NC State showed promising flashes against a physical UNC Wilmington defense that pressured the ball and created turnovers, but Coach Wes Moore stressed the need for greater consistency over a full 40 minutes as the Wolfpack prepare for ranked opponents and ACC play. Khamil Pierre and Qadence Samuels highlighted the growing comfort with their roles and the system, while praising the early integration and chemistry of younger players who received meaningful minutes. Moore noted solid progress from the recent scrimmage but pointed to areas still needing work, including ball security, three-point shooting, and limiting second-chance opportunities, while managing several minor injuries and rotating the lineup to keep the group healthy ahead of the regular season.
Participants: Head Coach Wes Moore, Khamil Pierre, Qadence Samuels
(0:00) Wes Moore:
Okay. UNC Wilmington came out and really got after us defensively. They got in the passing lanes, pressured the ball, and sometimes we handled it okay, other times we didn’t. But it was good for us to experience that. We have spurts, we have flashes. We’ve got to try to put 40 minutes together, and that’s what it’s going to take when we start playing some of the ranked teams we have on the schedule and we get into ACC play. We’re going to have to play a lot more consistently at a higher level. So again, moments. We’ve got one week before we play a game that counts, and we need to take advantage of this week we have in front of us.
(0:54) Q&A Session
Media: Questions for Q, and then Khamil for you—27 points tonight. Do you feel like early on you’re already in mid-season form heading into the year?
Khamil Pierre: Yeah, I would say I’m just focused on playing my game. I think just doing all the little things. I’m sure my game will come and be better and better.
Media: How much different is it this offseason for you knowing your role already? And this is for both of you. Already knowing your role going into this year and having played a full year, as opposed to where you were last year coming into a brand-new system.
Qadence Samuels: I would say just comfortability—understanding the system better, understanding my role, and then just trying to get everybody on the same page.
Khamil Pierre: Yeah, I would say the same with her. Understanding my role and just becoming a better person than I was last year.
Media: You had double-digit rebounds today. How much of that was just the game flow, or was it more of a focus on trying to be around the boards at all times?
Qadence Samuels: I did get rebounds last year, but I feel like I barely did. So one of my goals is to get every rebound, every game. That’s one of my goals.
Media: And for both of you, a couple of young players got the opportunity to step out on the court tonight. What did you see from them, and your thoughts on players like Kamora or Annsley in this one as well?
Qadence Samuels: I think they’re both very talented. Annsley works out with me every morning. She works extremely hard and she’s just eager to be better each and every day. I think it’s really cool to not only see her get good minutes, but see her show her work. And same with KP.
Khamil Pierre: I definitely would say they’ve gotten real comfortable early, just them going with the flow and playing with me and the seniors. I feel like they’ve gotten really comfortable really fast.
Media: One of the things I’ve noticed is when those younger players get a chance to play and make a couple of shots, you guys on the bench are really into it. What does that say about how the team is jelling early with the chemistry, having them be new and seemingly already integrated into the team?
Qadence Samuels: I think that’s what a team is all about. It’s more than just a game for us. I think we all really care for each other on and off the court. Everyone’s just super genuine, and of course we want to see each other win. So seeing that on a big stage is really cool.
Khamil Pierre: Yeah, I definitely would say even when you’re on the bench or just off the court, you still got to cheer and support them. So that’s the best.
Media: Well, Kam, my last question for you. You’re 0-for-1 from three-point range. You told us you would have two per game. Is that just when we get to the regular season, or…?
Khamil Pierre: So that one didn’t count because the shot clock was coming down from my first home opener. Oh, I’m shooting like five.
Wes Moore: No, we’re trying to get her where that’s part of her game, and she has shown again moments where she shoots it. We’re struggling to shoot the three in general. So I think she’s capable of doing it. You got to put time into it. And if you do that and the results are good, then go ahead.
(5:00) Coach Wes Moore continues
Media: So, coach, just your thoughts on this game and what it means this close to the season, being able to play a little bit more dominant of a performance than you had the first time around.
