Wolfpack Women Positioned For Sustained Success
Wes Moore's disappointment over having the 2019-20 season cut short just before the start of the NCAA tournament is tempered by the fact that his NC State women's basketball team still earned a championship banner to hang at Reynolds Coliseum.
He can also look forward to the promise of even more success next season.
It's an optimism that was raised even higher on Wednesday when graduate transfer point guard Raina Perez signed with the Wolfpack, filling the one major hole in the team's lineup.
"There’s a lot of excitement around our program, definitely," Moore said in a recent Zoom conference with local media. "We finished ninth (in the nation) last year and eighth in the country this year. We’re in the high-cotton level. At one time we were ranked fourth in the country.
"When you’re in that conversation you hope that you’re a Final Four contending team and program. We lost four great seniors. I don’t know exactly all the pieces are going to fit to compensate for that, but we’re excited about that."
Perez was the West Coast Conference Player of the Year last season at Cal State Fullerton, where she averaged 19.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 46 percent from the floor.
Her addition will help fill the void left by the graduation of Aislinn Konig while providing guidance for young point guards Kendal Moore and incoming freshman Genesis Bryant.
The rest of the regular rotation -- including starters Elissa Cunane, Kayla Jones, Jakia Boyd-Turner and Kai Crutchfield -- will look a lot like it did this season for a team that won 28 games, a program-record 14 conference games and earned its first ACC tournament championship since 1991.
The roles, however, will be different -- especially when it comes to Boyd, arguably the most physically gifted player on the roster.
"We'll play it by ear. We still have a lot of improving to do," Moore said. "We'd love to get (senior forward) Kayla Jones and Jada Boyd on the court together. So does that mean Kayla Jones is going to have to try to play the three some on offense, and then we maybe have Jada Boyd play the three on D. But we’ve got to get Jada Boyd on the court.
"That'll be a priority. There’s a lot of moving parts now. We lost four great seniors so we’ve got a lot of things to figure out."
One thing Moore doesn't have to figure out is how to use returning star Cunane.
The 6-foot-5 center earned first-team All-ACC and third-team All-America honors as a sophomore in 2019-20 while averaging nearly a double-double at 16.4 points and 9.6 rebounds
As good as Cunane already is, Moore said there are still things she can add to her game -- not the least of which is a mean streak.
"Elissa is just such a great person and friendly person," Moore said. "They call her 'Big Smile' a lot. I'd like her to be called 'Big Frown' sometimes on the court more. You'll see it every now and then. You'll see a little bit of an attitude come out as far as ‘that's the opponent and I’ve got to compete.’ We’ve got to work on that.
"We’ve got to work on her decision making with the ball versus double teams. I’ve been wanting her for two years to use the baby hook a little bit more. I think that can be effective. She’s got to use her left hand more effectively. ... But what a year she had. She was a third-team All-American as a sophomore. She has an exciting future."
As much as Moore is looking forward to the promise of that future, he can't help but look back on the unfinished past season with a twinge of sadness for what might have been.
"It was bittersweet, obviously," he said. "We win an ACC championship. I’m thankful that we were able to get it in and play all of our games, really happy for our seniors. But then we felt like we were on a roll, had some momentum.
"So it was disappointing to not have a chance to have a run in the NCAA Tournament. But at the same time we realize there's a whole lot more important things going on in the world right now. I told him all year ‘we want to do something special this year,’ and we talked about hanging a banner in Reynolds. To be able to do those and to be able to end the season with a win, you don't get to do that very often, so that was kind of nice."
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