Wes Moore: 'It's kind of fun being a rock star in Raleighwood'

The women's basketball tipoff

Happy to have NC State wolfpack with us head coach

Westmore Isiah James and Sania Rivers

We we're going to start with you last year at

this time

Unranked picked eighth in the AC C

I think there's a lot of coaches who will not

be picking you eight again this season

Just give us what you thought the catalyst was for

that final four run with abs

I mean such minimal expectations to start the year a

year ago

Well without a doubt I think the key to our

run was our chemistry

Um I think everyone was uh really bought into the

team first mentality

Uh everyone was unselfish

I actually enjoyed celebrating their teammates success as much if

not more than their own

Uh so I just made it for a great culture

and and uh just an unbelievable ride for sure with

two key pieces returning

Can you kind of give us a quick preview of

this upcoming season Yeah you know again you mentioned last

year we were probably picked a little bit low this

year

We might be picked a little bit high

Uh I think everyone looks at our guards and especially

these two and think

Oh wow

You know uh NC State is gonna be really really

good

Uh but we lost two really good players in River

Baldwin and Mimi Collins who are both playing overseas in

Europe now professionally

Uh and those are gonna be big shoes to fill

But again when you have these two Madison Hayes Zoe

Brooks along with the freshman that that came in uh

we're definitely excited about the season

Uh but uh again we got a whole lot of

work to do

Hey coach Brian Pit Pat pride you just you just

mentioned a lot of key pieces from last year's team

coming back two of them sitting right next to you

as far as the culture that was that was built

over the course of last year

How important was that to have so many so many

players back to maintain that and kind of pass it

on to the younger players Yeah no doubt these two

are gonna be really important

Uh part of that uh you know they know how

much fun last year was they know you know the

success we had because of uh the culture and everybody

buying in

Uh so I think you know they're gonna be vocal

and they're gonna get those points across and hopefully uh

sometimes you know you gotta have players that kind of

uh keep things together in the locker room and and

that sort of thing and I think uh these two

will play a big part in that

But yeah we keep talking about we talked about it

last year as we you know started out unranked

The next thing you know you're in the top five

in the country

Um You gotta keep reminding everybody to stay humble stay

hungry

And so uh that was kind of our motto last

year and I think we'll keep that keep that rolling

with all the hype around toward the end of how

y'all finished

How do you as a coach and y'all as players

prevent the outside noise and the distractions when it comes

time to play on the court I think like coach

mentioned just buying in to our team

Um Obviously you can't win by yourself

So when everyone's bought in it makes it easier to

win big games

Um Obviously coach has to be bought into us we're

bought into him and we prepare ourselves well every game

um just buying in recovery everything that looks like on

and off the court

So I think that's an important factor

Um Definitely um just the same thing as we did

last year you know like you said we was um

unranked last year and we didn't care what the media

had to say

We went to every game gave 100 and 10% every

game

Um So just keeping that same energy and intensity every

step of the way this season I just remind any

media members in the in the audience who have a

question just raise your hand and we'll get to you

coach again

You you mentioned you lost a lot of key pieces

back but two that are gone were pretty big pieces

in the front court where they with uh Baldwin and

Collins uh one big transfer coming in for y'all and

just can you break down what how you're going about

reloading that front court still a work in progress as

far as uh reloading the front court

Uh I'll be honest with you we you know we

have some question marks there

We've got to have some players step up

Uh We may play four guards some uh with the

talent that we have at that position

But uh yeah it's it's really too early to say

and we'll uh hopefully figure it out uh before November

5th when we tip it off when you have question

marks like that

And and with the bigs how how much does it

help to have lengthy guards like SIA or Madison Hayes

to kind of help especially on the defensive end Well

no doubt like I said there's we're probably gonna be

playing four guards quite a bit

Heck we may play five guards

I don't know yet but you're right with Sonia's length

and athletic ability you can play her about anywhere on

the floor

So uh we are we're definitely looking at a lot

of different options we wanna get our best players on

the court and uh then kind of adjust the system

uh to fit that lineup

Sania defense wins championships

And that's one of your significant characteristics as a player

Can you talk about how the defense of um output

