for me to impact this uh this team and so it's kind of a I don't know it's kind

of a Bittersweet moment because those are my friends first and foremost before they're my teammates they're people that

I naturally bonded with and seeing them go their separate ways is really tough obviously I wish them the best and I

still stay in contact with them because they are my friends and I see them much more than just teammates and people that

we happen to wear the same Jersey and so they're people I really care about um but I feel like I have an obligation to

finish out my career here at UNCC because of how like Rich my experience has been and I'm just really grateful to

have this Co year you're NBA school I got accepted in the NBA school but I didn't want to go through um like that

much like rigorous of a academic course load so I figured for my last year I

would kind of be able to breathe a little bit but I am doing a one-year master's program and it's challenging

but it doesn't require as much work as the MBA so I'm glad I I'm glad I diverted from that situation even though

NBA sounds great it's not necessarily exactly what I'm looking to do in the future post um uh Sports career what are

you studying I majored in advertising and PR and business do you ever feel

like that lowest ranked recruit in the recruiting class anymore or is that something that's kind of behind you past

you I think it's something that's kind of uh behind me in past because I attribute a lot of my successes and my

growth to my teammates because they're constantly pushing me and like even giving me little tips like while we're

playing like oh listen don't do that like try this or try this and so I wouldn't be able to be the player I am today without the people that have

played before me and that played with me and so that's where I'm just really grateful again to be at North Carol carolinaa where this school attracts so

many incredible athletes so this is the initial reason why I chose UNCC in the first place is because I knew that this

brand would attract the best basketball players and the best people and that I ultimately ultimately become a product

of my environment and so I'm really proud to be at torill with your restructured shot like is it gotten to the point now where you don't think you

just do it oh yeah all the time I'm picking and popping um just like running running the floor down the down the

middle of the floor like I usually do and then circling back out to the corners to shoot threes and it's been a

lot of fun and a lot of my teammates all hype me up all the time cuz they know about the process and the journey that

it took to get there I I I think just kind of with that in mind too like you all we talking with um coach banghart

she said that you know you put in so much work and that's what part of the reason why you were able to get here because it just feels kind of rare in

basketball for someone to change so much their game to improve so much of their game over the course of their their

career how would you kind of uh talk about that work equate that work what you not yeah it was really like it was

really mundane and boring work that people can sometimes get swayed away from because a lot of times people want

to work on the flashy stuff and like step back shots or behind the back fadeaways and that's that's cool and

that's great but for me where my development needed to go is to those mundane things and getting tons of reps

of form shots and not even allowing myself to shoot any further than just form shots for an hour and so that's

like it's really hard to stay that discipline to keep focused but I also give a lot of credit to coach bang Hart

and my other coaches because they were right there in the gym with me starting in April every single day all throughout

the summer um helping me uh just accomplish every Next Step that I needed for that shot you seen Courtney coach

Bart acting different this season like a different approach at all with kind of a refresh with the lineup she take is

there anything you knows differently from her yeah I think her being along with me on the process of developing my

shot and being along of being along with other players in their development has

been has like given her a different type of confidence she's always been a confident coach and confident player

when she was playing but there's something different about when you're a part of every step of the preparation

you just feel so much more relaxed and at peace in the inside because you know that you've done the work and that it'll

show and um everybody will be able to see it pretty soon last season with the

injuries you guys didn't play as many players you probably were more limited what are the differences will see from

Carolina this year with you deeper and at least so far healthy I mean style of

play and just different yeah we have a much healthier roster this year already which is a really big bright spot

because as we know the season is very long and it's grueling and playing a lot of minutes every game is not sustainable

and so having that depth like you said is important because we can share those minutes and we can not only just share

those minutes but those minutes are valuable because we have girls that can come off the bench and that can make big

shots can average consistent numbers and so that's something that we haven't had before and so that's something that's

really um positive in terms of the season will that will that change Carolina's game in terms of tempo in

terms of uh breaking more pressure defensively yeah I think in terms of

offensive Tempo I think we're still going to continue playing at that fast pace maybe even a little faster because we have some more depth but obviously

continue to push on the offensive end I know a lot of teams struggle with keeping up with our offensive transition game and then defensively we will be

able to be more active and be able to full-court press more and just make other teams uncomfortable and make them

play with a short shot clock you've talked a lot about working this summer and you know being in the gym have you

got to do anything fun to like relax and recharge to make sure you're ready yeah

um obviously so obviously aside from being in the gym I was going to the pool

a lot I was reading and just kind of focusing on myself because this is one of the first healthy Summers that I've

had at Carolina because after a really long season and getting beaten up I've had to take a lot of time for myself and

whether that's like see medical get medical attention or other things um I've actually been able to kind of take

a breath and so that's where like mentally I'm much more ready for the season than I have in the past years

what have you seen the difference this season I mean last season you had injuries you couldn't play as many

people you couldn't run as much could play as aggressive defensively what what do you think the differences will be

this year with so many players and you're healthy for now yes I I love that we're all healthy this season but also

we're very versatile and there's a lot more that we've added to our games individually and that will help us grow

as a team so I think seeing that over the summer uh we're keep continuing to work on our individual games but also

when it comes to practice team practice we move very Civ we know what to do what place to call for who and I think

working on that has been really really good the so I talk to you a little bit about uh bla and Sierra yes they're

probably going to be playing four mostly you think yeah um Sierra mostly play the four Blanca probably play the five

mostly yeah Blan play five the five yes do you see see you and blocka playing at

the same time Double L post the time um I don't know if we'll play at the same time that that could be a possibility

but we usually our teams are usually in team practice we usually have Alyssa and Sierra on one team and then um wait

sorry me and Sierra on one team and then Alysa and Blanca on one team so Alissa will play the four Sierra play the four