Wes Moore: Yeah, again, we had a close scrimmage about 10 days ago or so, and I was pretty encouraged by it. I thought we did a lot of good things today. I still see a lot of things that we got to work on. We’ve played mid-major and top schools this year, and part of that was half our team is new and we wanted to give them time to get minutes. Quite honestly, even though you should, your priorities are a little different this time of year, but if you’re playing another Power Four, you get competitive and maybe you don’t play the bench as much. So it’s good to have some games like this where everybody gets an opportunity in a game situation to show what they can do. I’ve seen moments, but we’re going to have to put together 40 minutes to compete at the level we want to compete at. So we got a lot of work to do, and I understand that. Like I said, we got to shoot the ball better, take care of the ball better. We gave up some offensive rebounds. I think at halftime, over half their points had come off second-chance opportunities. So possessions are something we’re really preaching. We got to take care of the ball. We got to limit them to one shot. We got to maybe get some extra shots by getting to the boards, and then we got to turn them over some. And that’s what we’re trying to do by extending our defense some. But like I said, it’s a work in progress.
Media: First minutes for Kamora in a public exhibition. Just your thoughts on her performance tonight and what she brings to the team as a person.
Wes Moore: Again, we have struggled shooting the ball, and that’s something that she’s very capable of—knocking down threes. But there’s so much, and again, I get it with these young players, new players. I’ve said before, it’s like taking a sip of water out of a fire hose. You’re just getting blown away. KP’s got to understand that we got to play the other end of the floor. We got to defend. We got to get box-outs and limit their opportunities. But again, we hope that she can grasp that as quickly as possible because we could use her ability to shoot out there.
Media: And how big of a deal is it to have a player like Khamil to kind of guide her in this as well?
Wes Moore: Yeah, and that’s the other thing I should mention. Zoe tweaked her hip the other day. Obviously she played, but we didn’t want to overdo it there. Give her an opportunity to give that a day or two to maybe calm down a little bit. And then we had some others. I know Khady hyperextended her knee in our scrimmage 10 days ago and she’s been dealing with that. So we’ve got a lot of people that are nicked up, banged up. And that’s the other thing right now. I guess because I’m wimpy, I’m kind of rotating the starting lineup a little bit just because I think we got a few guards that could have an argument for starting. But I can’t start all of them. So I may just end up rotating who starts some. I know they all love going out there and doing their little dance and all in the introductions, but we may have to rotate who gets to do that. But that’s what I said. We got to have Dez, Kai, they got to step up when Zoe’s not in there, and I think they’re very capable of doing that. So we got to continue to bring them along. And again, we got three people that are capable of playing point, which I think is important, but with Zoe not playing a lot today, Kai banged up a little bit, it’s still kind of short-handed. So we need a lot of people. We need nine, 10 people to be able to give us some minutes when we need it.
Media: Everything from what I’ve been able to observe has been the players really seem to be jelling. What can you say about this team and how they’ve built chemistry early?
Wes Moore: Yeah, and I’m proud of them for that. This is my 38th year as a head coach. I would say 36 of those 38 we had great chemistry, great culture. I’ve been very blessed, and I’m glad that we have that. Now again, the flip side of that is you also got to be able to win, so it’s a combination there. But it makes the journey a whole lot more fun when they’re pulling for each other, when they like each other. Like I said, I’ve been impressed. They come out and support volleyball and do other things, go out and eat, whatever, together. So I think that’ll help us hopefully, and we’re going to hit a bump in the road or two. I understand that. And then that’s when it’ll get tested. But so far so good. I like the way they’re supporting each other, and there’s a certain amount of closeness to this group.
Media: How significant was Qadence’s ability to rebound tonight? 11 boards. You mentioned missing some other players that might have stepped up in that area, but how big was that tonight? And how big can that be when you get to the regular season knowing that you’re lacking a little bit of size?
Wes Moore: Yeah. And that’s why we’re trying to extend our defense a little bit, try to mix it up a little bit, do some different things. We were hoping to do some different things against the post, but they really didn’t post up a lot. They did more five-out stuff. So that kind of stinks. You’d like to have been able to work on some things, but that’s okay. We’re fortunate. We got great practice guys that we go against every day, and we can really test a lot of things out in practice. But yeah, I agree. I think we need Qadence to be a rebounder. We need some extra help on there. Camille didn’t have her normal numbers on the boards. Hottie is capable. But we got to make sure, first of all, on the defensive end. We have times where maybe we’re not physical enough. We don’t deliver a blow when the shot goes up. Instead, we receive a blow and we get pushed under. We have other times where our guards are leaking out. I want to run, but we got to have the ball before we can run. So our guards are going to have to get in there and help us too. We’re going to have to have five people helping us instead of relying on one or two, because we don’t have 6-5, 6-6 in there to go get those.
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