NC State at the 2026 ACC Women’s Tipoff. Hilton Charlotte Uptown, Monday. Kai Crutchfield was in the house on a special assignment, interviewing the league’s stars for the ACC crew.

Windows

• 10:00, Brooks and Pierre, ACC Network
• 11:00, full press conference, ACCNX
• 12:15, Moore, ACC Network

Look and feel

• Brooks looks like she has added 10 pounds of muscle.
• Locked in. Last year Brooks and Zam Jones were on “dawgs.” This year Brooks and Pierre were tighter.
• Last year was not the standard. This is their last year. The correction is more work.
• Moore still likes the room: teaching, the players, and what they do after they are done playing.

Roster

• Mix Moore likes: 3 freshmen, 3 transfers, 5 returners.
• Needs the freshmen to contribute.
• Impact names from Brooks: Kamora Pruitt first, then transfer Khady Leye. Both Zoe and KP nodded on Desiree Wooten.
• Leye can play really fast. Wooten needs to be more consistent. Confidence from Qadence Samuels. A turn-up year from Ky’She Lunan.

Style

• Different team. New plays going in every day.
• A little smaller, a lot faster. Fast break is the fun part.
• Pierre: it already feels hard, they are more than capable, and this is a really quick group.
• Fast, with energy. Chemistry is good. Some five-out, not all of it.
• Defense shifts from containment to extend, ball pressure, and quickness that turns defense into offense.

Brooks

• Foot is much better. Offseason was rehab. She is back on the court.
• Moore is glad to have her, and glad she has been working on the three.
• Says NC State made her better as a player and a person: accountable in class, honest about what she still has to fix on the floor.
• Wants to be great here and play at the next level.

Pierre

• All-ACC First Team did not get treated as an arrival. The program pushed her.
• Rebound standard from Moore is not 12. The goal is 15.
• Three-point work is for the next level. She put her own number at about two attempts a game. Don’t worry about it.
• Same motivation as Brooks: great at NC State, then the next level.

The three

• By committee, not one shooter.
• Brooks and Pierre have both worked at it.
• Also in the mix: Lunan, Maddie Cox, Adelaide Jernigan, Wooten.
• Wooten shot 35 percent last year. Moore expects that number to rise.
• Brooks called the jump a team effort.

Schedule

• Hard nonconference is the point. It is what makes you better.
• Ally Tipoff is in Charlotte, same building as the ACC tournament this year.