In the new era of college athletics – where the transfer portal and name, image and likeness bylaws dominate the news cycle – head coaches have more on their plates than ever. In response, some of those coaches have expanded their support staff by adding new positions – most notably that of a general manager.
Major programs around the country utilizing a GM include Duke men’s basketball and UNC football. And recently, UNC men’s basketball head coach Hubert Davis said he would be hiring a general manager for the 2025-26 season.
“It’s needed,” Davis said. “There’s just so much stuff out there… so much on the plate that will take you away from doing the most important thing: coaching basketball.”
There is another program in Chapel Hill which employs a GM: the UNC women’s basketball team. Head coach Courtney Banghart hired Liz Roberts – a former player who graduated from Carolina in 2020 – for the role before the 2023-24 season.
Roberts took the time to chat with Chapelboro’s Michael Koh about the role, her daily job duties and what it takes to be on Banghart’s support staff. The transcript of their conversation, which you can read below, has been lightly edited for clarity.
Michael Koh: During the season, what does your day-to-day schedule look like?
Liz Roberts: My day-to-day looks different every day. It’s not monotonous at all to say the least. I would say overarching themes during the season would just be supporting Courtney’s needs. The fundamental structure of this role is really just to support the head coaches. Their jobs have changed so much. This is not the job that she originally had when she got into coaching. So a lot of the day-to-day is just whatever arrives. We call it “Courtney’s worry list.” Whatever’s on her worry list, I just attack that. Obviously there’s the big ones like donor relations, tickets. I work with most of our external units, so you’re not really gonna see me doing much coaching on the floor.
A lot of it is just communicating effectively with our external units: the ticket office, the Rams Club, the athletic department, our donors. Everybody that would touch Carolina that is not necessarily a part of the Xs and Os, is really in my wheelhouse. NIL is a big piece of that. As you know NIL activities are far ranging during the season. Obviously, it’s a little bit less in terms of [the student-athlete] timelines of what they’re allowed to do, but during the season we can really set them up for success when they do have more time to be able to facilitate and capitalize and market off of their likeness.
Koh: Without giving away any state secrets or anything, what other kind of things are on Courtney’s worry list usually?
Roberts: I’m not sure that she ever turns off in terms of thinking about innovative ways for this program to succeed. She could be out to dinner and thinking of an idea. The really unique thing about Courtney is that not only does she want this program to succeed on the court, she really wants them to succeed off the court. So she’s always thinking of really special ideas with tickets or with NIL, ways that we can engage the community with NIL or ways that our players can be supported in that space, or what the strategy might be for donor involvement.
She’s been so impressively engaged with Carolina Fever and with the students that have come to our games. I think anything and everything in the realm of what I like to call the 80 percent: the 20 percent is what people see on ESPN and what people see in scouting and in media. But the other 80 percent is her on calls with donors and her on calls with fans or local businesses, really trying to set this program up for lifetime success. Not just what a player’s four years might be, but bringing them here to make sure that they have the next 40 years also set up from their time here.
North Carolina head coach Courtney Banghart, left, reacts after a score during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against SMU, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Koh: And you’re facilitating all that, it sounds like?
Roberts: Yeah, absolutely.
Koh: During the offseason, what does your normal schedule look like?
Roberts: Offseason is much more focused. The offseason is really a big shift into recruiting the next generation of Tar Heels. It’s very much taking what we’ve been really successful at and structuring that in a way to where recruits feel like this is the place for them. What that really looks like is the things that we’ve done in the world of NIL, the things that we’ve done with the community, the things that we’ve done at Carolina in general with academics. We’re always on calls with our academic team. It’s utilizing those things to position ourselves in a really good light with recruits.
Obviously, the transfer portal opens up. We could have a wide range of visits. There was a point last year where we may have had a visit every day for a couple weeks. That’s just the world that we live in. So it’s taking that and capitalizing off of the momentum that we’ve really built here and positioning that to build the next group of Tar Heels. That’s really what it is. It’s who you get in the building, and who you can get that jersey on for the next four years.
Koh: These days, a lot of people say that you have to “re-recruit” the players on your roster. Is that true?
Roberts: I think that’s absolutely true, but I don’t necessarily know if that’s an active effort. Carolina speaks for itself. Our players are so amazing. You can tell they love each other. Our job is to build an experience at Carolina that makes them want to stay. So that’s where the active effort is going. It’s not just trying to make their experience better after the fact to get them to stay. It’s trying to make their experience the one that we promised them when we recruited them. I think Courtney’s really good at that. When she’s recruiting a kid and when she’s telling a kid what their four years at Carolina are gonna be like, that’s what it’s gonna be like. We’re upholding the standard of excellence that’s been upheld at this university for so long. So I wouldn’t necessarily say we re-recruit. I would just say investing time and effort and pouring resources into a program that is gonna force a kid to be like, “I’m never leaving this place.”
