Wes Moore: "I'm Really Excited About This Team"

NC State women’s basketball is coming off one of its best seasons ever, capped off with an ACC Championship last year. The team comes back ready to build off its success, ranked at No. 8 in the AP Poll. 

The Wolfpack brings back a strong nucleus led by one of the best players in the country in Elissa Cunane, complemented by sophomores Jakia Brown-Turner and Jada Boyd, seniors Kai Crutcfield and Kayla Jones, and more. 

Head coach Wes Moore spoke to the media via Zoom this week about the upcoming season, and here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say: 

Opening statement

I’m really excited about this team. I love how competitive they’ve been in practice every day; it’s been fun. Elissa Cunane is coming off a great year and now she’s been picked preseason All-ACC along with Jakia Brown-Turner. I’m telling y’all, this may be the first time we’ve had players make preseason teams; we just haven’t had it. They make the postseason teams, but as far as being picked before the year, we haven’t had a whole lot of that. So it’s great that they’re getting those accolades, getting that attention. I did explain to them today in practice, external expectations don’t help you win games. They’re great, we all love them, but they won’t help you win games. Internal expectations help you win games, because when the coaches and the players are doing everything they can to win games and to be successful, then those kinds of expectations are good. 

So I think we have both and we just have to keep it in perspective. But like I said, Elissa is playing really well right now, I think she’s in the best condition of her life. Her hook shot has gotten unbelievable, left or right hand. Today she made a stepback three when we were going at it a little bit, the players loved that. She’s just playing really well right now. She did give us a scare, she dropped a 25-pound weight on her foot a week or two ago, and it was a foot she had had surgery on. I made sure that our strength coaches realized that Elissa doesn’t wipe down plates anymore, somebody else can wipe down her plates for her. We don’t need her handling them and dropping them. 

Jakia Brown-Turner is also looking really good, worked hard. We’ve got two seniors, Kai Crutchfield and Kayla Jones, both of them providing really good leadership and we’re obviously expecting a lot of production out of them as well. Jada Boyd was All-ACC Freshman Team a year ago even though she played limited minutes. Great athlete, getting better all the time. That’s the nucleus. Then grad transfer Raina Perez from Cal-Fullerton. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of this: her team finished sixth in the Big West Conference and she was voted MVP. That doesn’t happen very often. I love her maturity, I love her work ethic. She’s really gonna help soften the loss of Ace Konig. She’s not gonna replace Ace Konig, but she’s gonna help soften that a little bit. Obviously we’ve got some freshmen that are looking really good as well.

Can you get more specific about the changes to Reynolds Coliseum and how it’s gonna be set up?

If you watch any of the WNBA or the NBA games this summer, you saw how they really had the seating spaced out. Players will be assigned a seat and they’ll return to that seat, which they’re gonna love it because they can get away from me. So I don’t know how we’re gonna do that yet, if we’re gonna have the coaches on the front row and the players on the next two rows, but they’re trying to space them five or six feet apart per chair. So it is going to be a different look. Obviously all the seating on the floor level is gonna be pushed in, so there won’t be a whole lot of people down there either. That’s the main thing, we just walked through how that’s gonna look and how that’s gonna work.

How does recent success change your program, since it was one of the goals you’ve built to?

We’re gonna miss those seniors. Everybody’s overlooking the fact that, not only Ace, who obviously she was MVP of the ACC Tournament which tells you what kind of impact she had, but we had three other seniors, Erika Cassell, Kaila Ealey and Grace Hunter, all three of them had started at one point, came in off the bench after having major knee injuries. That was a big advantage, having three seniors coming in off the bench that had played well enough to start at one point. We’re gonna miss those players. A lot of the accolades we’re receiving right now, I think ESPN has us sixth, AP has us eighth, all those, they’re great but they’re based on pretty much the past. We still have some holes to fill and now instead of seniors coming in off the bench, you may have freshmen coming in off the bench. 

