When thinking of NC State women’s basketball, many recall the legacy of Hall-of-Fame coach and inspiration, Kay Yow. Yow led the Wolfpack from 1975-2009 and finished her illustrious career with 737 wins and four ACC tournament titles, all while battling cancer. After a handful of down years following the late Yow’s retirement, current NC State head coach Wes Moore is looking to bring a very storied program back to prominence.

Coming off his fourth season with the Pack, Moore took home ACC Coach of Year honors and led the team to a 12 ACC wins, a mark the program last achieved during the 1997-98 season when NC State advanced to the Final Four. This season, the Wolfpack also won 14 games at Reynolds Coliseum. This is the second time in four years Moore has led his team to 14 home wins, something that had only been done twice in 39 years prior to Moore’s arrival.

“This year, we had a special group,” Moore said. “As usual, we had some peaks and valleys and I’d say right before Christmas, we hit dead bottom after some tough losses. I’m just really proud of the way this team came back, really focused and ready to jump into the ACC schedule. I think they were excited about the challenges and played unbelievably well, especially in big games and consequently we had a pretty special year.”

Although Moore has only been NC State’s head coach for four years, his ties to the program date back much further. Moore was an assistant coach on Yow’s staff from 1993-95, while the Pack made a Sweet 16 run and finished in the AP Top 25 at the end of his second year as assistant.

“[Coach Yow] was just an unbelievable person,” Moore said. “Obviously, she has tremendous accolades, taking this program to a Final Four, coaching the USA team to an Olympic gold medal and being inducted into both basketball Hall of Fames. Every time you walk on that court and see her name, and look up in the rafters and see the banner celebrating her career, it humbles you a little bit and makes you realize how blessed you are to be here at NC State and what a responsibility you have to try to keep that great tradition going.”  

As marvelous as Yow’s career was, she was often overlooked. The Hall of Famer never won the conference’s Coach of the Year award even with a handful of first-place ACC finishes. Moore’s honor marked the first time in the 34-year history of the official ACC Coach of the Year award that it was claimed by NC State.

“[Yow coached teams] were very talented and maybe people took that for granted a little bit,” Moore said. “This program had a great run and a great history with Coach Yow. I am very honored.”

Even with the success Moore has achieved throughout his career and in his time at NC State, he has never been one to take sole credit for personal accolades.

“[ACC Coach of the Year] is a team award,” Moore said. “I didn’t make any shots, and I didn’t grab any rebounds. The players went out and performed at an extremely high level, and consequently, we all benefited from it.”   

His humble, yet hungry approach has led to Moore fostering great relationships with his players thus far in his tenure. This is evident as Moore has been able to get the most out of his players year in and year out, exceeding conference preseason poll expectations in three out of four years.

“Coach Moore stood out the most to me,” redshirt senior guard Dominique Wilson said. “My dad told me about all the wins he had at Chattanooga and I just wanted to win and I felt like he was a coach that wanted to win also.”  

As far as the motivation for the successful campaign that just concluded, the Wolfpack had plenty, and Moore never stopped reminding them of the end goal.

“Getting snubbed [in the 2015-16 season] really fueled us to come out this year and finish those games that we lost by two or four points,” Wilson said. “We didn’t want to give them a reason [to leave us out of the NCAA Tournament] this year. Coach Moore kept reminding us and before every big game he would say, ‘Create your own story; don’t let anybody create it for you.’”

Now with 28 seasons as a head coach under his belt, Moore has earned a career record of 644-212 (.752) to claim his spot as the 10th most successful active NCAA Division I women’s basketball head coach by win percentage.

With four seniors departing from this year’s squad, next season’s roster will look different for the Wolfpack. However, Moore will look to continue to help NC State climb back to the peak of prominence in women’s college basketball.