NC State coach Wes Moore’s tough love in practice paid off in Pack’s big win over UNC
A couple of years ago, N.C. State forward Kayla Jones came up with a phrase to describe when coach Wes Moore was being extra hard on the team.
After a dominating 72-45 win over rival North Carolina, the phrase came up in the post-game media availability. This week, according to Moore and his players, his “butt hole-ish” coaching was at an all-time high leading into the rivalry contest.
Moore knew his team needed to play better on defense, and he wanted his players to come out with great intensity. So this week in practice, he was hard on his team. Harder than usual. Safe to say, the squad responded.
“I’d been disappointed in our defensive effort of late,” Moore said. “I was hard on them this week, probably too hard on them to be honest. But I’m just so proud of the way they came out on defense, the energy they had, the urgency they had, the toughness they had. That’s what we have to do if we’re going to be successful in this league.”
If Moore keeps being hard on his team, that will make life hard for the rest of the ACC.
North Carolina (13-1, 3-1) came into the game the top scoring team in the ACC (83 ppg). N.C. State (13-2, 4-0) held the Tar Heels’ high powered offense to a season-low in points, made field goals (15) and field goal percentage (23.1 percent).
Carolina only scored seven points in the opening quarter, also a season-low. They repeated that in the fourth. The Wolfpack didn’t shoot the ball lights out early, but they played suffocating defense and made life miserable offensively for the Heels. UNC never got in rhythm and N.C. State never took their foot off the gas on both ends.
The offense should come as no surprise, but the defensive effort, all night, was a welcomed sight from Moore.
“Really proud of the way they got after it, defensively,” Moore said. “Something we can build on, hopefully.”
Moore told the media he didn’t change a lot X’s and O’s wise. He worked on defending the pick and roll better. He didn’t like the way they defended it versus Clemson. That was addressed, but the rest of it was all effort and energy on that end of the floor. N.C. State forced 17 turnovers and out rebounded UNC by 13.
The players admitted the message was loud and clear and they took it personally.
“We were just able to focus on ourselves,” senior Elissa Cunane said after scoring 19 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. “We really competed with each other and that brought energy. It was kind of like we are starting over in this new year. Mentally we were really in it. We were really ready to play the game.”
It was Jones, who was a perfect 4-4, finishing with nine points, who coined the phrase. But the veteran knew they needed Moore to be hard on them.
“As a player you just see that he sees so much potential in us,” Jones said. “He knows how far we can go and what we can do. You don’t really take it personal, try to learn from it, improve and show it like we showed tonight. We’ve really been working on defense all week, we had to buy in.”
State blocked three shots and took three charges, proving they were committed on that end of the floor. Jones used another phrase, “amazing” to describe how the Pack played on defense. N.C. State had 11 different players score and six of them with at least six points. Moore has waves of offensive players he can substitute in, each one as equally dangerous offensively as the next. But without him getting on them this week, stressing defense, a 27-point win over the top scoring team in the ACC doesn’t happen.
“He was coaching us, he was really intense all week,” Jones said. “You just have to response in a positive way. It showed today.”
Moore admitted he felt bad about how tough he was, but like Jones said, it paid off.
“That’s what’s great about having a veteran team,” Moore said. “A lot of them don’t mind being coached a little bit.”
