CHARLOTTE, N.C., — What do famous author Mark Twain and NC State women’s basketball have in common? The reports of their deaths were an exaggeration.

This time last year, the Wolfpack was picked to finish eighth in the ACC after losing more than 10 games in a season for the first time since the 2015-16 season. It was also the first time the Pack lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in nine years.

Despite winning three of the last four ACC Championships entering last season, the belief was that NC State was entering a rebuilding phase. Head coach Wes Moore lost four starters from the 2022-23 squad, meaning there was a lot of unknown surrounding the Wolfpack’s roster.

It took less than a month into last season for NC State to prove that the prior year was nothing more than an aberration. In its second game of the season, the Wolfpack took down future Final Four participant and then-No. 2 UConn. A few weeks later, the Pack routed then-No. 3 Colorado.

With two top five wins in the opening month of the season, NC State became the first women’s college basketball team to start the season unranked and enter the top five before December. It wasn’t just the Wolfpack catching its opponents off guard early in the season. NC State tied a program record with nine wins over AP Top 25 teams on the way to its second Final Four in program history.

“I think the key to our run was our chemistry,” Moore said. “I think everyone really bought into the team-first mentality. Everyone was unselfish, actually enjoyed celebrating their teammates’ success as much if not more than their own. It just made for a great culture and just an unbelievable ride for sure.”

This season, the Wolfpack won’t be sneaking up on anyone. ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Women’s Basketball Top 25 has NC State as the No. 9 team in the country. The Pack will get everyone’s best shot coming off a Final Four appearance.

While NC State is used to having high expectations, it will have to shift from the underdog mentality it had last year. The Wolfpack could play more free last year knowing no one expected it to compete in the ACC, but now it will have to deal with the pressure of expecting to win every game.

“We were unranked last year and we didn’t care what the media had to say,” said senior guard Aziaha James. “We went to every game, gave 110% every game. So just keeping that same energy and intensity every step of the way this season.”

While NC State does return three of its top five scorers in the form of James, senior guard Saniya Rivers and graduate guard Madison Hayes, it will have to replace its starting frontcourt from a season ago.

Moore will have to find a way to replace Mimi Collins and River Baldwin, who combined for an average of 21.2 points per game, 13.1 rebounds per game and 1.8 blocks per game. To fill the void, Moore brought in graduate forward Caitlin Weimar, who won Patriot League Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year last season with Boston University. However, she’s been dealing with a hip injury.

“It’s still a work in progress as far as reloading the front court,” Moore said. “I’ll be honest with you, we have some question marks there. We’ve got to have some players step up. … We’ll hopefully figure it out before Nov. 5 when we tip it off.”

Outside of Weimar, there is a lot of unknown with the rest of the post players on NC State’s roster. The Pack has sophomore forward Maddie Cox, sophomore center Mallory Collier and graduate center Lizzy Williamson, but none of them averaged over 10 minutes a game last season.

With that, Moore said he may play four guards at a time because of the plethora of talent he has at that position.

Rivers and James are both coming off First-Team All ACC seasons. Hayes can stretch the floor and attack the rim. Sophomore guard Zoe Brooks was named to the All-ACC Freshman team a year ago and was NC State’s best player off the bench. Along with the returning quartet of guards, the Wolfpack brings in five-star freshman guard Zamareya Jones, who was ranked No. 17 in the country at the time of her signing.

With an embarrassment of riches at the guard position, don’t be surprised to see Moore forego playing a true post player at times.

“We’re probably going to be playing four guards quite a bit,” Moore said. “Heck, we may play five guards. I don’t know yet. With Saniya’s length and athletic ability you can play her about anywhere on the floor. We are definitely looking at a lot of different options. We want to get our best players on the court and then kind of adjust the system to fit that lineup.”

NC State won’t get much time to test its lineup configurations before it faces off against South Carolina in its second game of the season, the same team that beat the Wolfpack in the Final Four last year. The Gamecocks have been the class of women’s college basketball for the last seven years, winning three National Championships during that span, including a 38-0 season last year.

While NC State will bask in the glory of its Final Four run when the banner is raised in Reynolds Coliseum on Nov. 5 against East Tennessee State University, it will have to quickly shift its focus in order to get back to the Final Four.

“Obviously we celebrate the wins,” Rivers said. “We celebrate going to Final Four, but it’s time to turn the page at one point. I feel like bringing our freshmen along or a transfer we have of who wasn’t a part of that last year, we can’t obviously put them on that stage that we were on last year, but we can tell them, ‘Hey, it was fun, it was hard to get there.’ We can tell them everything we need to do to get there. They still won’t know what it’s like until they actually get there. So we’re going to do our best to prepare them to get back there just so they can experience something we did.”