Koh: How quickly does a transfer portal visit come together, from first contact to getting the recruit on campus?
Roberts: It comes together really quickly. I think you find that a lot of the recruits that go into the portal are fairly ready to make a decision. And I think they’re understanding that they are not the only person in the portal. It also is just a part of roster management that coaches are having to really navigate these days. It was traditionally known that you have your number of spots, you have your number of people that are graduating, you know exactly what your depth chart looks like, all of those things. Now there is a lot of roster management of, how many spots does each program have? And you’re playing that game a little bit. So the recruits are well aware that they’re also competing with not only other kids in the portal, but high school kids.
Roberts, Banghart and UNC have brought in several successful transfers in recent seasons, such as former Iowa State Cyclone Lexi Donarski. (Photo via Tim Aylen/Bahamas Visual Services through the AP.)
Roberts: You have an overlap where high school kids are taking visits and transfer portal kids are taking visits. And you’re wanting to make sure that if there is a school that you’re highly interested in going to [as a transfer], you typically go into the portal with a list of a small group of schools and you want to make sure you make that spot. And we want to make sure that you are that spot, if it’s somebody we really, really want. So you play that a little bit. And it really all can depend on high school recruits and everything in the middle.
Koh: And high school recruiting, I assume that falls under your jurisdiction too, right?
Roberts: Yeah. All the high school recruiting, a lot of the logistics. Our coaches do an excellent job, as you can see with the recruiting classes that we’ve brought in. They are really the relationship-builders there. I do all the planning and the managing of the logistics around the recruiting, especially when they’re on campus. Planning their visit, planning our coaches’ visits to their campuses. Or just making their experience here in that two-night window that we’re allowed to show them a glimpse into Carolina. That’s really my purview.
Koh: So if you put all of your job duties on a pie chart, what specific thing would be the biggest slice of the pie?
Roberts: I think recruiting would be the biggest slice. Everything we do is with the spirit of recruiting. Most of my time and effort, even if it’s not a one-to-one match of, “I do this to make sure that so and so kid is coming to Carolina,” it’s, “I’m doing this to position Carolina to be an exceptional look for a recruit that we really, really want.”
NIL is a really big one. Working with our external units and educating our players. A lot of the understated field of NIL is really just education. I think people see the headlines and they just assume that those things just came out of thin air. A lot of our players when they’re coming to Carolina, they have no idea what this is, what it looks like, what UNC’s doing for it. Our job is to ensure that our current players on the team know exactly how they can be set up for success, and then our future players on the team know how they can be set up for success. The NIL is a huge piece, as it is everywhere, and how that could change with revenue share and everything. So it’s staying on the front lines of that to make sure that I have the proper education to position our girls in a really unique way.
Koh: Education with regards to NIL, are you talking about teaching about finances and contracts and things like that?
Roberts: A little bit less like that. A lot of our girls, they sign with an agent. Or if they don’t, UNC has surrounded them with resources to be able to ask questions about that. I think the biggest thing with NIL is educational resources in terms of: first, there’s the compliance piece of what’s allowed, what’s not allowed. And second, it’s allowing them to think of different pathways or avenues that NIL could look for them. They might feel like if they’re not playing 40 minutes a game and these big brands aren’t approaching them that NIL does not apply to them. No, NIL applies to everybody. I think that is a really big thing: allowing our entire roster to feel like they can capitalize off of their NIL. Exactly who they are at Carolina matters. And the community knows that too. So that’s really what it is: allowing them to understand there are opportunities available to them no matter what position, what number, that sort of thing.
Koh: So if that’s the biggest slice of the pie chart, on the other side of that equation, what is something that you’ve done in this job that you thought, “I didn’t think I’d have to do this when I signed on as GM”?
Roberts: My first role was director of recruiting. I went from being a volunteer graduate assistant to director of recruiting. And then I remember in 2021 when the rule changed, Courtney was like, “Hey, we need somebody to figure out this NIL stuff. That’s gonna be you.” And I was like, “You know what? OK, great, got it.” And at this time, the spirit of what it was going to be is: a kid as themselves is going to just get deals because of who they are. It wasn’t like the university was gonna play a very large role in 2021.
That’s what we initially thought. So to answer your question, with the recruiting, it’s very structured. I know exactly what the evaluation periods are. We know what our list looks like. We know everything that has been around since college basketball has existed. I didn’t realize I would be doing so much professional development on my own end in terms of researching every single day to try to stay up to date on what exactly is changing.
Because back then it was like, “OK, this is what it’s gonna be. I’m gonna figure this out. We will do it and then it’s gonna be set.” Not at all. It was: figure something out, the very next day it changes. Figure something out, the next month it changes. Obviously, we’ve figured this out for the last two years. We have a really healthy program operating in a really good standing with that. And then boom, revenue share happens. OK, how are we gonna strategize for this?
