UM women need ACC tournament win over UNC Thursday to help build case for NCAA bid
The University of Miami women’s basketball team enters the ACC tournament Thursday as the No. 9 seed, but that number means nothing to North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart, whose eighth-seeded Tar Heels face the Hurricanes in the 1:30 p.m. second-round game in Greensboro.
“I expect a physical, scrappy, fast-paced, diving on the floor rock fight,” Banghart said. “They might have some different players from last year, but they’ve got (coach) Katie Meier and she has a way of getting her guys ready to compete. They’re great in tournaments.”
Last year UM was the No. 6 seed in the ACC tournament, reached the quarterfinals and lost to eventual champion Virginia Tech. In the NCAA tournament, the Hurricanes were the No. 9 seed and reached the Elite Eight for the first time after knocking off top seed Indiana and No. 4 seed Villanova.
“Miami and the great competitive teams in our league don’t care much about what the number on the left is, they care about the number on the right at the end of the game,” Banghart said. “Miami is a team that has found a way to have the number on the right in their favor a lot in March.”
Six ACC teams are considered locks for the NCAA Tournament (NC State, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Louisville, Duke). Florida State and North Carolina are also in the conversation. Miami still has work to do. The Canes are 18-11 and 8-10 in the league. They lost in overtime to Georgia Tech on Sunday after beating Pitt in the previous game.
The winner Thursday advances to take on top-seeded Virginia Tech in the quarterfinals Friday at 1:30 p.m. Miami and UNC played once this season, with the Canes nearly erasing a double-digit deficit before coming up short, 66-61, in Chapel Hill Jan. 25.
Meier expects her team to rise to the challenge.
“It’s March, you can’t go back and rewrite yesterday or a week ago, but you sure as heck can define yourself from now on, and that’s where we’re at,” Meier said. “It’s March and you look for gamers, they get stops and hit shots. We had some gamers (vs. Georgia Tech). Shayeann Day-Wilson was hitting ridiculous shots, Lazaria Spearman was getting stops and protecting the rim. We just have to find a couple more people with that mentality. Calling all gamers. Step up. Let’s go.”
Thursday’s game will be shown on ACC Network.