NC State Wolfpack head women's basketball coach Wes Moore, entering his eighth season in Raleigh, spoke with The Wolfpacker in October to preview his roster in 2020-21.

Here is a breakdown of Moore’s comments on each player:

“She’s in the best shape of her life right now. I like the way she’s moving. At times some knee issues, aching, things like that. I think she’s in a pretty good place right now, we just got to make sure we stay on top of that and we try to manage her time a little bit. We’ve got some good depth behind her as well.

“We talked last year from a technical standpoint about how she needed to really work on the baby hook. I thought late in the year she utilized it. She’s really doing a great job with it now, it’s a great weapon for her.

“She’s a special player. To be able to step out and knock down threes, to be able to score around the basket, block shots and be a presence on defense, she wears a lot of hats for us. We’re excited about what she’s going to do over the next couple of years and especially this year right now, I think she’ll take it to another level hopefully.”

“There are a lot of good things she understands, she reads defenses, she recognizes things before they happen and makes plays. She has a real high basketball IQ and hopefully she’ll be able to spread that among her teammates, as well.

“She too has a little bit of knee arthritis or whatever you want to call it, so we got to manage her as well.

“We’re trying to play KJ on the wing some with losing Ace [Konig], losing Grace [Hunter], both players that could play the wing. KJ gives us some experience there.

“We’re playing her more on the perimeter and on the wing, and she’s capable of [knocking down threes].”

“Raina Perez is our grad transfer that averaged about 19 points a game at Cal Fullerton a year ago and was Player of the Year in the Big West Conference. I think she too is going to take up some of that slack [on offense] for us.

“I’m definitely glad we have Raina here, just from an experience standpoint.

“Raina could probably play both [guard and wing], she’s picked things up really quickly. I do like Raina at the point guard quite a bit. She just got a real high IQ herself, hard-nosed kid, competitor, obviously can score it. 19 points per game last year at Fullerton.

“She’s having to learn a little bit about playing with so much talent around her at this level, but I’m very thankful we have her here to give us some options there.”

“Jakia Brown-Turner is a great shooter herself and I think she too has gotten a little bit quicker, a little bit more explosive. When you can do that, that makes them have to back off a little bit and give you a little more of a window to shoot.

“Jakia and Jada Boyd, unfortunately, I think that’s the first two All-ACC freshmen we’ve had since I’ve been here. A lot of times, we’ve had to try to help these young ladies develop as players and grow and sometimes it’s tougher their freshman year.”

“Kai Crutchfield’s got three years of experience and she seems to step up in the big games.

“Kai can definitely play some point for us as well as the wing.”

“Jada Boyd has a very, very high ceiling. That’s what we’re trying to tap into.

“She still has some things to learn. Sometimes when she makes a mistake, she shuts down a little bit. We got to make sure she can play through mistakes and keep that motor running high.

“She’s so explosive to the rim, to the offensive boards. She’s so long and athletic, that we got to figure out ways to get her on the court. That’s what we’re trying to make sure happens, get our best players out there.

“Jada Boyd, that's the main reason we’re sliding KJ over is to try to get Boyd on the court.”

“KJ gives us some experience [at the wing], but it also really does open up some minutes at the four position for Jada Boyd and for Elle Sutphin to be able to get on the court some at that spot.

“Elle can shoot the ball unbelievably well at that spot, so it gives us a little bit different look at times if we throw her out there.”

“I thought Camille did a great job being thrown into the fire [in the ACC Tournament]. I think it was maybe against Georgia Tech. I thought she handled that extremely well.

“Camille can really score the ball. She can step out behind the three-point line very comfortably. Nice touch on her shot, probably needs to continue to work on her defense a little bit."

“With Elissa, it’s hard to play three people sometimes at that spot. I hope I can do it, I hope I can juggle them a little bit, but I’m very comfortable with Camille and Jada [Rice] both being in there when needed.”

“Jada Rice on the other side has worked extremely hard at scoring around the rim, really doing a great job using up and under moves, step throughs and that sort of thing to keep people off balance.

“Defensively, she’s a presence. She can block a shot, she can just provide some size in there on the block to match up with people, she's rebounding the ball.

“Both of [her and Hobby] really complement each other well and I feel comfortable with either one.”

“Kendal and Genesis [Bryant] are both doing well, working hard, but they’re still relatively young.

“Gen’s a freshman, so she's doing a lot of good things as is Kendal. It is nice in that position to have some experience.”

“A lot of times, we’ve had to try to help these young ladies develop as players and grow and sometimes it’s tougher their freshman year. I think all three of them have the potential. We’re probably in a little different situation as far as we do have some depth, but I think Gen at the point guard can really shoot the ball well.

“She was really close in high school to be in a 90-50-40 which is 90 percent from the foul line, 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from the three-point line. That’s really hard to do. There are not many players that have done that.

“She can really shoot the ball, good IQ, understands where the ball needs to go and how to get it there. Again, she's a freshman, she’s undersized, so she’s going to have to fight a little bit harder on defense and in the paint.”

“Dontavia is probably one of our strongest kids in the weight room already as a freshman. She comes from a great high school program in Nashville, Tenn., Ensworth. Mary Cowles is the head coach there, I’ve known her for years, she used to be at the college level.

“So Dontavia comes in with a lot of knowledge, fundamentals and like I said, strong. She can get to the rim, she does a great job crashing the boards, can defend people and really shut them down. The shot is getting better every day.”

“Rebecca Demeke is a shooter. I went up to see her play in Canada the first time and I think she hit like seven threes in the game I was at. She’s long and athletic also.

“She probably needs to get a little bit tougher, Dontavia is tougher. Rebecca probably needs to get a little bit tougher but she has the potential to be a great player because she can shoot the ball so well and she’s long and athletic.

“I think both of them have bright futures and both of them will help us this year some and continue to grow. We’re going to lose, I guess conceivably, Kai and KJ through graduation so you got a couple of young kids coming in that you hope can just slide on in.”

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