Wes Moore is entering his 13th season as the Wolfpack women’s basketball head coach. In his tenure, he has led the team to three ACC titles, six Sweet 16 appearances and an ACC record of 144-56 (.720) — not to mention a Final Four run in 2024.
Moore has outcoached and outperformed his competitors and built NC State women’s basketball into a perennial contender. At ACC Tipoff 2025, Moore described his trajectory in Raleigh.
“In my first year, the expectations were really low,” Moore said. “We ended up having some kids that were really talented and really hungry, and we ended up winning 25 games.”
That 2013-14 team finished the year ranked No. 21 after reaching the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.
“That first year was fun,” Moore said. “And then we had a couple of years where it was a little tougher, harder to get the elite players to come.”
During the stretch from 2014 to 2019 — the period that Moore describes as ‘tougher’ — the Pack still went 52-28 in the league, and consistently contended in the conference tournament. Then in 2020, before the whole world shut down in early March, the Pack finally found its breakthrough.
“We had a core group come in and win three straight ACC tournaments,” Moore said. “Those kids that won three straight ACC tournaments were not highly recruited, as much as they sometimes are now, but they laid the pathway for us to get great players and take it to another level.”
Winning three straight ACC Tournament championships from 2020 to 2022, the Pack had proven its superiority in the ACC. In 2024, it had another breakthrough, reaching the team’s first Final Four since Kay Yow’s run in ‘98, gaining stardom on the national stage.
“The last six years have been amazing,” Moore said.
In every year since 2017, the Pack has made it to at least the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. Contending year in and year out, NC State was sure to secure at least a few conference titles.
For other school programs, making the NCAA tournament is a lofty goal. For Wolfpack women’s basketball, it is a given, having made the field of 64 in 9 out of 12 years with Moore at the helm.
While Moore has continued to build, the landscape of women’s college basketball has drastically changed. In 2014, the NCAA Championship game brought in 4.3 million viewers. In 2024, it brought in 18.9 million. Even with all of the new attention on the sport, Moore’s squad has remained consistently at the top. And his team has rallied around him.
“Nobody wants to leave Coach Moore now,” said former Wolfpack guard Aziaha James at ACC Tipoff 2024. “We love this atmosphere. We wouldn’t want to play for another team or another school. Just love and happiness over here.”
While the Pack has reached two massive milestones in the past six years, there is still one more to go. Win the whole thing.
Last year’s team looked like it had a great chance to do that, featuring two WNBA-caliber players in James and Saniya Rivers, and being ranked as high as No. 7. Losing in the Sweet 16, the Pack fell short, but once again, NC State was in the mix.
If Moore’s Wolfpack is able to stay in the mix for long enough, eventually it will find itself on top. It’s only a matter of time.