changes depending on the position because you play almost every

position

Oh it's definitely tough

Um That's when you have to be versatile

I feel like I take pride in being a very

versatile player because I'm very unselfish

I wanna be able to put my team in positions

to win

So whatever I need to do to help you know

contribute to the wins that's what I'm gonna do

So if coach needs me to you know control the

team then I'll play a point if coach needs he

wants to run five guards and I'll go to the

post and you know wall up with the post you

know I gotta be a little stronger

It's a mentality switch as well

Obviously last year I played a lot of point guard

this year moving around maybe playing 34 and five

I definitely have to switch my mentality

I think physically I'm there

You mentioned me being buried long

I think that's a big factor and um I'm excited

to play different positions this year because I do take

pride in my defense

So Isaiah you're the veteran now

Yes

What have you added to your game for this last

season Um just trying to be more vocal just in

practice just to start um also in a locker room

as well just making sure you know players just not

getting upset when something happened or you know we maintain

our focus or you know we're just buying into the

little things so the little things always gonna matter no

matter what it is

Kobe Trotter technician Isaiah and Sanna last year was y'all's

first you know season as full time starters

Just what was that like being full time starters you

know obviously being two of the most relied upon players

on the team

Um I can say um you know I've been here

for four years and just a journey that I have

been on you know that felt so it felt so

good you know it just shows me all the work

I put in it really paid off

Yeah I'll piggyback off that

I definitely think it was definitely well deserved well earned

Um a starting spot is definitely not something that's given

to you

It's something that's earned

And like as I said it took us four years

you know or three years to get here and we're

definitely looking forward to keeping our spot because anybody can

take it at any given time

So you just wanna stay humble stay hungry and just

you know grind a keep spot

ST I and Isaiah a lot obviously a lot of

success with last season's final four run but this is

a new season

How much are y'all as leaders kind of stepping up

and saying hey we got this is a new this

is a new season

We got to earn it

We can't just rest on the success of last season

I think everybody's excited about us going to the final

four last year

Obviously uh Our fans wolfpack nation is still you know

talking about the final four but it's a new season

for us

Um We've been going for months now

We've been going since summer

Um We had a little break we got to enjoy

it but you know it's time to flip the page

Obviously we celebrate the wins we celebrate going to the

final four but it's time to turn the page at

one point

And I feel like bringing our freshman along or a

transfer that we have who wasn't a part of that

last year you know we can't obviously put them in

on that stage where we were on last year but

we can tell them like it was fun

It was hard to get there

We can tell them everything we need to do to

get there and they still won't know what it's like

until they actually get there

So we're gonna do our best to prepare them to

get back there just so that they can experience something

that we did experience

Definitely just a pig piggyback off Anaya just um yeah

just basically telling the freshman like it it's it's hard

you know it's hard to get where we got last

year and people is not gonna come to teams are

not gonna come to a game like oh they they've

been to a final before we're gonna back down or

they're gonna be hungry for us

Um we got a big target on our back

Um you always wanna be better than the year you

was before

So just maintain that wes many will argue this is

the best women's basketball conference in the country and you

just added three more teams for you and your staff

Was there anything that you did this off season to

prepare for those three new teams or prepare for the

Gauntlet that's coming up this season Well I think you're

always preparing for the Gauntlet and the the reason the

AC C is you know maybe the best conference in

the country uh women's basketball wise is because of the

talent and we have uh so many great players in

this league every night you're gonna be going up against

uh some of the best

And so uh I'm excited about adding Cal and Stanford

and SMU um again three great schools great programs

Uh And I think it's kind of fun you know

we get to go to California maybe slide over to

San Francisco on that trip

And then growing up in Dallas I'm excited about going

back to SMU as well

So uh Yeah I think it's I think it's awesome

Uh I'm looking forward to it Jaden Watson Fisher Raleigh

News and Observer

Um sa and Isaiah obviously y'all had the opportunity to

you know go to the draft or or you or

you could have transferred what went into the decision to

stay at NC State

Nobody want to leave Coach Moore now

