5 coaches in line to win their first NCAA Women’s Tournament

4. Wes Moore, NC State

Wes Moore has been an NCAA staple for years. From 1998 to 2013, he was the head coach at Chattanooga, where he made nine appearances in the NCAA Tournament and another three in the WNIT. Moore basically ran the Southern Conference over that time, with 12 regular-season conference titles.

In 2013, Moore moved on to NC State, where he took the Wolfpack to a 25-8 record, but a first-round exit. The next season, the team went to the WNIT. The year after, it didn’t appear in a postseason tournament.

But since then, NC State has posted six consecutive seasons with single-digit losses, culminating in this year’s 29-3 record. Moore’s teams just keep getting better.

And if there’s a year for the Wolfpack to break through and win a title, this is it. Elissa Cunane is a senior and will be heading off for the WNBA after this season, giving Moore one last chance to win with one of the top bigs in the country. This team will still be good after Cunane leaves — Moore still has two more seasons of Diamond Johnson —  but will the Wolfpack be championship-level good? It’s a hard question to answer, which makes this year’s tournament incredibly important for NC State.