One of the things is just responding to the ebbs and the flows of college athletics. I just was never really aware that it would be that intense. And I love that. I think that’s one of my favorite things. The recruiting is very similar every day. You know what to expect there. But the structure of NIL, you have no idea. We could have a strategy that we have spent hours and hours talking about and planning, and then the very next day that whole thing is gonna change because of some rule that’s put in put in front of Congress.
Koh: Is there a misconception that people have about what you do in your job?
Roberts: I do think at times it might be surprising that we’ve already had this position for so long. I think that has surprised a couple of people. But as it relates to me, I’ve been here for so long. I played here for four years. I’ve been here six years with Courtney.
So I do think sometimes there’s that surprise factor of, “OK, what is it that you do now?” Because it’s changed so much since I’ve been here. And again, I love that. I’ve done this ride with Courtney for as long as she’s been here, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. What she said on day one that she was gonna build here, she’s built exactly. I want people to know the vision that she’s set for this program. Where we are now is exactly what she said she was gonna do six years ago. It’s just putting the pieces in place. And this is one of those positions that she successfully has put in place that I do feel like has propelled us to be able to provide structure around exactly what’s been changing in athletics.
Koh: Do you think that you being a UNC alum gives you a leg up when you’re recruiting a student-athlete over schools that have GMs, but those GMs aren’t alums of those schools?
Roberts: No matter which way you look at it, there’s probably pros and cons. I do think that the Carolina experience has been invaluable personally for me. I work with our assistant director of recruiting, Jaelynn Murray. She is an alum as well. Between the two of us on visits, I do think there is a really unique, special way that we can talk about this place because we’ve lived it. And we can talk about Courtney because we’ve lived it. At this point I feel like I know Courtney, who she is, front and back, all of the things.
Liz Roberts began her playing career at UNC as a walk-on under head coach Sylvia Hatchell. In Roberts’ senior season of 2019-20, Courtney Banghart rewarded her with a scholarship. (Image via The Daily Tar Heel)
Roberts: That experience has been really helpful. I think the experience of knowing your head coach is also really helpful. I don’t necessarily know if that needs to be because you’re an alum. Most of this role is doing the things that Courtney needs to get done so that she can focus on what she’s really, really good at, which is building relationships and recruiting and coaching on the court. There needs to be somebody in place to do all the things she can’t do, like sit in on meetings that she might not be able to sit in. Somebody that can think for her, speak for her, act for her.
That experience, I’ve found, has been invaluable. The fact that I do have a re a pre-existing relationship with Courtney and also played here. I think I can really speak to the ins and outs of the department, because I did the sport administration program. I was able to see that from a lens of the department and teach LFIT [lifetime fitness classes at UNC], work for the different sports’ event management during COVID. So I would say it’s undoubtedly invaluable, but I don’t necessarily know if that means that somebody else that does this job at another school, just because they’re not alum, would not be successful either. I think it’s more the experience and the ability to support your head coach no matter who that is.
Koh: When did you start to think serving on the support staff would be a possibility for you?
Roberts: When I first joined the team, from there I was able to see the game from a different perspective because up until high school, I’d always played the game. And then, the majority of my minutes as a walk-on were spent on the bench. I was able to see the game from a different perspective. And I loved that. I love the Xs and Os, the ins and outs. So I always knew I wanted to stay in athletics. And I knew at that time I wanted to get into coaching.
I applied to be to the So You Want To Be a Coach program that would’ve been at the Final Four. Then COVID happened and they canceled the whole tournament. So I was really devastated. And then I went to Coach Banghart and I said, “Hey, I’m gonna be around next year. I’ll be here taking classes. Can I just come by at every free hour? I don’t care if I’m taking the trash out, mopping the floor, whatever you guys need. Let me do that.”
My first year was spent basically filming. I was filming and coding. I was given the opportunity to break down the practices and break down the games and see it from a coach’s lens. That all changed when the first job that became open was recruiting. And then I just dove right in and got so far away from coaching. And it’s not that I like didn’t like coaching and loved getting away from it. I realized I was really thriving in this logistics, operational, administrative space. I was like, “I want this job.” And [Banghart] was like, “OK, we’re gonna do this.”
Slowly but surely I was able to continue to move up. I think I really knew when Courtney gave me a scholarship [in the 2019-20 season]. At that point we were attached. We would have meetings about how the team could be better. We’d have meetings about how the program could be better, how we could utilize UNC. And there was a mutual understanding of, I had been here, so I knew Carolina and then Courtney was somebody that I wanted to learn from and be my mentor. She’s helped me through some times in my life.
As I’ve worked at Carolina, it really has been associated with Coach Banghart. It’s not what you do, it’s who you do it with. I think that is when I knew: this is the type of person that I want to lead me and that I want to guide me through the stages of my career. She’s been a great mentor and an incredible person along the way.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Anthony Sorbellini
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