A note from PackWBB.com
PackWBB.com does not have official media access to NC State women’s basketball. We also do not have a locker-room pass, a credential, or a realistic chance of Wes Moore calling on us in the second row.
The News & Unobserved. Imagined Access. So, we are publishing the quotes as they probably would have occurred if the players had been asked about football, bounce-backs, and why the shot clock is missing at Carter-Finley. None of these interviews happened. All of them feel true.
What Pack Women’s Bball players would have said about the 0-1 football team if anyone had asked.
RALEIGH — Members of NC State women’s basketball held an emergency film session this week after football’s 34-8 loss at Virginia last week and announced they are prepared to “sub in,” provided someone explains what a third down is and why the shot clock appears to be missing.
“We watched the tape,” said guard Zoe Brooks, who averaged 16 points a night last season and has never been held to eight points by a team named Virginia without filing a grievance. “They had the ball. Then they did not have the ball. Then a lot of people stood around. That’s not motion. That’s a missing assignment in a 1-3-1 that nobody called.”
Forward Khamil Pierre, who spent last year collecting double-doubles like they were complimentary popcorn, said she would immediately change football’s rebounding scheme.
“They said the other team ‘won the line of scrimmage,’” Pierre said. “In basketball we just call that getting outworked on the glass. Put me at nose tackle. I don’t know what a nose tackle is. I do know if the ball is on the ground it is mine.”
Quarterback CJ Bailey completed 12 of 23 passes for 84 yards in the opener. Brooks diagnosed the problem in basketball English.
“That’s 52 percent from the field with one turnover in the bonus and no paint touches,” she said. “You can’t live on fadeaways from the hash mark. Somebody has to set a ball screen. If the offensive line is a screen, it did not land. That’s a moving screen. That’s also a no-call, apparently, because football.”
Freshman forward Annsley Trivette, who is from Virginia but not from Richmond, is therefore legally required to have thoughts about the opener, said the Pack should treat Friday like a home exhibition that still counts.
“You don’t come into Reynolds and shoot 3-for-18 because it’s October,” Trivette said. “Carter-Finley is just Reynolds with worse air conditioning and people acting like star QBs in the parking lot. Bounce back. Box out. Stop throwing the inbound pass to the other team.”
Asked what schematic changes they would install if granted one practice, the players produced a list that Boo Corrigan is not expected to implement:
- Replace the playbook with “pass, cut, or post up.”
- Put a charge circle around the quarterback. “If he runs into a linebacker, that’s on him,” Pierre said. “We teach verticality.”
- Award the offense extra possessions for offensive rebounds. “They punt,” Brooks said, horrified. “On purpose.”
- Switch to a 2-3 zone on third-and-long because “everyone is just standing there anyway.”
- Full-court press Richmond. Let Qadence Samuels take the inbound. “I’m not on the football roster,” Samuels said. “That’s their problem. Pressure the inbound.”
Head coach Wes Moore declined to confirm he has drawn up football plays on a grease board, then confirmed it.
“Bad night. Erase the slate. Next possession,” Moore said. “I told them Friday is Senior Night except nobody is graduating and the opponent is Richmond. Take care of the basketball. I realize there is no basketball. Take care of the football as if it were a basketball that people are allowed to fall on.”
Football hosts Richmond on Friday at 7 p.m. Women’s basketball’s first exhibition is still a month away, which several players identified as the real scheduling scandal.
“They’re 0-1 and they get another game before we get a layup line,” Wooten said. “If I scored 8 points in a season opener, Coach would make me watch closeouts until November. These guys get a home game and a tailgate. I’d transfer to football just for the September kickoff.”
At press time, Pierre was still stuck on the uniforms.
In basketball, NCAA home is white. Reynolds is white jerseys, red letters, sit down, play. Football does the opposite at Carter-Finley: red jerseys, white numbers, white helmets, home, whatever. Pierre treated that like a traveling violation.
“You’re the home team and you wear the road color?” she said. “If we did that at Reynolds, Coach would think we got on the wrong bus. Friday is your house. I get that you wear red there. I do not get why that’s allowed. Pick a home color and commit. Rebound. Don’t fumble in the paint. And if anybody needs a high-low look, I am available after weights.”
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