That makes a difference. I think we’re not shying away from it, we’re excited about the opportunity. Last year I talked a lot about, ‘let’s do something special’. I haven’t really figured out what I’m gonna say this year, I have to figure something out. I love it, every time I go to Amedeo’s, please, if I’m over there and I stay in the bathroom too long, it’s just because I’m reading all the stuff they’ve got on the walls. I love it where Valvano said, ‘I always told the players we’re gonna do something special, but I just thought it meant winning a big game or something, I didn’t know it was gonna be a national championship’. 

Winning the ACC championship was an unbelievable experience last year,especially with it being in Greensboro, we had so many fans there, it was awesome. But I think now that makes you hungry, that makes you want more. So it’s gonna be a big challenge, this league is tough. I think some teams are getting overlooked in our league that are gonna be really good. And then obviously Louisville was the regular season champ so they’ve got a lot of people back. We finished in the top 10 in the country the last two years and we’re trying to build on that as a program, but also just with the players here, sell them on the idea that hey, we can compete at the very highest levels, so that’s what we’re trying to do.

Can you give us an update on Kai Crutchfield being in a walking boot?

That’s just, she was wearing it the other day, I know she was wearing it in the morning when I met with some of them but in practice she just goes as normal. It’s pretty much to try to keep stress off of that foot, which she’s had some aches and stuff. Just trying to keep as much weight off of it as we can when she’s not actually on the court playing.

How important is Kayla Jones’ and Kai Crutchfield’s leadership?

I think Kayla Jones is a great leader for us. She has a very, very high basketball IQ, she sees things on the floor. We’re trying to play her at the three, she’s played at the four the last few years so we’re trying to get her on the court at the three some to try to get Jada Boyd on the court some. Jada Boyd is obviously super athletic, we’d like to get her out there more. We’ve got another young lady that’s pretty much a freshman because she redshirted last year, Elle Sutphin. Elle’s from up in the Mt. Airy area and just an unbelievable shooter. 

We’re trying to get those kids in, so we’re asking Kayla Jones to take on a little bit expanded role, playing the three and the four. She’s handled that beautifully. She’s really been a voice not just on the court but off the court as well during a lot of the social injustice times that we’ve had that we’ve talked about. She’s been a great leader in that regard as well. Kai is someone that’s played a significant role for us the last couple of years and can really be a leader for us as well. We need both of them to not only lead with a voice but to lead by example. And they’re both great people, so we have high expectations for them.

What does Raina Perez add to the team? 

She handles herself like a pro. She comes to work every day, she’s focused, she takes coaching well. She’s unbelievable. Our academic people rave about her, ‘you bring as many of these in as you can’. We’re just really fortunate to have a kid from Phoenix, Arizona that played at Cal-Fullerton to come all the way across the country. And of course [the NCAA] is passing a rule players are gonna basically have another year of eligibility, this year won’t count, so I celebrated that pretty well because we think she really helps us at the point position because with the loss of Ace and Kaila Ealey both because we were concerned about our depth at that spot. 

Raina is a young lady that has a lot of toughness, has a great demeanor about her, but she can also score the ball and averaged about 19 points per game last year for Cal-Fullerton, can shoot the 3, can take you off the bounce. She is a little bit undersized but she makes up for that with a lot of heart and the way she competes. So we’re really excited about Raina.

What are your thoughts on your schedule this year?

We’re playing our normal pod of Carolina, Duke, Virginia and Virginia Tech, we’re playing all them twice and then the two that got added to bring us up to 20 games were Boston College and Wake Forest. Obviously Wake Forest makes all the sense in the world with them being an hour and a half away. 

Boston College, they’re a team that we really think is being overlooked in the polls. They finished fourth in the conference last year and they essentially lost one player. They’re well coached and this will be the third year in a row that we’ve gone to Boston, so that's how it works out. That’s gonna be a tough game up there that we’ve added, and Wake Forest is always a tough team with the rivalry and all that. We added two very challenging games to double up, but we’re excited about it. 

Our league is really good; I’ll tell you another team that is getting overlooked is Syracuse. We finish up the regular season with them, but they’ve got an incredible recruiting class and they’ve got a lot of talent. Then obviously Louisville is picked to win it, we’ve got to play them, go up there. Last time we went up there I think Asia Durr outscored us maybe, I’m glad she’s no longer there but that’s a big challenge. It’s gonna be fun and I’m ready to get back and be ready to play some games. 

