North Carolina women’s basketball gets one more preseason tune-up on Saturday, heading to College Park for an exhibition against Maryland at 1 p.m. ET. It’s a familiar backdrop for an old ACC matchup, even if the schools have long since gone their separate ways, with Carolina’s last regular-season visit to Maryland coming in 2013 before the Terrapins left the league in 2014.
This is the final stop before the games start counting for real, and the Tar Heels bring plenty of continuity into the year. Courtney Banghart is back for season eight, coming off back-to-back Sweet 16 runs and three trips to the regional semifinals in the last five seasons. North Carolina is one of 10 programs nationally to make each of the last two Regional Semifinals, and one of 13 to reach three of the last five.
Eight Tar Heels are back, including Ciera Toomey, who led the team in scoring and rebounding last season while averaging 8.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Banghart also added a major influx of talent through the portal and recruiting class, bringing in four Power 4 transfers and two freshmen with plenty of buzz. Those transfers arrive with a combined 167 starts and 315 games played.
The numbers from last season tell the rest of the story. Carolina won 14 ACC games, tying for the second most in program history and marking its best league total since 2012-13.
The Tar Heels also stacked up eight straight conference wins. From long range, they were as dangerous as any team in the ACC, setting a single-season program record with 295 made three-pointers and shooting 35.1% from deep to lead the league.
The schedule stiffens immediately once the exhibitions are done. North Carolina opens the regular season on Nov. 2 in Paris at the 2026 Oui-Play, where it will face No.
21 Oklahoma at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
That trip starts a demanding early stretch, with the Tar Heels opening against two Power 4 opponents - Oklahoma and South Carolina - on neutral courts, the first time they’ve begun a season that way since 1988-89.
In Other News...
UNC Landed A Guard Whose Road To Chapel Hill Suddenly Changed
Kevin Thomas path to Chapel Hill took a sharp turn after he first picked LSU, then asked for a release when the Tigers moved on from Matt McMahon and brought in Will Wade. The four-star guard eventually landed at North Carolina, where Michael Malones staff added a prospect whose recruitment changed as fast as the coaching carousel did, and where a familiar face in former high school teammate Matt Able helped make the transition feel a little less new.
Thomas already got his first taste of the college game in an exhibition for UNC, logging four minutes and making his presence felt on the defensive end. It was a small opening night sample, but for a player whose road to campus shifted so suddenly, even a brief debut offered a first glimpse of how he might fit into the Tar Heels backcourt picture. [Read more 🡒]
UNCs NC State Rivalry Just Lost The Coach Heels Fans Hated
Dave Doerens run at NC State is over, ending a 14-year tenure that made him the winningest coach in Wolfpack history and one of the most familiar figures in the Tar Heels biggest in-state rivalry. His teams went 98-74, and for UNC fans the part that will linger most is the 9-4 mark against the Heels, a streak of success that helped define the matchup for more than a decade.
NC State made the move after a loss to Stanford left the Wolfpack at 3-4 overall and 1-3 in ACC play, and running backs coach Todd Goebbel will take over as interim head coach. The university now begins a national search for Doerens replacement, resetting a rivalry that has had the same face across the field for so long. [Read more 🡒]
UNC Womens Soccer Just Sent Another Message To The Top 10
Another top-10 test ended the same way for Carolina women's soccer, with the Tar Heels finding just enough to separate themselves from a heavyweight opponent. No. 1 UNC beat No. 7 Stanford 1-0 in a tight, physical match, and Bella Devey's goal in the 70th minute proved to be the difference in a game where chances were hard to come by.
Peyton Trayer did her part to make the lone strike stand up, finishing with a career-high seven saves to preserve the shutout. It was Carolina's second top-10 win of the season and its ninth shutout overall, another reminder that this group keeps answering big challenges with the kind of edge that travels deep into the postseason conversation. [Read more 🡒]