Khamil Pierre did not come back to NC State to run last year’s season over again.

At ACC Tipoff on Monday, the senior forward sounded clearer about her job than she did a year ago, and less interested in pretending last year was enough. Eleven or 12 rebounds a game would still be a good number. Wes Moore wants 15 and more. He also wants the vocal leader, the player who knows the sets from more than one spot, and the one who gets downhill instead of curling away from contact.

“I thought a lot was expected out of me last season, but I feel like this season a lot more is expected,” Pierre said.

She could have left. She said that out loud. More money was out there, and so were the schools people would call a bigger stage. State was the place that took her in when things were hard, and Zoe Brooks was coming back. That was enough.

“I really want to get drafted with Zoe. Share that experience. I think that’s super cool,” Pierre said. “I just wanted to stay where I was valued, and that was State.”

The friendship is not a podium line. The night before, they got ice cream and rode scooters around Charlotte. On the floor, Pierre wants the same ending Brooks talked about: the two of them drafted together, the way Saniya Rivers and Aziaha James left Raleigh. Brooks, for her part, has looked different since the rehab. Pierre’s review was short. She doesn’t miss. Practice stats say so. The passes are better too.

Pierre’s own offseason list was longer. Midrange. Pull-ups. Threes. Handle. And the thing everybody already thinks they know: she can go left now. Coach Kev put her through contact every day. Practice players did not take it easy. The plan is simple enough to cause problems. Attack downhill, draw the foul, put somebody on the bench with foul trouble.

She was not proud of last season, and she did not dress that up either. As a sophomore she used the midrange. As a junior she got stuck in her own head. Life off the floor was not in a good spot. This year she has people working with her on both sides of that, and she was not interested in the camera version of a comeback story.

“A lot of people will get on camera and act as if everything’s okay, but the truth is athletes do go through a lot,” she said. “I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Oh, everything’s just perfect.’”

Moore is part of the push. They have bumped heads. Pierre said she had to step back and see it as a loving reason, the kind of expectation that covers basketball and the rest of life. The fan base has been the other side of that. Second school, sold-out buildings, people who stop her and act like they have been waiting on her. She called that bigger than basketball.

On this roster, the job title is motor. Two posts on the floor, and she still expects to be the first one down. Boards, run the floor, and make the group move the way she and Brooks move. They do not call her KP anymore. That belongs to freshman Kamora Pruitt now. Pierre is Mel.

She likes the new pieces around them. Annsley Trivette is strong and pays attention. Pruitt can shoot and already has a feel for the game. Desiree Wooten is a shifty guard who sees the floor. Khady Leye is the long, athletic forward Pierre expects to share minutes with. Favour Ossai arrived late and, in Pierre’s telling, makes the team better just by being in the room.

None of that is why she called this her favorite team. No blowups. No arguments. A lot of laughing, a lot of random hangouts, and a group that has been together long enough to feel easy. The standard on the glass is the part that is not easy. She was not proud of last year. She expects this one to look different.