The 2026–27 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball team will represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 2026–27 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Tar Heels, led by eighth-year head coach Courtney Banghart, will play their home games at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Previous season

The Tar Heels finished the 2025–26 season 28–8 overall and 14–4 in ACC play, to finish in third place in the conference. As the No. 3 seed in the ACC tournament, they earned a double-bye to the quarterfinals, where they routed No. 6 Virginia Tech 85–68 to advance to the semifinals. They could not advance to the finals, as they lost to top-seeded Duke. Earlier in March, the Tar Heels had handed the Blue Devils their second conference loss by defeating them 74–69 at home on Senior Day.

Following the ACC tournament elimination, the Tar Heels earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, seeded No. 4 in the Fort Worth #1 Regional. In the first and second rounds respectively, they defeated No. 13 Western Illinois and No. 6 Maryland to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, where they ended their season in a 42–63 loss to undefeated and top-seeded UConn.

Offseason Departures North Carolina departures Lanie Grant 0 Guard 5'9" Sophomore Midlothian, VA Transferred to TCU Nyla Harris 2 Forward 6'2" Senior Orlando, FL Graduated; went undrafted in the 2026 WNBA draft, signed a training camp contract with the Washington Mystics Taliyah Henderson 3 Guard 6'1" Freshman Vail, AZ Transferred to Clemson Liza Astakhova 5 Forward 6'2" Freshman Moscow, Russia Transferred to BYU Elina Aarnisalo 17 Guard 5'10" Sophomore Helsinki, Finland Transferred to UCLA Indya Nivar 24 Guard 5'10" Senior Apex, NC Graduated, selected 28th overall by the Atlanta Dream in the 2026 WNBA draft

Incoming transfers North Carolina incoming transfers Gabby White 3 Guard 5'10" Sophomore Chapel Hill, NC Virginia Sophie Burrows 5 Guard 6'2" Senior Lower Plenty, Australia Syracuse Achol Akot 8 Forward 6'1" Senior Ottawa, Ontario Oklahoma State Chloe Clardy 13 Guard 5'9" Senior Conway, AR Stanford

Recruiting class

Roster Years are listed according to the new NCAA age-based eligibility model.

Schedule and results

!colspan=9 style=""| Exhbition

!colspan=9 style=""| Regular season

Sources:

References