But my goodness security

No but we love this atmosphere you know we wouldn't

wanna play for another team or another school

Um Just love and happiness over here

But yeah that's why I say I'll say the same

Can you guys hear me in this Ok

Uh I'll say the same like I love uh the

team here

I love the coaching staff love the fans

It's very family atmosphere especially being from North Carolina

I'm very happy here you know back home close with

family you know I get to sneak home and get

those home cooked meals every once in a while

So I love being here

I wouldn't want to transfer anywhere else

And then at our fans also uh we came back

from Portland at 3330 in the morning and thousands of

people there waiting to welcome us back

Uh It's pretty special fan base and uh they may

it's kind of fun being a rock star in Roy

Wood

Ok

Coach a couple of questions for me real quick

First off you've been in the game for a while

and you you look at the growth from these ladies

from all the years including these two stars right up

here

What does it mean to watch your players grow as

time goes on And then secondly um what is the

what is the phrase tobacco road NC State Carolina Duke

mean to you Yeah

Well first of all as far as the growth of

the game uh I'm just so happy for these players

because they've been putting in the work and making sacrifices

since they were small Children and now they're being recognized

for it and on a big stage uh you know

whether it be in person you know we sell out

about all our games

Uh and then we go to some great venues as

well on the road where we got unbelievable crowds

Uh but ours on TV you know on there uh

so it's really exciting time to be a women's basketball

player uh at the college level and with all the

things that now are uh out there for them uh

it's great to see them being rewarded and and uh

kind of reap the benefits of of all they've done

uh as far as Tobacco Road

Uh it's it's great

I mean you've got us Duke Carolina all you know

we're 30 minutes apart from both of them

I think they're probably about 15 minutes apart from each

other

Just makes it fun you know

Uh again they all played against a lot of them

when they were playing Travel ball or with them

Uh and again wherever you go you got uh your

Carolina fans your Duke fans and then you got the

Wolfpack fans the Rabbit fans

So uh it's a fun it's a fun deal

I enjoy being a part of it

I'm Rob mcglynn with inside pack sports

Uh You talked about Hayes coming back she was obviously

doing a lot of rim running offensive rebounding for you

guys last year

Is that something you envisioned for her And is that

something so maybe can add to her game as well

Should say Hayes take a breather you know she's filling

in that role

I'm sorry who did you say initially Hayes Madison Hayes

Ok

The rim run

Yeah

Yeah

You know again and and uh I think you got

to keep in mind these two and like I said

Madison Hayes all three of them have been in the

program now for at least a few years

Uh You know Sonya and Madison got led astray initially

and and the Lord brought them back where they belong

Isaiah has been with me the whole time baby that

way

But uh no uh Madison you're right

That's gonna be a big part especially if we're playing

four guards

Uh She sometimes will be that kind of forward position

and we want her to use that speed to beat

people down the court

Obviously these two can push tempo

Sanaya is so long and athletic getting to the rim

and uh Zaya get out and run push tempo so

it's gonna be fun and we gotta keep that in

mind

We gotta make sure that that's the emphasis because we

need to take advantage of these great guards

Ladies

Give me a teammate who right now maybe your fans

don't know much about but based on what she's shown

so far in practice you think she's gonna make a

major impact for you guys this season Um I feel

like everyone knows Zam

So I'm going to say Tilda um she's from Sweden

She's she's so sweet on and off the court

So we have to get her

Yes she's sweet on the court

So we gotta get her to do this

We gotta get this dog mentality but we're excited about

it

She's a three level scorer uh to the paint to

the bucket midrange pull up threes

Um And she's gonna be big for us whether we

need her to play the wing spot whether we need

her to go bang with the fives down low

She's also unselfish so she's gonna do whatever she can

to help contribute to the wins

So um I wanna say y'all don't know her but

I feel like Zoe name could be out there more

Um Zoe game had been going unnoticed a lot of

times and she contribute to the team so many so

many ways

So this year is gonna be her breakout year

I feel it

Yeah I agree with that

Uh You know Zoe again she's that you know bringing

in the four guards she's one of the four baskets

if you wanna call them

Uh so she's an important part of our tempo and

I thought she had an unbelievable freshman year and now

you add her to the three senior guards

Uh it's a special group

Well thank you

Rock stars of Roy Wood

Thank you for sharing this with us and good luck

to you guys this season

Thank you

Thank you