Coach Close: 15 years of time and resources

Carolina151

All-Conference
Jul 30, 2024
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15 years.
  • It took Coach Cori Close 15 years to win it all.
  • It took her 15 years to win the conference
  • It took her 14 years to advance to a FF.
  • In the 13 years in the PAC 12, her teams advanced past the Sweet 16 just 1 time.
  • In 13 years, her teams never won more than 14 games
  • They were good. They were solid. But they were not elite.
Fast forward to the Big 10:
  • the time paid off. But the commitment to WBB finally arrived.
  • Top of the line NIL
  • Hitting on every single portal prospect
  • Fan engagement at an all time high
  • Landing an elite PG, wing, and big
The benefit of the increased resources?
-wins
-elite players out of the portal
-all-time high attendance

First 7 years of the Close era:
-150-99 (60%); (79-47; 63%)
-2 Sweet 16s and an Elite 8

First 7 years of the Banghart era:
-153-72 (68%); (77-48 62%)
-3 Sweet 16s, 5 straight NCAAT with wins

Years 3-7 (takes out 2 years of COVID and both coaches adjusting to their programs):

Close: 110-75 (59%); (54-35, 61%)
-2 Sweet 16s, Elite 8, WNIT Champs

Banghart: 124-47 (73%); (62-28, 69%)
-3 Sweet 16s, 5 straight years with wins in the NCAAT.

Let’s not forget the dumpster fire she walked into and the crap SH had to deal with no support from anywhere:
-4 years: 62-65 overall, 19-45 in the ACC,

It takes time. It takes energy. It’s takes commitment. And it takes a willingness of buy-in from everyone. Everyone is going to disagree with things she does in games. I do, you do, everyone will at some point after losses. If everyone agreed with everything a HC does, there would be no need to have one- anyone could do it. If you’re not satisfied with S16s, there has to be a commitment more from the athletic dept. There has to be a commitment more from big donors- us little people simply don’t have enough to make that difference. Reach out to the athletic dept. reach out to Newkirk. And let’s help Carolina continue to make that next jump.
 

HeelYeah2012

All-Conference
Jul 25, 2025
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It’s pretty simple. UNC is performing at least as well in women’s basketball as the financial resources Coach Banghart has. We are getting like top 15-ish results with top 25-ish financial support. I don’t see Banghart as the problem by any stretch. We need to ride it out until we enter the SEC.
 

Carolina151

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Jul 30, 2024
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It'll be interesting to see how well Close hits the portal in the next couple weeks as she loses 6 seniors. She also didn't sign any incoming freshmen from the Hoopgurlz Top 100.
She claims that she is bringing in 5 in the portal.
 
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Jriv23

All-Conference
Jul 31, 2025
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I glad that she won the whole thing after listening to her comments. She did it her way, she did it using her style of play, the players bought into the process, they were connected, and she finally got top level elite talent to come in which is something we are going to have to do. This is why I keep saying along with some other posters, we will have to continue to bring in elite talent to challenge the talent that we now have on our team. We need a strong wing and a strong 5. There are players in the portal that can help us next year. We might have to spend some money to get it done.
 
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