A new golden era of women’s basketball in the Triangle has dawned
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Triangle women’s basketball surged from 2016 collapse into sustained national contention.
- All three programs ranked top-12 in preseason polls and hosted NCAA rounds.
- Revived coaching hires and fan support renewed rivalries and regional prominence.
Only a decade ago, women’s basketball in the Triangle hit rock bottom. All three teams missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in a generation in 2016, and it was no fluke.
North Carolina had lost its way under Sylvia Hatchell, although that wouldn’t become fully clear for a year or two. Duke was beginning to stumble through the prolonged end of the Joanne P. McCallie era. And Wes Moore was just getting started at N.C. State, with his future still uncertain.
At a time when the landscape of the entire sport was changing rapidly, with more money being poured into the sport than ever before, with attention growing by leaps and bounds, this one-time hotbed of the sport, from Kay Yow to Hatchell to Gail Goestenkors, was at risk of being left behind the way Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion were.
Things have certainly changed since then, but for the better. As the new season dawns, the state of the game here may never have been stronger.
Moore got things rolling, and how. Duke and North Carolina made smart hires to refresh their programs. Institutional support never waned. Longstanding fan bases that had grown weary of mediocrity came flooding back, along with a new generation raised on the sport.
“I always believed it would be like this,” said ESPN and CBS basketball analyst Debbie Antonelli, who played for Yow at N.C. State. “It’s built into the DNA of Tobacco Road. It’s not just the branding on the men’s side. There’s strong branding on the women’s side.”
At the least, it’s a new golden era of women’s basketball in the Triangle, with the possibility of meeting — if not surpassing — anything that’s been done before. North Carolina’s national title in 1994 has long been the high-water mark, but rarely have all three teams been in such powerful positions.
Last week, Duke was No. 7 in the preseason AP poll, with Kara Lawson becoming the second Duke coach to do double duty in the Olympics. N.C. State was No. 9, only a year removed from its first Final Four appearance since Yow was there. And North Carolina was right behind at No. 11 despite replacing its entire frontcourt.
All three teams hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament last year. All three made it to the second weekend, with Duke making the Elite Eight. All three have every reason to expect to do the same again, at the minimum.
And a Triangle team has won four of the past six ACC championships, meeting the challenge Notre Dame and Louisville posed when they arrived in the ACC. If the preseason poll is any indication — the Triangle trio occupied the top three spots for the first time since the fall of 2001 — there’s a pretty good chance of making it five in seven.
Meanwhile, the rivalry between Duke and North Carolina is always fierce, but Courtney Banghart has fueled the fire with N.C. State — calling Reynolds a “small gym” and criticizing Wolfpack fans, among other rhetoric — since her arrival in Chapel Hill.
N.C. State set a new tone once Moore got things going, and Duke and North Carolina were pressed to keep up. They met the challenge.
“These are three teams that are three great examples,” Banghart said. “All three hosted an NCAA tournament (game). They’re great examples for women’s basketball and the support that their communities give them.”
These games always matter, but when all three teams are this good, they really matter. Not just locally, but nationally. But still, especially, locally.
“Is there a certain player or team that you look forward to playing this year?” N.C. State’s players were asked at the ACC Tipoff event in Charlotte.
“UNC,” Zoe Brooks said.
‘I’d say the same thing, UNC,” Zamareya Jones said.
“And Duke,” Brooks said.
“Local rivals,” Moore said, for emphasis.
Exactly right. And those games have rarely meant more.
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This story was originally published October 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "A new golden era of women’s basketball in the Triangle has dawned."
