Wes Moore reflects on offseason for NC State women's basketball

NC State women’s basketball coach Wes Moore did not have much time to reflect on a third straight ACC Tournament title and reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. He had a new assistant coach to hire and roster spots to fill.

Moore noted that “as far as I know,” the new-look roster and staff is complete.

“But as soon as you that, things blow up,” Moore half-joked.

Moore added three highly-regarded transfer portal additions — Florida State center River Baldwin, Maryland forward Mimi Collins and South Carolina guard Saniya Rivers.

“We’re real excited about them,” Moore said. “They’re kids we obviously recruited out of high school. Mimi left Tennessee when they made a coaching change and we recruited her then, … but at least we were able to not strike out completely.

“All three of them are going to help us. We lost four seniors that had been here for five years, four years, a lot of experience. Almost like assistant coaches on the court helping young players. It’s going to be a transition with these kids, but I rather do it with talented players.”

Rivers may be the most hyped addition. The former Gatorade and USA Today national player of the year in the 2021 recruiting class left after one year at South Carolina. The Wilmington, N.C., native picked NC State over North Carolina.

“I think she still has some room to grow,” Moore said. “It’s a big jump from high school to this level. She made a difference for them last year. I think she’ll come in and make an impact here, but I think also she’s going to grow and has a really high ceiling.

“We have a lot of room to get better and make her the elite player she can be.”

The three transfer additions came after Moore landed two other former touted prospects last year, a pair of class of 2020 standouts in Madison Hayes, who began her career at Mississippi State, and Diamond Johnson, who starred for one season at Rutgers.

All three of the newest additions join Hayes in being former McDonald’s All-Americans, while Johnson played in the Allen Iverson Roundball Classic men’s All-American game.

“The portal has been great for us, obviously,” Moore acknowledged. “I think we’ve had one McDonald’s All-American out of high school, and we’ve gotten three in the last month or two out of the portal. … What I like to say is these kids have been in college for a year or so, they’ve gotten smarter and they realize, ‘Heck I should have gone to NC State.’”

Although Moore admitted that he would have liked to added one more point guard to the team, he feels he has a roster that balances having enough talented players to have competitive practices without worrying about keeping everyone happy.

Moore also believes that some players are primed for big jumps, like Johnson.

“I think she can still take hers to another level,” Moore said. “I think it’ll be a little bit easier for her this year because she’s not in a situation where she was with five kids who had been there the year before.”

Wes Moore has a new assistant coach

Moore added a former NC State guard to his staff — Ashley Williams. The former walk-on developed into a starter and was a member of Moore’s first four teams with the Wolfpack. She spent the past two seasons as an assistant at Indiana, helping the Hoosiers reach an Elite Eight and Sweet 16.

“She had a 3.9 [grade point average] at engineering at NC State,” Moore recalled. “I thought she was really smart until she came in one day and said, ‘I want to go into coaching.’ Then I questioned it a little. She’s an extremely hard worker.”

“I think it’s always great when you got somebody on your staff that can tell your story and relate to what it means to play for NC State and to put that jersey on,” Moore added. “That’s always nice.”

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