CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After a tumultuous 2022-23 season, NC State women’s basketball is fired up and ready to come back with a vengeance when it kicks off the 2023-24 season in November. The Pack brought in a total of eight new faces in the offseason — six true freshmen and two transfers — and lost four starters. For better or for worse, it’s going to be a completely new look for the red-and-white.  

Junior guard Saniya Rivers and senior guard Madison Hayes are two of just five returning athletes for the Wolfpack, which has forced each of them to take on a greater leadership role than they have in the past. 

Last year was Rivers’ first year with NC State, so she spent a lot of time getting acclimated to her new environment and playing on the wing. When the Pack’s starting point guard, Diamond Johnson, was sidelined with an injury, she began to step up and run point. By the end of the season, the then-sophomore was named the ACC Sixth Player of the Year and was ranked the No. 6 Most Impactful Transfer by ESPN. 

This year, Rivers will likely be the red-and-white’s primary ball handler, which has compelled her to be a better leader on and off the court. 

“The leadership role is hard,” Rivers said. “I’m not gonna lie. And you can’t be trained for it. So it’s just something you have to learn to tap into.”

With just under half of the roster consisting of freshmen, a large part of that leadership role has been helping them to get settled into the team. As one of the more seasoned players, Rivers has made it her goal to make sure the new players feel comfortable and supported in their new program. 

“Everyone’s different, all the freshmen are different, so you have to know how to approach them differently,” Rivers said. “I’m big on trying to step in because I wish I would have had that my freshman year.” 

For Hayes, keeping the new players in line will be her main focus. As she enters her third year with the Wolfpack, she understands better than anyone that head coach Wes Moore’s system demands his players to remain disciplined in every aspect of the game. 

“I feel like I will kind of be the enforcer when it comes to energy and physicality,” Hayes said. “I feel like Mimi Collins will probably step in there as well.”

However, training the newcomers on how to play in Moore’s system isn’t the Pack’s only goal when it comes to the significant changes to the roster. Both Rivers and Hayes made it clear that team chemistry will be essential to a successful season. 

“As a team we go bowling, we go out to dinner, we go support other sports,” Rivers said. “We gel really well because we bond off the court.”

Looking towards the fast-approaching 2023-24 season, NC State landed just outside the AP Top 25 Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll. The Pack received 34 votes, which put the team at 27th in the nation. Seven other ACC teams received votes, five of which cracked the top 25. This marks the first year since the 2016-17 season that the Wolfpack hasn’t ranked in the top 25, but Hayes doesn’t think that’s such a bad thing. 

“We have nothing to lose,” Hayes said. “And I feel like that just gives us the chip on our shoulder so that we can go out there and win and, you know, be competitive.”

Rivers, Hayes and Moore unanimously agreed that the root of all their problems last year was a lack of consistency and an inability to string together a full four quarters of basketball. 

“I feel like we always finished stronger than we started,” Rivers said. “I feel like that was one of the reasons that we lost a few games because it was just too late when we started to get into the game. So we have to come out hot and stay hot.” 

In terms of the team’s goals for the upcoming season, Hayes and her teammates share high expectations for the postseason. The Wolfpack is hoping to return to its winning ways and reestablish itself as a dominant force in the ACC.

“I feel like we are that ACC-caliber championship team,” Hayes said. “We are going to do better than what we did last year for sure, we’ve just got to stay focused and push through.”

Up next, the Wolfpack will host its annual Primetime with the Pack event Thursday, Oct. 26. At this event, fans will have the opportunity to meet both the NC State women’s and men’s basketball teams along with their head coaches and watch players compete in skills challenges. 

The red-and-white women are set to play their first and only exhibition contest against Catawba on Nov. 2 before tipping off regular season play with a game against UNC Charlotte on Nov. 7.