How No. 1 seed NC State built a dominant team in toughest women's basketball conference
In the transfer portal, extra-eligibility era of current college basketball, players come and go like a pendulum swings.
But No. 3 NC State managed to use those tools to its advantage this past offseason, assembling an all-star roster of three super seniors and a high-profile transfer while keeping its core intact.
The 2021-22 edition of the Wolfpack has several players coming off its bench who would be starters in many other Division I programs, a decisive edge with the NCAA Tournament set to begin this week with First Four games on Wednesday and Thursday and first-round games beginning Friday.
NC State received the No. 1 seed in the Bridgeport regional and will host the winner of the First Four game between Longwood and Mount St. Mary's Saturday in Raleigh.
How did NC State women’s basketball coach Wes Moore convince so many talented players to stay in his system?
The answer lies in the current streak of success his team is experiencing.
“It’s huge,” NC State All-American center Elissa Cunane said after a second straight MVP performance in NC State’s third straight ACC tournament championship win.
“It's the reason why I came to NC State, why I wanted to play for Coach Moore because I saw a potential in this program, and to be able to take it to new heights and do it with everyone like the seniors that stayed, everyone that's come in, it's a program win.”
Sunday’s 60-47 win over Miami in the ACC tournament championship gave the Wolfpack its first three-peat and its first regular-season and tournament title sweep since the Debbie Antonelli-led team of 1984-85.
This NC State squad has hit the level of ACC elites like Duke’s early 2000s teams with Alana Beard, Lindsey Harding, Monique Currie and Georgia Schweitzer; UNC’s mid-2000s teams with Ivory Latta, Erlana Larkins, Camille Little and LaToya Pringle; Maryland’s mid-2000s teams with Crystal Langhorne, Marissa Coleman, Shay Doron and Kristi Tolliver; the four-time ACC title-winning Notre Dame teams from 2014-17 led by Jewell Lloyd, Brianna Turner and Arike Ogunbowale.
But there’s one big difference between those teams and this NC State team: Those teams reached the Final Four. Those teams made a combined 10 Final Four appearances, and two of them — Maryland in 2006 and Notre Dame in 2018 — won the NCAA championship.
NC State women’s basketball has only one Final Four appearance in program history. That happened in 1998 when a Kay Yow-coached squad reached the national semifinals as a No. 4 seed.
The Wolfpack would fall to Louisiana Tech 84-65 despite a semifinal-record 37 points from NC State great Chasity Melvin, but that team’s high mark has yet to be surpassed.
This year, the Wolfpack has its best shot at beating it.
They’re playing in what many coaches call the best conference in the country — the ACC is sendingight teams to the NCAA Tournament — with only one league loss. And their nonconference schedule featured No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 Maryland, No. 17 Georgia and a rematch on the road against the team that ended their season in the last Sweet 16 — No. 6 Indiana. NC State beat the Hoosiers handily, 66-58, and won 9 of 12 games against ranked opponents this season, falling to South Carolina, Georgia and Notre Dame.
Destined for greatness
The Pack’s promise of a Final Four destiny has a hungry team on the verge of its last chance at a national title together.
Since last year’s disappointing loss in the second round coming off a season in which the NCAA tournament was wiped out by COVID-19, the Wolfpack have embarked on what point guard Raina Perez called a “revenge season.”
“It was easy to make the decision to come back because I wanted to go further,” she said.
So, too, did fellow seniors Kayla Jones and Kai Crutchfield. All of them took advantage of an extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to COVID-19, returning to a loaded team eager to leave a deeper mark in the postseason.
When the Wolfpack added Rutgers transfer Diamond Johnson to the mix, they were a popular Final Four pick before a game had been played.
A loaded roster is a pleasant challenge for a coach to have, but it’s still a challenge.
Moore has masterfully worked Johnson into his rotation off the bench, earning her ACC Sixth-Woman of the Year honors, even though she has a starter’s skillset.
“She won a lot of accolades last year (at Rutgers) and now you come to a team that had a lot of success a year ago, last couple of years, and all of a sudden they've got everybody back. It's kind of hard to find your niche.
“So I think that's been hard on Diamond at times, and I'm hard on Diamond at times. She's gone from being like the scorer to trying to blend in and make everybody better. Make everyone around you better is what you're trying to do as a point guard,” Moore said Sunday.
“The thing that's made it easy is she's an unbelievable person. Everyone on the team loves her. If you ever hear her laugh, she sounds like a dolphin. You just can't help but love somebody like that. Flipper.”
Sacrificing for the team
There’s a lot of love on the NC State sidelines. Moore has mentioned many times his appreciation for backup center Camille Hobby staying in Raleigh even though her minutes are limited behind Cunane.
“Obviously, Elissa has been a program changer for NC State, but Camille Hobby is someone that — nowadays a lot of kids would have left. Just being real honest, the transfer portal and all that. And Camille has been loyal and hardworking, so that's why when we get a chance to get her in, I have a lot of confidence in her and know she's going to bring some good things to the floor.
“I know she's disappointed that she doesn't play more, but I don't think I'd want it any other way. She keeps coming back. And, obviously, with Elissa going to the draft and moving on, superstar and all that stuff, Camille is going to play a big part in trying to continue the success.”
Hobby’s minutes are valuable and they’ve kept Cunane fresh and free of major injury.
Cunane wasn’t named ACC Player of the Year with the award going instead to her childhood friend and fellow Summerfield native Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech, but her numbers belie her value. Cunane averages 25.3 minutes per game while Kitley averages 32.0. And while Hobby’s time on the floor allows her to rest, Hobby is also a contributor with an average of 5.2 points and 2.8 rebounds with appearances in all 32 games.
Other players have the tendency to cancel each other out statistically, too. Kayla Jones, Jada Boyd, Jakia Brown-Turner, Crutchfield, Johnson and Perez would undoubtedly have higher numbers of points, rebounds and assists on a team with less talent.
But that’s not what they’re playing for.
“Again, nowadays with people popping around changing schools, again, 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. But look at how it pays off.”
With party paraphernalia filling the court at the Greensboro Coliseum, Jones suddenly shouted “balloons!” and dove on the floor. Other players followed suit, swept up in a moment of celebration capping a conference season of hard-fought success.
Now, it’s on to the next tournament.
“I came here to play these big games and to win these big games,” Perez said. “And to win championships.”
Sports editor Monica Holland can be reached at mholland@fayobserver.com.