It is probably the common goal among every team that plays NCAA women’s basketball: win enough, or finish high enough in your respective conference, to earn one of the 64 berths in the NCAA Tournament.
In 2015-16, NC State was denied that berth despite a 20-win season and fifth-place finish in the ACC, generally considered the toughest women’s basketball conference in the country. That oversight served as motivation for the 2016-17 Wolfpack squad, helping — with the added strength of four starting seniors — to drive the Pack to 23 wins, a fourth-place ACC finish and that annually sought-after post-season berth in the big dance.
But three weeks after an unlikely scenario that had record-breaking UConn denied another national title, and South Carolina taking home the trophy for the first time ever, the mood in renovated Reynolds Coliseum was again one, not of satisfaction over the program’s third-most successful season in a decade, but of muted discontent over what again seemed a slight by the NCAA selection committee; one which may have helped derail a possible trip to the round of 16 for the first time since 2007.
While virtually all prognostications prior to the tournament selection show had NC State tabbed no lower than a fourth seed, the Pack wound up sixth in the Lexington, Kentucky regional. That not only denied the Pack an opportunity to host the first two rounds of the tournament, it meant NC State would, barring a first-round upset, play its second-round game on the home court of its opponent – in this case, Texas, which was a No. 3 seed.
“No question, I was disappointed we did not get to host,” Pack coach Wes Moore acknowledged during a wrapup interview in mid-April for the 2016-17 season. “I was disappointed based on where we finished in the ACC, and where other people finished that did receive a host opportunity.”
(Moore might have been referring to the Miami Hurricanes, a team that entered the NCAA Tournament with an almost identical overall record (23-8) as the Pack’s 22-8 mark, but was seventh in the ACC’s final standings.)
Any number of factors have been discussed to explain NC State’s seeding, from a weak non-conference schedule to late-season losses to Wake Forest and Louisville, the latter in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
“You can basically pick apart every team’s resume in the tournament except UConn’s, since they didn’t lose until the final four,” Moore pointed out. “I’ll take some of the hit. Our non-conference schedule wasn’t as strong as I’d have liked, but honestly, it was hard to get games when everyone knew we’d won 20 games the year before and had four senior starters coming back.
“That probably hurt us some in the [selection] process. But it seems the talk is always how you finish, or your last 10 games (the Pack was 7-3 in that span, but two of those losses were to unranked Wake Forest and North Carolina). What’s frustrated me is it’s a moving target – one year it’s that you didn’t have enough top-50 wins. This year we did, but then you hear strength of schedule, or RPI, or whatever. To me, you should look at how a team does in its conference games and final standings to determine seeds and hosting sites.”
Still, the Pack did earn its 23rd tournament berth and second in Moore’s four years in Raleigh, as well as its first NCAA Tournament win since 2007 in its 62-48 trouncing of 11th-seeded Auburn in its first-round game on March 17. The Tigers, who’d averaged forcing more than 20 turnovers a game against its opponents, managed to get just 11 the first three quarters as NC State built leads of as many as 27 points before Moore emptied his bench the final period.
The 48 points are the fewest NC State has ever allowed in an NCAA Tournament game, “and it could have been a lot lower,” Moore said, noting that Auburn more points in the final period (25) than the first three combined (23).
Two days later, Texas’ Longhorns, playing on their home court, trailed the Pack 60-55 going into the final 10 minutes, and were still down five (71-66) with 5:58 to play, before an 11-5 run put them ahead by one with 1:33 left.
At that point, both of NC State’s posts, junior Chelsea Nelson and junior backup Akela Maize – had fouled out. But in the final 63 seconds of the game, the Pack lost senior guards Miah Spencer – who led all scorers with a career-high 31 points – and Dominique Wilson (27 points), the latter on a crucial, and controversial, charging call on a made basket with seven seconds left and the Pack trailing 81-80. Texas scored the final four points on a free throw line and then put-back for the 84-80 win that ended the Pack’s hope for a further tournament run.
A month later, Wilson and Spencer were still smarting over the calls that ended their NC State careers.
“I feel like this was the year we could have gone on a run,” Wilson said. “Texas is a great team, don’t get me wrong, but that game was stolen from us, especially in the fourth quarter. I’ve seen some bad games, or bad calls in games, but that [charge call] was horrible.”
“There were 52 fouls called,” added Spencer, “and I feel the refs got to determine [the outcome]. You’ve got to let the players determine the game – that’s what makes women’s basketball more interesting to watch.
“A lot of the coaches in Dallas were saying they were praying that we weren’t on their side of the bracket because we’d beaten so many good teams. We were almost there, going to the sweet 16, and I just hate that the refs had to decide that game for us.”
Moore agreed that the two calls were “disappointing”. That was especially true for the fifth foul on Spencer, who supposedly grabbed Texas’ Brooke McCarty on a screen. McCarty later admitted she deliberately tried to create contact knowing it could lead to Spencer’s fifth foul.
“But again, I have to look at what I could have controlled,” Moore added. “We switched defenses (from man to a diamond-and-one) after we dug a hole the first quarter, and probably should have gone back to it the fourth quarter. And having Chelsea and Akela foul out, we just have to teach them better in practice what they can and can’t do.
“You get greedy. But I am very proud of our kids; they played great, especially Miah and Dom, doing what they did on that stage. That was impressive.”
That duo, both earning first-team All-ACC selection this season and the Pack’s leading scorers the past two seasons, along with senior forward Jenn Mathurin (the team’s leading rebounder the past two years) and former walk-on senior guard Ashley Williams (the Pack’s top three-point threat) will be the hole in the lineup the Pack will have to fill. And it’s a hole that goes beyond the fact those four players accounted for 49 percent of all the points scored by NC State since 2013.
The Class of 2017, with its 86-43 record, is the winningest group of seniors since the Class of 1992.
“They’re going to be tough to replace from a lot of standpoints,” Moore said. “Those kids just represented us so well in every aspect; academically, athletically, in the community, just every way. They’ve been great ambassadors for our program and for NC State, and they’ll be sorely missed. I may need to take a sabbatical next year. Maybe my back will be bothering me or something.”
More seriously, Moore said he was proud of the overall team effort that produced 23 overall wins, 12 in the ACC – the most in a single season since 1998’s Final Four squad – a first-ever victory over then No. 2-ranked Notre Dame and, four days later, a huge road win at then No. 6-ranked Florida State, making NC State the only other team beside UConn to beat both the Irish and Seminoles this season.
“I’m proud of the way this team regrouped after Christmas,” he explained. “We overcame some early adversity. That Christmas break came at a good time because we were all frustrated. Then, I’d been talking up the Notre Dame game, being our first ACC game, at home, in the new Reynolds – so for our kids to step up and win that game, then go and win at FSU, just said a lot about their character.”
Coming tomorrow, part II of the women's basketball recap focusing on the senior class.
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