N.C. State has won seven of its past eight games and had the look of a team bound for a promising season in Saturday's 76-40 blowout at Wake Forest.
"We're coming off a game where we played well on the road, so we feel good," coach Mark Gottfried of State said. "Now for us the question is, can we handle having some success?"
A test in that regard will come at 8 o'clock tonight (WMYV Ch. 15) when N.C. State (13-5, 2-1 ACC) plays Boston College at the RBC Center.
The Eagles (7-10, 2-1) are young, but have made strides. They have won two straight games, dispatching Clemson and Virginia Tech by two points each.
"I think Boston College is very much improved from the beginning of the year to now," Gottfried said. "They're 2-1 in the league, a young team but extremely dangerous because they have bought into everything Steve (Donahue) is doing. We know we'll have our hands full."
The Eagles start four freshman, including 7-footer Dennis Clifford, who was the leading scorer against Clemson and Virginia Tech.
"They're much different now, and really in the last few weeks, than they were early," Gottfried said. "When you watch tape of them and watch some of those early games, you can almost throw those out. It's a different team."
N.C. State seemed to be a different team in its 36-point romp against Wake Forest than it was in its previous game, an 82-71 home loss to Georgia Tech.
Gottfried said there was nothing out of the ordinary leading up to the Wake Forest game.
"I'd like to say we did some magical things (in practice), but we didn't," Gottfried said. "We talked about the Georgia Tech game. I think our guys were very disappointed in how we played, and we addressed the issues that needed to be addressed. We practiced, had two good days where we were really able to focus on areas where we weren't very good. And then we played much better."
Junior Scott Wood is one of five N.C. State players averaging between 12.2 and 12.9 points, and he has played well this season. Wood leads the ACC in 3-point accuracy (47.1 percent) and has committed just 14 turnovers in 17 games.
But the statistic gaining notice with each game is Wood's perfect performance with free throws. Entering tonight's game, Wood is 41 of 41 for the season.
Gottfried said he doesn't recall ever having a player on such a long streak.
"Scott is phenomenal," Gottfried said. "He's the best foul shooter I've been around.
"I think that he gets better (as a player) every day. He plays the game without making very many mistakes. We all know what a threat he is to shoot the basketball. He doesn't do things he can't do, which a lot of players do at times. We like to use the term 'solid' He's about as 'solid' as you can get."
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