How UNC women's basketball's male practice players prepared them for West Virginia

As the women’s basketball team exited the court, a row of male scout team players lined the entrance to the locker room. Every Tar Heel took the time to stop and celebrate with the group before walking past. 

Redshirt junior guard Kayla McPherson came through the line and exchanged chest-bumps. First-year guard Lanie Grant ran past, tongue out in celebration as the boys reciprocated the gesture. Graduate forward Alyssa Ustby, after walking off Carmichael Arena’s court for the last time in her career, hugged a few practice players individually.

Then, there was head coach Courtney Banghart. 

The 46-year-old ran off the court and started a mosh pit with the practice players. They jumped around for a few seconds, rejoicing with Banghart in the middle of the chaos. She pulled them into the locker room. Together, they watched the team slap North Carolina’s logo on the Sweet 16 spot of the March Madness bracket. Another mosh pit ensued. 

“These are like their sisters, and they're like our brothers,” Banghart said. “They've been as much of my journey as my own team is because they're with me all the time.”

Thanks to the preparation from the scout team in the two days before North Carolina’s second-round matchup, UNC handled West Virginia’s physicality and was able to minimize a Mountaineer defense that’s third-best in the nation in forcing turnovers. Practice time — devoted to breaking WVU’s signature press style — paid off as No. 3 seed North Carolina defeated No. 6-seeded West Virginia, 58-47, on Monday night in Chapel Hill.

“You saw how much they mean to us based on our reactions,” Grant said. “They come in every single day, [even] on off-days. They push us to be better in every single aspect offensively and defensively.” 

In the two practices before facing WVU, Banghart used the guys to constantly press Tar Heel guards. She wanted to simulate the in-game pressure West Virginia’s defense uses to hound teams on defense and force 23.7 turnovers per game. 

Banghart would even throw six guys on the court at once to make North Carolina’s guards break the press a man down. The scout team studied film on West Virginia to best emulate their defensive tendencies.

“We ran a 1-2-2 full court press, and then we also ran a 2-2-1 full-court press,” Silas Barinowski, a senior practice player who's been on the squad for three years, said. “We were just trying to jump passing lanes to prepare them for the way West Virginia is really risky.” 

For the most part, it worked.

North Carolina still turned the ball over 17 times — six less than the average West Virginia opponent — but was able to effectively break the press in the second half. This helped the Tar Heels pull away to start the fourth quarter, on the tail end of a 16-3 scoring run. 

More importantly, though, the scout team raised the level of physicality in practice, which helped UNC’s defense dictate the game instead of West Virginia’s. 

North Carolina held WVU to 2-of-21 shooting from three and a season-low field goal percentage of 24.1 percent. The Tar Heels also forced sixteen Mountaineer turnovers, and by getting out in transition, were able to dominate a decisive metric.

“We lose by 11, and they beat us by 12 on points off turnovers,” West Virginia head coach Mark Kellogg said. “That's typically a stat that we win.”

Though most women’s basketball programs have male practice players, not all are as ingrained within the team as they are at North Carolina.

And with a ticket punched to the Sweet 16, it’s because of their help that the Tar Heels — including Banghart — will be dancing in more than just in the locker room.

“Every team has scout guys,” Banghart said. “But I’d put mine up against anyone in the country.”

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