NC State will have its hands full on Saturday when it faces 4-seed Indiana and a familiar face on the opposing sideline
Posted March 25, 2021 3:26 p.m. EDT
When NC State plays in its third straight Sweet Sixteen, it will be led by the National Coach of the Year in Wes Moore, named that earlier this week after leading the Wolfpack to a 22-2 record that included two wins over No. 1 teams on the road, the first No. 1 seed in program history and the second straight ACC Championship.
But for his star player Elissa Cunane, the recognition for her head coach is long overdue.
"It's amazing what Coach Moore has done with this program? Back to back ACC champions leading us to multiple Sweet Sixteens, and the chance to go beyond this year. He's just a great leader for us on and off the court. He really just molds us into the players and people that he wants us to be, and I think he knows the sky's the limit," Cunane said.
She added that in practice, he makes sure every single thing is perfect. If it's not perfect, it's not right, he'll tell them.
"It's a crazy standard. But it's his standard. He doesn't let us settle at all. He humbles us, and I think that's what's kept us going this season. We haven't ever been complacent about where we're at because Coach Moore is always pushing us to do every little thing right, and I'm super thankful for that. I'm super thankful for his coaching, and I'm glad that everyone's now recognizing it, giving him the respect he deserves."
Moore would famously rather fly under the radar than get recognition.
But there was one aspect of winning the WBCA award, one voted on by his colleagues, that moved him to near tears.
"I just found out — I didn't realize that had Pat Summitt's name on it. And that makes it even better, because I have a lot of respect for Pat and she had a great influence on me," Moore said, getting choked up..
Moore grew up in Texas, but he played at a school just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. And he worked Summitt's camps there and learned from her in his earliest days of getting interested in coaching.
Now, he's building a bit of a coaching tree of his own — and he'll see one of those potential branches on the opposite sideline when NC State faces off against 4-seed Indiana on Saturday.
The Hoosiers are in their first Sweet Sixteen since 1983, and Teri Moren took over in Bloomington just a year after Moore did in Raleigh. Included on her staff, though, is someone who was with Moore from the beginning at NC State as a player — Ashley Williams.
Williams started nearly every game in her final two seasons at NC State, and was an accurate 3-point shooter who also led the team in charges drawn as a senior. She also majored in engineering and was a perennial presence on the Dean's List, graduating with a near-perfect GPA.
Moore assumed she was on the fast track to a lucrative career as an engineer. Then she came into his office during her senior year and said she was interested in coaching.
"I said, 'Well, actually, until this moment, I thought you were a very intelligent person'," Moore said.
"She has a passion for the game and so because of that, she works really hard at it. And then she's very intelligent. So she's been moving up the ladder quickly and I could see her being a head coach at a very young age. Definitely an impressive young lady."
But as proud as he might be of her accomplishments, he'd rather not have to face a team who has a staff member that knows so much about his program and the way he runs things. Williams played for Moore from his first season in 2013-14 before graduating in 2017.
"She played for us just a few years ago, so she knows about everything we do. So that's going to be interesting, too," Moore said. "I might have to switch up the signals a little bit or disguise things and and and try to be as covered up as I can be. But but again, definitely will be interesting with her over there on the other sideline, but very proud of her."
Indiana got to where it is by beating its first two opponents by a total of 53 points. It did get to face 12th-seeded Belmont in the second round, but still.
Moore's team has obviously won its first two games, but it didn't happen without drama.
NC State trailed NC A&T in the first round in the second quarter by six points before coming back to win relatively easily. It followed that up by trailing South Florida at halftime 36-35 before yet another big third quarter.
The Wolfpack has "won" the first two quarters by a combined score of just six points in its first two Tournament games, but has dominated in the third with a combined score of 44-18.
"Everyone, all the teams here are going to be very well prepared, very talented and are going to bring it. I mean, it's that time of year," Moore said, "but we do need to get off to better starts. We've done it all year, and we've been able to come back, but I always say, 'If you play with fire enough, you're eventually going to get burned.' So we need to make sure we're a little more focused and ready from the tip.
"We'll definitely talk about that and try to get focused on getting off to a better start. But again, these kids have a lot of confidence. So if they do fall behind, they still believe that they're going to be able to get it done. And I believe in them as well."
NC State would sure love to get Kayla Jones, its starting senior forward, back out on the court. Everyone stepped up in her absence, but it's going to be a game-time decision on Saturday.
"I think a lot of it has to do with being able to tolerate the pain and and discomfort, but the doctors also are going to make sure that there's no risk involved and that it can't do any damage or anything like that. So really I'm just leaving that up to medical staff and we'll find out. It may be Friday night or Saturday before we know, but definitely love to have her out there," Moore said. "She's our glue. She holds us together.
"So proud of Jada Boyd, how she played and and how the team stepped up without (Jones). But we'd definitely love to have her back."
Boyd had 18 points in Jones' place to go with 10 rebounds, while fellow sophomore Jakia Brown-Turner added a team-high 19 points. All five Wolfpack starters scored in double figures.
Cunane, a front-runner for all of the major national awards, was proud of how well her teammates have handled it all, especially considering neither have played in the NCAA Tournament yet since last year's was canceled.
"They haven't faltered at all. They walked in here like they own this tournament already and I'm just really proud of them because they worked really hard for this. They worked really hard freshman year and then didn't get to have the postseason, so they got to make up for some lost time their freshman year," Cunane said.
Cunane is understandably the focus of a lot of team's preparation, and it hasn't always been easy for her to score. She did manage 12 points against South Florida, but it took her 15 shots to get there.
Still, she had three assists and she's come a long way in adjusting to the double teams that come her way.
But all she knows is that NC State is no longer simply happy to be here.
"I think expectations are also a little bit higher this year. I think we know that we can perform a lot more and go deeper than we did," Cunane said, "and I really believe that we can go further than we did my freshman year."
NC State's one Final Four appearance came back in 1998 under former head coach Kay Yow, who Moore had left just a few years before to become a head coach.
This team has as good a chance as any to get there, and perhaps further.
Moore has now built NC State into a juggernaut, but the next step for his group will be postseason success. NC State also hasn't advanced past the Sweet Sixteen since that 1998 Final Four.
But he knew what potential the NC State job had when he took it.
" I had a good connection there I was with Kay Yow for two years as an assistant, the legendary Kay Yow, and then her sister Debbie was the (athletic director) at the time," Moore said. "I knew they had all the resources and all the support you need to compete at the highest level, and felt like we could recruit and and get the top players we wanted in here. And that's the thing: I want to be somewhere where I can recruit unbelievable young ladies, outstanding citizens if you want to call it that — high character kids. But there are also talented, and I think some places you may not have that ability to recruit both character and ability, And at NC State, we can attract those kind of kids. So it's been unbelievable. I've been so blessed.
"We've got a lot of momentum as a program. And and we're excited about right now and we're excited about where we're headed."
Until Saturday comes, Moore will be nervously sipping an enormous cup of unsweetened iced tea with lemon, a habit he traces back to his Texas roots.
"We got jugs (of tea) delivered the other day to the conference room, and I promise you, he took a whole jug and ran out of the room. So Coach Moore loves his tea," Cunane said.