Obviously we added South Carolina to the nonconference schedule. When we lost the Big 10/ACC Challenge game, the Big 10 decided not to play the ACC in women’s basketball this year in the challenge, we actually were gonna play a couple more games against Big 10 teams, so when we lost those I wanted to play somebody really good. I think South Carolina checks all those boxes, ranked No. 1 in the country and Dawn Staley has done a remarkable job building a program down there. So it’s gonna be a big challenge, especially going on the road. The ACC is very challenging, so I think it’ll be great to have a nonconference game where we’ll get to see that type of talent on the court.

Did potentially playing South Carolina in the NCAA Tournament last year have anything to do with scheduling them this year?

Last year they were starting three freshmen and we had three seniors coming in off the bench, so I thought if we’re gonna have to play a No. 1 that might not be so bad, at least we’ll have an experience edge. Now those kids are sophomores and my seniors are gone, so it’s not quite the same. It’s gonna be a big challenge but I respect what Dawn’s done. She earned her stripes at Temple and did a great job there, and what she’s done at South Carolina put that program on the map. It’s gonna be fun, I think great players want to play great games, and I know our players are excited about it, I’m excited about it. Obviously we’ve got a couple of games before that that we’ve got to focus on first but it’s a good schedule considering everything. We were supposed to go to the Bahamas, then we were supposed to go to Florida and now we’re going to South Carolina. Keeping it warm.

Yesterday you signed three top-50 players in the country. Where do you think the class is? 

I’m really pumped about it. Aziah James, a kid from Princess Anne High School up there in the Virginia Beach area. I think maybe she’s won four state championships at the like 5A level. She’s left-handed, so we’ve got Jakia Brown-Turner a lefty and now Aziah James a lefty. She’s a great player. Some of the recruiting services have her ranked as high as 21st. She can score in bunches. She can shoot the 3 deep, she can get to rim, float and have some hang time about her. It’s just really exciting. She’s a competitor. She’s won several state championships and then played for the Boo Wiliams travel team program. So she’s used to winning. 

Sophie Hart, 6-5 post player from the Minneapolis area. They were co state champions, so at Farmington High School, her high school had success, she’s the 40th-ranked player in the country. She’s the fourth-ranked post player, true post. That’s one of the things I love about her. She wants to be a post player. Nowadays, everybody wants to be a guard. ‘I want to step out coach.’ I’ve got Elissa Cunane wanting me to play her at point guard. So I told her, ‘If you ever have more assists than turnovers, I’ll consider it.’ So she’s got to work on that. But again, Sophie’s a kid that works extremely hard at it. She’s very skilled. Her Dad’s a track coach at the high school, so the kid knows how to run pretty well in transition. And in our four-out system, she’s going to be good to have in there on the block some. She has a presence about her. 

And then finally, Jessica Timmons, in-state player from Charlotte. I’m excited about getting someone I consider to be one of the best players in the state, if not the best player. She’s an all-state player. She’s 45th-ranked in the country. But again, she’s a young lady that’s a very fierce competitor. She can shoot really deep 3s but can also get to the rim and finish with contact. She’s strong. She’s got a good body on her. So she’ll finish around the rim and get to the foul line. She’s somebody that we look at her more as a wing player. She probably could play point some, will distribute the ball and sees the floor well, but we’re thinking more of her as a winger player as well. 

So it’s a great group. We addressed some needs and we also got some really talented players. When you do that, you feel good about it. 

Are you looking for Raina Perez to more or less take over for where Ace Konig was or is it going to be something where you’re going to more or less work with Kai and make it a competition or 1-A, 1-B type of thing?

