M. Hoops: Deja vu all over again for Wolfpack

No one thought N.C. State would come out of Cameron a winner.

No one even thought the lowly Wolfpack would smell a lead in Durham against the number two team in the nation, but a minute into the second half, State was up by six.

A Crazie in a green shirt fidgeted in her baseline seat - perhaps thinking of last year's State-Duke game on Coach K Court, when a nine-point halftime lead led Duke's rabid student section to ditch it's green "energy-aware" T-shirts for the more familiar sea of blue that Dicky V screams about.

But on this side of the closest 17-point blowout in recent memory, State fans may have some reminiscing to do as well, because this year's edition of the Pack is made of up the exact same mix-matched pieces as last year's team: a dominant frontcourt, no answer at the point and an uncanny ability to give away games with less than eight minutes to go.

Fans with longer memories may protest, "Well at least depth isn't a problem anymore," alluding to Sidney Lowe's first season when injuries had State limited at best and tired at worst in big game situations, but the Pack's depth issues are still prevalent, just in a more complex way.

Lowe reached six deep into his bench for last night's game in Cameron, and only one player, Brandon Costner, saw 30 minutes of playtime while ten others had double digit minutes in the contest.

With players fighting for minutes, players should step up, right? Tracy Smith is a testament to that, grabbing 31 points in a contest earlier this year and truly taking advantage of the playtime Lowe granted him.

But the frontcourt is solid, even coach Krzyzewski tabbed Ben McCauley and Costner as "two of the best players in the league" in his post-game press conference.

So the competition must be so the team can find a steady hand at point guard! Great! Except when minutes are split up like hockey lines, no guard can get comfortable.

Point guards are like quarterbacks - they're the floor generals, the coaches on the court, and with a former point guard that still holds the best all-time assist-to-turnover ratio in the ACC at the helm, you'd think he'd have one ready - at least for conference play.

But Lowe continues to split minutes between his three guards - Farnold Degand was in for 21, Julius Mays had 13, and Javier Gonzales stepped on the court for six.

Check the stat sheet again, though.

Degand had four assists to go with six turnovers, Mays was 1-2, and Javier was 1-1.

Why does Lowe continue to reward whatever point guard successfully brings the ball across mid-court instead of breeding one ACC-caliber guard with the ability to lead the program and find the open man?

In his Monday press conference, Lowe said the team is close to having three healthy point guards - which is what the team needs, according to Lowe.

Didn't he go to the ACC championship game with just one?