ACC TIPOFF: Moore, Brown-Turner, Johnson Preview 2022-23 Season

NC State head coach Wes Moore, wing Jakia Brown-Turner, and guard Diamond Johnson met with the media at the 2022 ACC Women's Basketball Tipoff in Charlotte to discuss the Wolfpack's upcoming season.

The reigning ACC Coach of the Year, Moore looks to lead the Pack to its fourth straight conference championship and its second straight regular season title. Brown-Turner returns for her senior year after shooting 44.4 percent from the floor and averaging 9.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Last season’s ACC Sixth Player of the Year, Johnson will be one of the team’s pivotal starters after averaging 10.8 points per game, dishing out 78 steals, and recording a team-high 47 steals.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch the Wolfpack’s press conference.

For you, I know it's always how you can win in March and get to that title game. What is it going to take for this group?

WM: We lost a lot of great talent and a lot of great experience, players that have been in our program for five years, four years, things like that. Now, it's a fresh start. I mean, that's what college sports are about. They graduate. They move on, and now you've got to start all over. Luckily, we have some veterans with some great experience. Jakia Brown-Turner has been an All-ACC player. Diamond Johnson has been Sixth Player of the Year in the ACC. We also have Jada Boyd and Camille Hobby. We've got a nucleus of experience that have been there and been through the battle and know what it's about, know our culture, know our system. Then, we added a few out of the portal. Some people complain about the portal. Right now, I kind of like the portal. You got to flow with it, y'all. You got to flow with it. Now, we've got to get all that talent to mesh together and become a great team, so that's what we'll be working on the next few months. They'll be saying, “Practice? Practice? We're talking about practice?” Yeah, we've got to practice if we're going to get better. So that's what we're doing.

You talked about going to the portal with River Baldwin from FSU, Mimi Collins from Maryland, Tennessee as well, and Saniya Rivers out of South Carolina. Seeing what you can add to your nucleus, the impact, what do you see?

WM: We had some holes to feel. We're very fortunate these young ladies worked out. Mimi Collins is someone we recruited out of high school and knew very well. Obviously coming from Maryland most recently, we had actually played against them. We’re very familiar with her game. River Baldwin is someone that committed pretty early out of high school, so we didn't get real deep into recruiting with her, but she was playing in the ACC, so we had a chance to watch her game grow as well. Saniya Rivers was someone we recruited really hard out of Wilmington, North Carolina: Gatorade, USA Today, National Player of the Year, great talent. So we added some really good players. But like I said, now you've got to become a team. These players are going to have to step up and maybe take on roles that they haven't had in the past as far as leadership. I want them to be like assistant coaches on the court, and sometimes they probably want to be the head coach on the court, but I'd just settle for assistant coach would be nice. Then, we've got to make all that mesh together, and it's a challenge, but it's what we do. It's what keeps me so young looking, you know, is getting a fresh start every year.

Jakia, I just wanted to go with you and just the things you learned in the first season, but how you can be just what Coach just mentioned, that leader, almost like a second head coach on the floor.

WM: Assistant coach. Assistant. Please, come on. Don't give them any ideas.

When you're looking at what that looks like for you, what is that?

JBT: I've definitely learned a lot from other players and past players, so just learning what they taught me and just trying to bring it to my team and just being a great leader for them and just being able to help them out with things. Because I've been doing it for a while now, so I just feel like I can give them tips of how to do certain things and reminding them to just stay positive and just encourage them.

You've got someone right next to you, when she steps on the floor, Coach says it's like a wildfire, and I can attest to that as well with Diamond Johnson. You earned, earned in all capital letters, that Sixth Woman of the Year. You told me just a few minutes ago that's something you wanted to do after you learned your role. Can you walk us through the process of really honing in on that and what that means for you in that moment?

DJ: Yeah, once I knew my role, that was my goal. Just to be there for my team, and anything I can do coming off the bench and providing anything, whether it's scoring, rebounding, defense, I just really want to be there for my team and show them that I'm here. I'm not a selfish player. So I just really took on that role and took pride in it.

