Was loss to Georgia Tech good for Wolfpack?

When you looked at N.C. State's schedule, specifically the Maryland-Georgia Tech-Wake Forest-Boston College stretch, you figured the Wolfpack probably should get off to a 4-0 start. But with N.C. State being N.C. State, you also figured it would find a way to drop one of the games.

True to form, N.C. State is 3-1 as it enters the "it could lose the next four" portion of its conference schedule (at Miami, at UNC, Virginia and at BC). Except, the loss — 82-71 to Georgia Tech, which lost at home to Virginia by 32 points Thursday night — might have actually been a good thing for this N.C. State team.

"The last time we were in this building, we kind of let the fans down and played really bad," Scott Wood said after Thursday's 76-62 win over Boston College. "I think that's the best way to say it."

Since the inexplicable loss to the Jackets, who have scored 50 and 38 points in their ACC games since, N.C. State has used it as motivation. The Pack throttled Wake 76-40 last Saturday and really beat BC worse than the final score indicated.

Of course, motivational lessons only go so far, and tend to look a lot more effective against teams the caliber of Wake and BC. But N.C. State took care of the business it was supposed to take care of in the past two games, and that's a good sign.

-- J.P. Giglio