NC State gelled quickly, focused on being a 'team'
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A year ago, NC State women’s basketball posted its most losses since the 2015-16 season, and it did not get out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since that campaign.
Injuries hurt the Wolfpack, but the team did not gel together as much as coach Wes Moore wanted the team to.
“Last year was a tough year mixing the returning players that were fresh off three ACC championships, and throwing in three McDonald’s All-Americans out of the portal,” NC State coach Wes Moore said at the ACC Tipoff on Tuesday. “It just didn’t ever seem to quite get on the same page and click the way we wanted.”
But the down year was not due to the team’s chemistry, rather the buy-in from the entire team played a part in it, Moore said.
“Don’t get me wrong, last year, I think the chemistry was OK,” Moore said. “But we maybe just got away from the team being the point of emphasis. It’s tough nowadays when you have the portal, NIL, all those things. At the end of the day, it’s still a team sport.”
That word — team — was a common theme during the Wolfpack’s media availability during the ACC’s preseason festivities in Charlotte.
NC State learned from last season, and senior guard Madison Hayes noted that sticking together as one was the biggest takeaway from last year’s 20-12 season, which included a 9-9 ACC mark.
“I think coming together is our biggest thing,” Hayes said. “There were just a lot of injuries, a lot of stress throughout the whole year [last season]. We shouldn’t have lost games that we lost, and we won games that were really, really big that we probably should have lost. I feel like after that, just being a team and being together through everything is what we’ve learned.”
This season, NC State’s players have bonded on and off the court. The team recently took a trip to Boone, N.C., for a few days to get away from Raleigh. That trip was a piece of the Wolfpack’s attempt at “building unity” as a team with six newcomers — four freshmen and two transfers.
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With six new faces, Hayes wasn’t sure how quickly the team would be able to gel. But little did she know, it didn’t take long.
“I feel like off the court, we hang out with each other all the time,” Hayes said. “Just spending time with everybody, getting to know everybody on a different level instead of just basketball is a key thing on our team.”
Junior guard Saniya Rivers shared the same concern, but found the same answer as Hayes.
“Honestly, it’s scary how quickly we gelled,” Rivers said. “I was really worried. But as soon as they came in, we were all laughing, taking pictures, following each other. On the court, since we gelled so well off the court, it was just a smooth transition.”
That smooth transition was the first piece to the team’s new look. Now, Moore hopes the squad continues to be a team, and not put too much of an emphasis on individual success. That will come, but Moore hoped the team would be focused on collective success.
Moore won’t know for sure until NC State takes the court against Charlotte on Nov. 7 for the team’s season opener at Reynolds Coliseum.
“We haven’t played a game yet,” Moore said. “But hopefully everybody is going to buy into that concept.”