and then me and Blanca are the fives and what have you said obviously Courtney talked about it a little bit about on

the in the offense the ball got stuck a lot last season yeah what did what has

been done to change that is it just the influx of all the quick cards helping that yeah definitely um the the

additions that we have to our team but also the individuals like India Lexi who um were were playing in the games but

also having off ball movement it it's been really good um and also in the post moving from post to post not just

staying on one side and um engaging our Defender basically being able to do that has been really

important yeah Maria how would you describe Grace towns Grace Town's game

uh according was saying she's a really fast player and I was talking to Lexi as well um how would you describe her game

just her style of play I think she's a really quick guard she gets downhill really really easily really fast um she

can kick she can pass to the post she can finish herself um but also on defense she's a really pesky Defender I think that's what we need as well um we

har on defense a lot so having somebody on the ball picking up the ball full court or or in half in or in half court

um and being a py Defender that's how I describe her yeah and then sorry as well but obviously you have you know Alyssa

coming back for that fifth year um and this is going to be your second year playing with her um just what have you

seen out of her you know coming back you know being that super senior if you will and just like what have you noticed

about her approach to I guess this upcoming season yeah I think she's really excited I think we're all really excited about this upcoming year about

the things that we could do I think she's been really DED sorry she's been really dedicated over the past offseason

um into um improving her game and her improving her shot that's something that we see in practice like she's improved

on it she's making the right decisions um she can pass the ball she's a very Relentless player and I really love how

she plays they call army knife she can do a little bit of everything so that's something I really like about Alissa

yeah how uh how have you seen that new shot form you know kind of coming together because she was talking about how much time she spent on it and how

much different she wants it to be how have you seen it uh I guess change from last year to this year yeah it definitely has changed a lot more I

think she'll take more shots in general and a lot of those shots will be really good really good shot choices and that's

something that we'll take as in the offense and I won't have as much like as many double teams because a lot of teams

would sag off of bista if she was on the three-point line but now that she's a three-point threat I'll have more one-on-one she we have more high low

looks um or kick back out to her for a three so yeah that'll be good what was the challenge of kind of dealing with

that cuz there was like you said a point of the Year where there were a lot of doubles kind of sent you away and kind of impacted you know your numbers and

things like that what was the challenge of I guess kind of dealing with the increase of double teams like as the season started to go yeah it was really

physical I mean in in general the league is pretty physical but having two people on you um making the right read

sometimes you don't see them coming or you don't hear when the help is is there um I think that's been it was kind of

tough for me to deal with but um we made that adjustment throughout the season as we did with everything like all the

injuries all the limited players um so I think it's been it's it's going to be really good for us to be able to expand

yeah what about your game in Golf season what what have you done to try to improve your game and what do you think

you're better at than last season um what I'm better at I feel like I'm better with my left hand this season I know that I'll be around the around the

paint mostly so being able to finish with my left hand finishing straight over contact instead of um countering I

feel like that's when a lot of doubles did come um sometimes like they would sag off a little bit but they would like can else so being able to just go right

into the Finish either with my left or right hand um but also working on my shop and working on mid-range U whether

it's pick and roll or pop um in the short Corner High post being able to drive and work from there expanding my

game outside of just in the paint and then you you improved your free throw shooting dramatically last season from

the season before and I guess you're extrapolating that to maybe the mid-range this season yes yeah I

definitely worked on my free throw five more minutes okay I definitely worked on my free throws over this over this past

um offseason as well and looking at on my numbers on keeping a higher percentage when it comes to that what

about the physical play inside obviously you were a lot of battles last season yeah um if you if you worked on strength

or anything to to try to definitely make it easier for you definitely I definitely worked on upper and lower

body strength um being able to work on using my legs instead of uh standing I feel like I stood straight up a lot in

the paint uh over this past season but being able to be more physical and knowing that the power comes from our lower body um is going to be really

important in how I play this this this next season going up against uh Bianca and Sierra in practice Yeah that helpful

too oh definitely going against I play against Alysa uh Blanca and Sierra in practice we do one-on-one just drill

sometimes and it's it definitely we definitely go go at it I think that'll help especially when it comes to ACC

play even non-conference play we play at some good schools in non-conference so that'll help us get better I guess as a

as a player who transferred yourself you kind of can relate but was it kind of

weird to see six teammates leave after the offseason uh I think everyone had their

own reasons for leaving um I feel like none of them were really unexpected but

everyone came to us first and every I mean I don't have any bad BL with anyone but yeah I mean I think everyone had

their own valid reasons for leaving yeah are you ready to go to California this year guys sent out that way I I'm

excited um I went to California earlier this year but I'm excited to go to Cal and I think was a 5ay trip for us so

we'll go to Cal and Stanford and I know Stanford has has had this historic program and they'll have a really good

team this year so yeah I guess there second is where yall pretty much I us stay up there I think it's like y playing back to back yeah like Thursday

and then

Sunday hang it out actually I'm GNA ask you about U

coach Walt you know okay um being you know kind around the team a little bit last year like I got to see you guys

interact a lot like what is your relationship with him and how has he helped you uh coach ball is very hard

noosed like he'll harp on things like defense um but also um we worked

together individually me and him especially before Blanca came it was just I was the only post player left

obviously L is working on her shooting but I had to work on other things like my strength but also my mid-range

shooting so that's something I had to work on individually uh coach wall has a lot of faith in me and I know that and

he's very confident in the season that I will have and he's proud of the Season that I did have but uh we're always

looking to be better we we want there's goals that we have um I have individually but also like he want he

has for me um and those expectations that I am willing that I want to meet

and I will meet um but he's he's a great coach he's always there for me he's always One Call Away U we talk about

everything after practice like we have our stup talks like as you know you probably remember um but yeah sure thank

you yeah thank you