I think Kai obviously probably plays more two guard, but she definitely will play some point. I think Raina, we’re going to try, she played a lot of two guard at Cal-Fullerton, but we feel like we’ve got a little bit more of a pressing need at point guard, so she’ll probably play there more. And then I’ll be honest, we’ve got a freshman from Atlanta, Georgia, Genesis Bryant, who shoots the heck out of it. Now she is small. She’s got to really compete to overcome that, especially at this level. But I’m telling you, when she takes a 3 or a jump shot, I pretty much assume it’s going in. So I think all three of those people are going to see some playing time at point guard, but we’ll probably try to play Kai more on the wing and then Raina and Gen play the point guard more.

What is the basketball IQ of this team like?

I think it’s really good. We’ve still got one or two people that are maybe a little bit lost, maybe have to figure some things out. We’re throwing so much at them right now, and especially for freshman, I feel sorry for them. You’re trying to get everything in to prepare for whatever you might see during the season or especially early in the year. So you’re trying to get all that stuff in. So you’re not perfecting any of it. You’re just getting it in. And then when you come up, you see an opponent, you think they may do this or do that, then you try to fine tune it that week when you’re preparing. 

I always say with freshmen, it’s like taking a sip of water out of a fire hose. They’re getting blown away. But again, we’re excited about what they can do. Kayla Jones has a really high IQ, Elissa Cunane’s got a high one. Kai. We’ve got a lot of kids out there that really understand the game and it shows. 

Aside from injuries, this team’s been pretty athletic. Where do you see Elissa’s development?

Elissa’s looking really good right now. I think she’s gotten in better condition. I read something the other day talking about how this summer she did more stuff like kayaking and hiking, things like that. They call it cross-training, but she’s done a lot more of that type of thing. She is moving really well, scoring great around the rim. Left hand, right hand, baby hooks off the glass, straight in. She’s shooting the 3 well as she has been. She’s taking it off the bounce some in practice, looking good. Like I said, I think she’s taking it to another level. So I think she’s playing really well right now, I’m excited about her.

You mentioned Jakia Brown-Turner. She made the most starts ever for a freshman under you at NC State. What made you able to trust her so much and what are you expecting from her in year two?

I think if you go back and look at the ACC Tournament, she did not play like a freshman. That championship game, she did not play like a freshman. You’ve got to earn my trust. I’ve got to know that you’re going to be where you’re supposed to be and know what to do, be focused, be on edge. For the most part, she did that a year ago. I think she too has probably gotten in a little bit better playing condition. 

She’s going to need it though, because she’s going to draw the attention now. You take Ace out of the equation, and you also add what she did a year ago as a freshman, now she’s going to be the focus on a lot of people’s scouting report. That’s where we need Kai Crutchfield to be a threat on the other side consistently. Like I said, Kayla Jones may be playing the wing some. And then obviously it helps everybody when Elissa Cunane is playing well on that block. It takes some of the tension off. 

But I always say Jakia’s a pro. That’s what her Dad tells me too. I talk to him, ‘Hey, she’s a pro, coach. Coach her like a pro.’ And she does. She understands the game, has been around it a lot. She’s just a great kid and I’d like to see her continue to work on getting to the rim. We’re probably going to run more things to her side than we have in the past. But she needs to be a threat at all three levels and I think she can do that. Get to the rim, shoot the 3 and then be able to pull up and knock down the jumper when need be. So we’re really, really excited about Jakia and having her for a few more years. 

Jada Boyd seemed to play more and more as last year went on. How did you see her grow throughout the season and what do you expect from her?

I don’t want to judge too much, but Jakia came from an unbelievable program at Bishop McNamara in the DC Area, and she came in ahead in a lot of ways, whereas Jada Boyd, her high school program was probably not quite as competitive. There were times I’d go see Jada Boyd play and she’d go score 60 points, she was it. When you’re in that situation, you sometimes maybe don’t have the players around you, then you don’t develop your whole game as much. 

So I think Jada Boyd has unbelievable potential. She’s working on stretching her range. We feel like our four player has to be able to be a threat at the 3-point line so we can keep the heat off our post or take the help out of the paint that might defend penetration. But Jada Boyd’s still learning to compete every possession and every minute that she’s on the court. But with her talent level, we’re trying to carve her out more playing time by moving Kayala Jones on the perimeter more and getting Jada Boyd out there and letting her continue to grow. If you look at her numbers, what she did last year with limited playing time, it’s pretty amazing, so that’s why we want to try to find time out there for her.

