Everything NC State coach Wes Moore said from the stage at ACC Tipoff

CHARLOTTE — NC State coach Wes Moore returned to the Hilton Uptown Charlotte for another edition of ACC Tipoff on Monday. Here’s everything the Wolfpack’s 13th-year coach said during his time on the main stage.

Tell us why we should be so excited about this team.

WES MOORE: Well, first of all, having no seniors is not really exciting. The great teams we’ve had have had great senior leadership, and we’re depending on some younger players to provide that leadership, with Zoe [Brooks] being a junior and having started and played quite a bit her first two years, and Zamareya [Jones], McDonald’s all American out of high school. Had a great freshman year. We are counting on these two heavily to provide some leadership.

We also have Tilda Trygger who started most of the season a year ago, so that’s our veterans. As you mentioned, my priority was trying to maintain our roster, and for the most part we were able to do that, so I’m excited about it. We added a couple of freshmen, a couple of portal players.

Yeah, we’ve got a lot of things to be excited about, but we have a lot of questions to answer, too.

There’s nothing like jumping into the deep end to start the season —

WES MOORE: I know. Who made this schedule?

First you’ve got Oklahoma and TCU. Can you talk about how you went about scheduling for the season or is someone going to get fired for this?

WES MOORE: Yeah, right. I think these players would rather play great games, big games, be on the big stage than playing all directional school games or whatever. I think they like that challenge.

Then I think it prepares you. The ACC is unbelievable. It’s so strong. 18 great programs, schools, universities in the league. You’d better find out early what your weaknesses are and what you need to fix.

Those things are going to get exposed when you’re opening up with the schedule we have. I think three of our first four games are against teams that finished last year in the top 15.

Like I said, we’ll learn early, and hopefully it’ll help us down the road.

Wes, in recent years it seems like you’ve kind of mastered your team peaking at the right time. Last year you started off 4-3 before you really got things figured out and went on a run. Can you talk about that science of peaking at the right time?

WES MOORE: Well, again, I think when you play the schedule we play early, you can have some speed bumps in there. I think that was a big part of last year.

But yeah, I just think, again, the teams that are going to have successful Marches, they get better all throughout the season. You can’t just say, okay, we’ve finished the preseason and now play games. You’ve got to keep getting better because everybody else is. I think that’s the biggest thing.

I’m proud of this group. Again, 16-2 in the conference a year ago, regular season champs. To do that, you have to show up every day, and not just in the games. In practice you’ve got to show up and get better, and then in the games you’ve got to take everybody seriously because in this league if you don’t show up you’re going to get beat.

I think that all prepares you hopefully for March Madness.

Wes, I asked this earlier, who would give the best Halloween candy out of the ACC coaches?

WES MOORE: Wow. Well, I don’t know. Jeff Walz ought to give out good candy, because he’s making a whole lot of money over there, so I hope he’s giving out good candy.

But I don’t know. Again, that’s important. You’ve got to be able to — it’s kind of like coaching. Sometimes it’s a treat and sometimes it’s a trick. You’ve got to be prepared for all of it.

There’s been several Sweet 16 appearances in recent history for the NC State women’s basketball program. What about this year’s team is going to make the difference to get past that Sweet 16 and maybe compete for a championship?

WES MOORE: Yeah, again, these two players obviously give you a lot of confidence, and I might add, we’ve also — six of the last seven years, these guys have finished top 10 in the country and only a couple other schools can say that.

I think these returning players have to make sure our culture and the way we do things, the process doesn’t slip any, and then obviously as coaches it’s up to us as well.

Hopefully, again — and I think the players we added, we’re excited about them. They’re going to give us a lift, too. Hopefully it all meshes together. Unfortunately whoever made this dang schedule, we don’t get to ease into it. You’re going to jump right in the fire. Hopefully it comes together pretty quickly.

As we’ve established, y’all start the season off really light, no heavy hitters at all, especially Tennessee on November 4. Coach, how do you prepare for Coach Caldwell who famously changes her players out every two minutes to keep fresh legs, and what do you hope to learn?

WES MOORE: Yeah, again, they do, they play unique. People like to say they sub like a hockey line, five players at a time. We’ve stressed conditioning is going to be really important. You can’t get caught up in it also. It’s still basketball. You’ve got to go out and play.

That’s the good thing about playing the first game of the year; we have been able to spend a little bit of time against the press because they’ll pick you up full court on a make or a miss. They don’t care, they’re going to come at you.

Right now it’s not looking very good. If we have guests come to our practices, they issue them all hardhats in case they were to get hit in the head with an errant pass. But hopefully in a few weeks we’ve got it figured and can handle it a little bit better.

I imagine they have a hard time getting a schedule because people don’t like to play against something that’s really different. It should be a great challenge for us.