NC State women’s basketball coach Wes Moore says third ACC championship was toughest
N.C. State women’s basketball head coach Wes Moore jokes that he likes to lie in the weeds and sneak up on people.
Moore could have gotten away with that before, but with each win, with each ACC Tournament title, the likelihood of surprising anyone recedes.
In the preseason, N.C. State was ranked in the top five. Moore was returning all five starters from a year ago, when the Wolfpack won a second straight ACC Tournament title and was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
There would be no sneaking up on anyone. Not with the ACC preseason Player of the Year, Elissa Cunane. Not when they added Diamond Johnson, who was All-Big Ten at Rutgers. N.C. State got stronger; the target on its back bigger.
That’s why, after N.C. State (29-3) defeated Miami (20-12) to win its third straight ACC tournament title, Moore said this year’s championship run was the toughest of all.
“Yeah, I think that in a lot of ways it’s more challenging trying to make sure we didn’t read the press clippings and maybe let up and relax,” Moore said. “But we went through a lull maybe middle of January, early February, where I just felt like they were kind of over me. Let’s just get to March, would this guy just shut up for a minute.”
What does a lull look like for N.C. State?
The Wolfpack went undefeated in the month of January and lost to Notre Dame on the first day of February. N.C. State has won 10 in a row since. Along the way it won the ACC regular-season title for the first time since the early ‘90s. The Pack will be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season, and ended the regular season ranked No. 3 in the nation.
The team had a checklist to start the season: regular-season title, ACC Tournament title, Final Four.
Two down, one to go, for sure, but getting to this point was hardly as easy as it may have appeared.
“Yeah, I definitely thought it was kind of more challenging this year,” guard Raina Perez said. “Teams know that everyone is coming back, and they know what we have. But I think we just had to dig deep in ourselves and just execute everything, and everything would just fall through.”
Cunane, the ACC Tournament MVP for the second straight season, is known as Big Smile. Even she admitted that it’s hard to keep up a high level of play all year long.
“I mean, honestly, it’s a long season,” Cunane said. “We start in June, July, and we go until April. It’s just tough sometimes with school loaded on top of us and then game after game and practice after practice. We get tired of each other at times. I’ll be honest, I get sick of seeing some people’s faces.”
She quickly turned to Moore and added, “Not yours, though.”
About two weeks ago, though, according to Moore, practices started to be fun again. N.C. State had a nail-biter at Boston College on Feb. 10 and two close games against Virginia Tech in the regular season.
In the Greensboro Coliseum, the Pack won its three games by an average of 19.3 points.
An amazing ride
Three in a row usually sparks dynasty talk, but Moore, in his ninth year, would have none of it.
“No. One year at a time, baby. One year at a time,” Moore said. “Like I said, we’re getting ready to lose the players that have put this thing on the map. No, not talking about that. This league is too good and too big of a challenge.”
Moore will lose Cunane, Perez, Kayla Jones and Kai Crutchfield when this season ends — whenever that is. Moore credits Jones and Crutchfield for being big pieces of the puzzle that helped the program win three straight titles.
“KJ, Kai, a lot of them stuck it out when I’m pushing on them and they maybe weren’t playing as much as they’d like,” Moore said. “But look at how it pays off.”
When Jones and Crutchfield committed, N.C. State was still borrowing the gym at Broughton High School while Reynolds was being renovated. Now they’ve been starters on teams that are responsible for four banners that will hang from the rafters.
While Moore wouldn’t go as far as to use the word “dynasty,” athletic director Boo Corrigan loves the direction in which the program is headed.
“I was just saying to Wes, ‘Enjoy this, this is really, really hard to do,’ ” Corrigan told The News & Observer. “I think (this win) speaks to the character of the women that Wes recruited, and not only recruited initially but has brought in since that time.”
The win in Greensboro is No. 29 on the year, the most ever for the Pack during the Moore era, and ties the 1977-78 team.
“It’s just been an amazing ride, and again, I think it was a challenge for me and maybe for them, too,” Moore said. “But that’s what makes it even sweeter when you’re able to come out and accomplish both those things this year, regular and postseason tournament.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 5:37 AM.