Not to have you reveal your vision board or anything like that, but what's the next step for you?

DJ: Next step for me is to keep leading my team, keep winning, keep being successful, and like Coach Moore said, taking on the leadership and just really being that assistant coach on the floor.

WM: Good answer. Good answer.

DJ: Keeping my team organized and focused on our end goal.

With Kai Crutchfield graduating last year, how do you guys see her void being filled?

DJ: I just see it being filled as I think last year she was our primary defender, so I just want to guard the best players and do what I can to stop them and just taking pride in defense for sure.

NC State has been successful, no doubt about it. Do you all think this will be the year you finally get over that little hump and make it to the championship?

JBT: Yes, I definitely think this is going to be the year that we get over that hump, especially because we know what it takes to get to where we've been getting to. We just know that we need to just do a little bit more than we usually do. So just taking one game at a time to get to that point.

Coach, you mentioned in jesting your players being assistant coaches on the floor. You actually have a former player now on the coaching staff. What does Ashley Williams' presence bring to your coaching staff?

WM: Ashley Williams, yes. Ashley is someone who was a real overachiever. When I took the job at NC State, she had already agreed to walk on. She had some Division I offers, but she really wanted to go to NC State. She walked on at NC State, and by her junior year, she's starting. Her senior year, she was like top I think fourth in the ACC in three-point shooting at 44 percent, and she just made herself a really good player. Then, I had the opportunity to see her at Indiana University, a program that I have a lot of respect for, a head coach that I have respect for, and I was able to see the job she did there, hear the reports. She was a grad assistant there for two years, left for a year to go to another school in Furman, and then Indiana hired her right back as a full-time assistant. That's saying a lot. I think Ashley's got a chance to be a really good head coach someday, but she also loves NC State. She also can tell our story. She's been in our program. She's played at NC State. She played for me. So I think that really helps in recruiting when she's kind of able to relate to these players and tell them, hey, this is what he expects. This is what we expect at NC State. So definitely been a great addition having her around. I think she does a really good job working with our guards. And she'll work. She will work. She had a 3.9 [GPA] in engineering at NC State, so she's also really smart. So, you know, it's a win-win.

She's excellent. I got to see her on the court as well, and I was like, wow, this is pretty impressive. So congratulations.

WM: I'm blessed. I've got a great staff. Sorry, I'm going to run with it now. Nikki West has been with me 20 years. She's been offered a lot more money at times and turned them down without even telling me, and then I go to my AD and say, okay, we need to match what she was offered. I just love her. Then Brittany Morris was a grad assistant for us, and, again, somebody that's just a great person, knows the game. Now I've seen -- I think her and Ashley, I think it's good for both of them young coaches to be around each other, because now I've got Brittany in my ear, I've got Ashley in my ear. They're always wanting to know what we're doing, why we're doing it. So it's good. I love the group we have.

Diamond, you're battle tested. So your first year you were first second team all Big Ten, and then last year you were Sixth Man of the Year for the ACC. What are some of the things that -- for your mentality-wise, what is it like preparing to start this year and becoming more of the leader that you just talked about?

DJ: I just want to grow as a player, as a person, expand my game more. This past summer I've been working hard on watching film, not on me, but other players as well, and just being prepared for the season as much as possible. Being in great shape, being mentally prepared. So I've just been doing a lot of preparation because I know my role on this team now, and just to be a leader and to be there for my team in the best way possible.

WM: I couldn't be prouder of Diamond. You just named some of the accolades she received as a freshman. She had a phenomenal freshman year, and then she came here where we kind of had everyone back from a pretty good team, and she accepted a role coming in. I said, we have six starters, you know. But Diamond, people said, as you referred to, people said she gives you a spark. And I said, no, she gives us a bonfire when she comes in. Well now she's going to have to do that from the tip. But it just says a lot about her. People wondered how she'd fit in in that situation. Diamond made it easy because she put the team first, and she had, hey, I'll adjust, and I'll be great. We knew she was going to play a lot anyway. I'll be great when I get in there. So really proud of her and how she handled that as well.