UNC women’s basketball lost multi-year starters. Who will step up next season?

North Carolina women’s basketball head coach Courtney Banghart explained the state of the team simply: It’s different than before.

While the Tar Heels return 10 players and welcome two freshman and two transfers, last season’s top-three scorers — Alyssa Ustby, Lexi Donarski and Maria Gakdeng — are now playing professionally. The trio averaged a combined 32.4 points a game and were multi-year starters.

“It will be different, but it will be led by different personalities and people that have watched good leadership and are looking forward to having the team play to their personalities,” the UNC coach said.

What the Tar Heels are working with has started to come together during this latest stretch of offseason workouts before the fall — and what lies ahead for UNC’s 2025-26 season has too. Here are the key takeaways from Banghart’s first media appearance since the 2024-25 season-ending loss to Duke in the Sweet 16:

Highlights of a rebuilt roster

Banghart hasn’t had an McDonald’s All-American on her team since Deja Kelly arrived in Chapel Hill.

Until Nyla Brooks.

The 6-foot-2 guard was a five-star prospect out of high school, participating in the 2025 Jordan Brand Classic and earning Virginia Girls Basketball Player of the Year honors.

Brooks joins fellow five-star Taliyah Henderson in Carolina’s freshman class.

“[Brooks] is every bit as good as a McDonald’s All-American should be,” Banghart said. “And she’s handling this process even better than most do because she’s patient. She understands her job right now is to learn.”

The only complication the UNC head coach is trying to work through is how to differentiate when calling out for Brooks’ name-twin, Nyla Harris.

Harris — one of the two transfers on this year’s roster — spent the last three seasons at Louisville, averaging 7.6 points and 5.1 rebounds on 54% shooting.

She is joined by Elina Aarnisalo, who spent her freshman season playing in all 37 games for UCLA as the Bruins advanced to the Final Four. Aarnisalo averaged 5.1 points and 3.4 assists per game, bringing experience playing internationally with Finland’s U18 team.

“We’re in a constant state of improvement,” Banghart said. “Whenever you lose in the NCAA Tournament, it hurts, and you know their journey ends and a new one’s beginning. You fill those holes as soon as you can with roster and skill work.”

North Carolina meets South Carolina... again

UNC announced on Tuesday morning that the program will travel to Atlanta to take on South Carolina on Oct. 30 for a preseason exhibition game.

The Gamecocks appeared in the 2025 NCAA national championship game, but were ultimately overpowered by UConn, 82-59.

The October meeting will mark the first matchup since the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, where South Carolina dominated, 88-41. Before that, the Tar Heels hosted the Gamecocks earlier that season in the 2023 ACC-SEC Challenge.

“Fortunately, other people are excited about it, and when other people are excited about it, that comes with some compensation and some tickets,” Banghart said. “These two teams have been really good over the last couple years. There’s a lot of excitement in Atlanta. It feels like the right time and place for both of us in terms of where we have donors, where we have alums. Instead of Greensboro, Charlotte, or us or them, [it’s] another area for great fans of our brand to be there.”

North Carolina and South Carolina have previously privately scrimmaged over the last few years, but an injury-riddled Carolina roster two years ago and a lack of openings in both teams’ schedules last season postponed the effort to continue preseason games.

In addition to the South Carolina exhibition, UNC will also scrimmage Tennessee. Banghart said the public scrimmage versus the Gamecocks will allow the Tar Heels to not only play a televised game, but they will know where they’re at ahead of a tough nonconference schedule in November.

Headlining the nonconference slate, Banghart’s squad will travel to Las Vegas to take on UCLA and Fairfield, participate in the 2025 Cancun Challenge to battle against Kansas State, South Dakota State and Columbia in late November and travel to Texas for this season’s SEC Challenge.

“How can you schedule in the nonconference that will A, prepare you orf the league, but will also let you play some one, two, three and four lines [in the NCAA Tournament bracket] that will be good comparison points as you get deeper in the season?” Banghart said of her thought-process behind the nonconference games. “With our group graduating three significant, multi-year starts, I wanted to make sure that they understand the rigor, the pace, the physicality and the value of the possession earlier so that we can keep honing because I know the league will be really competitive.”

Following last season’s appearance in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2022, Banghart wants the Tar Heels to aspire for the next step up — a No. 2 seed instead of a No. 3 and getting past the Sweet 16.

“You’re 80 minutes from the Final Four,” Banghart said. “We’ve gotta keep finding ways for that 80 minutes to go in our favor with your roster and the style of which you play to the strengths of the players on your team.”

“Our recruiting is helping us. We like the way our roster is shaking out. We like where we’re at for [classes of] 2026 and 2027, but we need to keep moving forward.”

This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 6:00 AM.