UNC coach respects Duke basketball brand, bashes NC State

The UNC women's basketball head coach tells it like it is.

Perhaps no one has ever summed up UNC basketball fans' view of their rivalries with the NC State and Duke basketball programs better than Courtney Banghart, even if she later backtracked her comments a smidge.

On Monday, the fourth-year head coach of the UNC women's team appeared on The Tar Heel Show podcast and didn't appear to hold anything back when giving her less-than-flattering thoughts on the Wolfpack:

"NC State fans are so classless I just don't even like going there...NC State is just mean."

Her sentiments on the Wolfpack sparked from the question that host George Harmer presented: "Who do you enjoy beating more, NC State or Duke?" Banghart decided to get at the heart of the question by looking at it as "Who do I hate less?"

And her subsequent breakdown of the contrast between Duke and NC State, basically pouring praise on the Blue Devils, just sounded like another jab at the Tar Heels' more distant Tobacco Road neighbor in Raleigh:

"I hate both of them more than probably I should — because I don't have the history that everybody else has. Duke is a national and international rivalry that I love...I have more respect for Duke, but I like beating them because they are more relevant."

Banghart, who doesn't own a winning record against NC State (2-4) or Duke (2-2) since her arrival, has since issued an apology for her use of the "classless" adjective.

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