NC State Wolfpack

NC State wasn't looking for any moral victories when it ventured over to Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night. Perhaps that's the very reason the Pack nearly pulled off the program's biggest win in the Herb Sendek era.

Simply put, the Wolfpack expected to beat the Blue Devils.

After winning 12 of their first 14 games, many NC State players wondered what it would take for them to start getting some of the national respect they felt was deserved. How ironic it is that they'll start getting that respect following a loss. In others words, NC State may have scored some major victories in its 92-88 overtime defeat at Duke.

You can bet that a lot of people noticed.

Because of its high profile status in the college basketball universe, Duke is to ESPN what Michael Jordan is to NIKE. ESPN can't get enough of the Blue Devils and visa-versa.

A midweek Duke telecast means big-time national ratings-and-big-time advertising revenues for the all sports network. An audience that included your basic college hoopaholics, other coaches and many influential members of the sports media viewed all or portions of Wednesday night's contest.

What they saw was one of the best college basketball games of the year contested between two of the best teams in the country.

How many times have you watched Duke pummel a helpless victim into the Cameron Indoor Stadium floor over the years? It's gotten to the point where you almost expect it to happen. And I'm sure many college basketball aficionados predicted a similar scenario on Wednesday.

Much to their surprise, NC State had other ideas. You can be sure that the Wolfpack's inspirational performance definitely opened some eyes. The cat is now out of the bag: The Pack can play.

Some, including Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski, knew that all along. "This team could kick our butts," Coach K told me about an hour before tip off on Wednesday.

All along this season, NC State has been playing hard and practicing hard. Now the Pack is starting to play well.

The new motion offense that was installed during the fall is now paying dividends. When the Wolfpack was struggling to get good shots and avoid long scoring droughts earlier in the season, the players and coaches kept the faith. "Patience" was the key they said.

In recent weeks, the field goal percentage has slowly, but surely been coming up. Over its last three games, NC State has hit nearly 48 percent of its shots. And that was done against Virginia, Wake Forest and Duke. We're talking about three pretty good defensive teams here.

The Wolfpack has already proven that is one of the most formidable offensive rebounding teams in the country. The defense, as we all know, is tremendous as well. If the offensive execution continues at its current rate of improvement, NC State will be tough to beat by the time mid-February rolls around.

But as 5th ranked Duke can attest, the Pack is tough to beat right now.