How NC State women’s basketball seniors, as their careers ended, kept leading Wolfpack

The game, and her collegiate career with it, might as well have been over.

No. 3 North Carolina State trailed No. 1 South Carolina by 25 points midway through the fourth quarter, but as she sat on the bench, Mimi Collins never disengaged from what was happening in front of her.

She watched with purpose. She clapped for her teammates. She pointed out details. When freshman Laci Steele fired up a 3-pointer from the right wing, Collins sprang out of her seat and lifted three fingers in the air.

“I just understand that being a big sister never stops. I wanted to be there for them,” Collins said. “We understood the score, but this was a learning experience for those freshmen. To tell them what I see will help them in the future… And I never wanted to be that vet that quit or hung my head because I have these young ladies that are counting on me.”

River Baldwin was still competing on the court, but in her own way, she was doing the same as Collins. The clock was ticking down, and still, she was leaping into the air, grabbing a defensive rebound with both hands. A pair of Gamecocks — Chloe Kitts and Sania Feagin — tried to take it from her, but Baldwin wildly threw her elbows out, protecting the ball and scaring them away.

If this was going to be the final game in a Wolfpack uniform for the 6-foot-5 center from Alabama, she wasn’t going down without a fight.

With 2:08 left and N.C. State down 20, Baldwin lined up to take a charge. She didn’t get the whistle, but her body fell to the floor hard. She bounced up, shot darts at the referee with her eyes, then sprinted to the other end.

This, even amid a gutting defeat on the biggest stage of their careers, is how the Wolfpack’s two most-veteran players chose to lead.

“They paved the way,” Saniya Rivers said of Collins and Baldwin. “They gave us their all.”

N.C. State lost on Friday in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse to the South Carolina Gamecocks 78-59, but they wouldn’t have gotten there without Baldwin and Collins – two fifth-year players who chose to spend their final two seasons of college basketball playing for Wes Moore’s Wolfpack.

As he reflected on a rollercoaster of a season — which started with his team unranked in the AP Top 25 Poll, then featured upset wins over UConn and Colorado, a tough loss in the ACC title game, and then NCAA Tournament victories over Chattanooga, Tennessee, Stanford and Texas to make the Final Four for the first time in his decades-long coaching career — Moore was especially thankful for his pair of super seniors.

“These players knew they were going to be counted on to be leaders. River and Mimi, in particular,” Moore said. “When you put a player in that position, you hope that they step up and grab the bull by the horn, and they did.”

Barring unpredictable developments associated with the transfer portal, the core of this Wolfpack roster, every player who took the floor in Friday night’s loss to South Carolina, will return next season — except for Collins and Baldwin, who have exhausted their eligibility. But what the duo leaves behind is a legacy, a strong foundation and a meaningful influence.

It’s not just that Baldwin and Collins were starters on an N.C. State team that made the Final Four for the first time since 1998 and just the second time in program history, though that’s a big part of it. That banner, whenever it’s hung, will fly in Reynolds Coliseum forever, and they’ll know they were a key part of it.

But it’s also the tone that Baldwin and Collins set for this N.C. State squad — a new era of Wolfpack women’s basketball.

When the duo joined N.C. State in the spring of 2022 via the transfer portal — Collins from Maryland and Baldwin from Florida State — the team had just endured a double-overtime loss to UConn in the Elite Eight, a heartbreaking ending for the core of Elissa Cunane, Kai Crutchfield, Kayla Jones and Raina Perez. All four graduated and there was suddenly a lot of new in the program, including Collins and Baldwin.

Last season’s squad never really meshed together. When it ended in disappointment after the Wolfpack blew a fourth quarter lead to Princeton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, four more starters left. And all of a sudden, Collins and Baldwin were the oldest players on the team. They felt obligated to become the leaders, even though they had only spent a year in the program.

It’s easy to say now, with hindsight, but it all worked out. The other players on the team followed them. The Wolfpack became a player-led unit, and a squad that had a whole lot of fun as it racked up 31 wins — just one shy of tying the program record.

“I think our biggest base of foundation was sisterhood,” Collins said. “We wanted to build that as much as possible, and we did. Our unity will never leave. We got each other’s backs forever.”

Both Collins and Baldwin had great seasons this year. Baldwin averaged career-highs in scoring and rebounding with 10.6 points and 6.9 boards per game, and she led the team in blocked shots.

“I’m just so proud of her,” Moore said of Baldwin. “There were times when maybe the shot wasn’t going down, but I couldn’t take her off the court because she did such a great job on the boards. I’ve loved having her. I’m going to miss her. We’re going to be running that donut offense with a big hole in the middle without her.”

Collins averaged career-bests too: 10.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game while shooting 38.9% from 3-point land.

Collins and Baldwin led with their actions on the court and off it. Freshman Maddie Cox especially looked up to Collins.

“Mimi, in my position, she’s been like a big sister to me,” Cox said. “Hearing Mimi on the bench was amazing. She knows it’s done, but she was still cheering.”

Baldwin exited a game as a member of the Wolfpack for the final time with 1:36 left to play. After sitting on the bench, for just a few precious seconds, she hung a towel over her head and sat in the moment alone with herself. She removed the towel and dried her eyes, and by the time Baldwin walked off the court, there were no tears. Her chin was up, her eyes were forward, and that towel she used to soak up just a few tears moments ago was balled up in her right hand.

As she marched off the court, Baldwin was proud. Collins was too. And so were the rest of N.C. State’s players. They all walked off the court together, heads held high

Baldwin only allowed outsiders to see her cry during the postgame press conference as she became emotional talking about how N.C. State made her fall back in love with the game of basketball. As she wiped away tears with the collar of her red jersey, Aziaha James rubbed her Baldwin’s right shoulder – a younger teammate consoling the older one in a touching moment.

“I wouldn’t trade my two years in Raleigh for anything. I found a family here, a true family,” Baldwin said, fighting back those tears. “Having coaches that have confidence in you and trust you, and teammates that trust you and love you on and off the court, and just knowing you can turn to that family at any time is incredible.

“Just having the run that we had, not only have I fallen in love with basketball again, but we made history at N.C. State.”

And that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

This story was originally published April 6, 2024 at 7:00 AM.