Women’s Basketball Projected to Finish Second; Three with Preseason All-ACC Honors
10/15/2024 5:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
RALEIGH, N.C. – Following NC State women's basketball's NCAA Final Four appearance, the Pack are projected to finish second in the Atlantic Coast Conference, as voted by the Blue Ribbon Panel and announced by the league on Tuesday. Saniya Rivers and Aziaha James were two of 10 selected on the Blue Ribbon Panel Preseason All-ACC Team and Zamareya Jones was one of five chosen on the Newcomer Watch List.
Rivers and James are coming off junior seasons, which were capped off with All-ACC First Team honors. Rivers was also an ACC All-Defensive Team selection and AP All-America Honorable Mention choice after averaging 12.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals and 0.9 blocks in 35.2 minutes per game in 2023-24. Last season, Rivers was a top 10 candidate for the Ann Meyers Drysale Award and was on multiple midseason watch lists. The Wilmington, North Carolina product started in all 35 game appearances with 11 full games played last season, while leading the Pack in steals, defensive rebounds/game (5.5) and minutes/game. She finished her junior season with 23 double-digit scoring games, five 20+ point contests, one 30-piece, three double-doubles and 14 5+ assist games.
Last season, Rivers went off against No. 2/2 UConn with her first career double-double behind a career-high 33 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, being just one of 12 players across all NCAA Division I women's basketball to have a 30/10/5 game during the year. Rivers had back-to-back seven steal games against Duke and Clemson, becoming the fourth player in program history with multiple 7+ steal games in the same season. She also was key to the Pack's NCAA Final Four run, having averaged 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game during that five-game stretch.
James is coming off a breakout season, in which she led the Pack with 16.8 points per game, while also averaging 4.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 31.8 minutes per game, while making all 38 starts. Her 10.0-point scoring increase from 2022-23 to 2023-24 was the highest scoring average increase by any ACC player (6.8 PPG to 16.8 PPG). During the NCAA Tournament, James caught fire, averaging 23.4 points and 3.2 assists per game on 47.5 percent shooting from the field and 50.0 percent from beyond the arc (19-of-38) to guide the Pack to its first Final Four appearance since 1998. James was tabbed the Portland 4 Regional Most Outstanding Player and was honored to the All-Tournament Team.
Additionally, James finished the season with 31 double-digit scoring games, 12 20-point games and two 30-pieces, while her 12 20-point games were the most for a member of the Pack since 2013-14. James scored a career-high 33 points against Duke and 30 vs. Georgia Tech last year, being one of five in the league with multiple such games. During the NCAA Tournament, James put up 29 points against No. 5 Stanford and 27 off seven made 3-pointers, a program NCAA record, against No. 4 Texas.
Jones is going into her freshman year after being a highly recruited guard out of North Pitt High School. Ranked as the No. 17 recruit in the 2024 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings at the time of her signing, Jones was regarded as a five-star recruit. Jones was tabbed as a McDonald's All-American and was invited and played in the Jordan Brand Classic. The Greenville, North Carolina native was named the North Carolina Player of the Year by multiple outlets following her senior season, in which she averaged 25.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 4.2 steals per game to lead North Pitt to the 2A state title.
NC State was projected to finish second in the 18-team league and received eight first-place votes. The Pack has been picked to finish No. 2 in the ACC in five different preseason projections (1995-96, 1999-00, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2024-25).
Blue Ribbon Panel Preseason All-ACC Team (Order of Votes Received)
Hannah Hidalgo So., G, Notre Dame
Ta'Niya Latson, Florida State
Saniya Rivers, NC State (2 first-place votes)
Aziaha James, NC State (1 first-place vote)
Olivia Miles, Notre Dame
Sonia Citron, Notre Dame
Makayla Timpson, Florida State
Alyssa Ustby, North Carolina
Reigan Richardson, Duke
Kymora Johnson, Virginia
Newcomer Watch List
Toby Fournier, Duke
Imari Berry, Louisville
Kate Koval, Notre Dame
Zamareya Jones, NC State
Liza Karlen, Notre Dame
Blue Ribbon Panel Predicted Order of Finish
1. Notre Dame (70), 1726
2. NC State (8), 1617
3. Duke, 1446
4. Louisville, 1370
5. Florida State, 1335
6. North Carolina, 1279
7. Stanford (1), 1214
8. Miami, 883
9. Virginia, 877
10. Georgia Tech, 855
11. Syracuse, 801
12. Virginia Tech, 786
13. Clemson, 553
14. California, 546
15. Boston College, 533
16. SMU, 274
17. Wake Forest, 259
18. Pitt, 233
Primetime with the Pack presented by Bojangles is set for Friday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. before the Wolfpack host Anderson (S.C.) for an exhibition on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. The Pack will officially open the season on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. against ETSU.