Elle Sutphin was a player who joined you a year ahead of time but was a top-50 recruit. In that year she was with you, what kind of gains has she made?

Elle will be more of a face-up four player. So she’ll be out on that 3-point line a lot most of the time when she’s out there. I will almost compare Elle’s situation to Jada Boyd’s in that Elle came from a small school. So the competition she saw night in and night out probably didn’t prepare her as well for the ACC, especially. This is kind of a shock when anybody comes in here. 

Elle, she’s another one, when she takes a 3, I expect it to go in. And she can get that thing off so quick. If she has any window or opening at all, she’s going to knock it down. The biggest thing with Elle, again, as I mentioned about Jada Boyd, she’s still learning the intricacies of playing team defense, knowing when to rotate, knowing how to provide help, those sorts of things. She still needs to get a little bit stronger, so on the boards, she can get moved around some. So we’re seeing improvement there. We’re going to have to find ways to get her on the court, because offensively, she can really spread a defense out for you. So we’ve got to get her out there at the same time.

This is what stinks about only playing five nonconference games, not having an exhibition, not having a scrimmage, you don’t really get to ease some of these players in out there in maybe a less high-pressure situation. So it really stinks that you don’t get to find out where they are and let them make a few mistakes, because you’re going to be in a mode of trying to win ball games. 

But we’re excited about Elle, I think she’s got a great future. Also, one quick thought on this, Elle redshirted last year. Now, this year doesn’t count because they’re saying you get an extra year. So she’s not even a freshman yet. She’s still in high school or something. So after this year, she’s still got four years left. So it’s pretty exciting to think about that as she tries to develop. 

You guys are going to play South Carolina, how important is it to be tested in nonconference?

You’re going to play 20 conference games now. That’s plenty of power-five experience. That’s why they’re trying to go out and get five games where they can bring their players along and develop them. We were supposed to go to the Bahamas, then we had signed up for a tournament in Florida. We went through one tournament in Florida and were on our second one. But our second tournament in Florida, we were going to play Big Ten teams, we were also playing in the preseason NIT. So we had a lot of games against Power Fives that we lost. That’s why I decided. We just pulled out of the Florida tournament a few weeks ago, because we were just worried about what it was going to take. Iowa backed out, Purdue was backing out. So we just thought, OK, we could spend all this money to go to Florida and then not even have a game. So we decided just go get a couple of home games and then find us a really good opponent to play. And South Carolina filled that mode. So there’s a whole lot of schools that are just going to play five mid majors, because they feel like, ‘Hey, I got 20 conference games, that’s plenty.’ And I see both sides of it.

You’ve built your program into the women’s program of record in the Triangle. Can all three Triangle teams be top-10 teams or do you have to keep your foot on the neck?

First of all, I’m still hungry. Second of all, I’d love to keep my foot on the neck. But I think you can do it. Obviously we’re recruiting some of the same players, but at the same time, there’s a lot of great players out there. But I’d love to get all of the great players in North Carolina, but it isn’t going to happen. You’re going to have to split up some. Kids get led astray. They don’t all come here. But yes, it can happen. 

In the mid 2000s, all three were in the top 10. I’m not saying I want that to happen. I want to make sure the red team at least stays there. But the others, they can deal for themselves. But I do think you can have it, and obviously we’ve had it in men’s basketball also. So that’s one of the awesome things. ESPN named Raleigh one of the top five collegiate basketball markets in the country. We talk about that in recruiting. 

This is a hot bed, so it’s fun. It is a great rivalry, and those games are important, but at the same time, I’ve heard someone say this before, we don’t hang banners up for when we beat those schools. You hang banners up when you win championships. So while those games are really important to our fans and to us, we’ve got to be consistently good night in, night out and win  every game. So it’ll be interesting. It’s going to be a fun ride here locally, for sure. It’s a tough neighborhood, as they say. 

Jake Caccavaro contributed to this story.