We have the bottom to ourselves.

I was a bit surprised to see that a significant gap had formed between 11th and 12th place, and this was before the FSU game:

                                     Opp.
..                   Pace    PPP     PPP      EM
1.  North Carolina   75.6    1.12    0.97   +0.15
2.  Duke             76.5    1.12    0.98   +0.14
3.  Clemson          68.4    1.09    1.01   +0.08
4.  Maryland         72.1    1.05    1.04   +0.01
5.  Georgia Tech     72.6    1.06    1.07   -0.02
6.  Wake Forest      72.4    1.02    1.04   -0.02
7.  Miami            70.0    1.04    1.07   -0.03
8.  BC               69.3    1.07    1.10   -0.03
9.  Virginia Tech    72.8    0.96    1.01   -0.05
10. Florida St.      68.3    0.97    1.04   -0.07
11. Virginia         69.5    0.99    1.06   -0.07
12. NC State         67.8    0.99    1.13   -0.14

In other news...

When asked about Hickson's lack of touches in the second half, the second-year Wolfpack coach said Florida State's tactics were responsible.

"It's kind of like when we played against (former 7-foot-4 Virginia star) Ralph Sampson," Lowe explained, citing his playing days in 1983. "You've got one guy in front guy and one guy behind; it's tough to get it in there. We had (Hickson) running all over the place, we had him ducking in, we had him trying to ride him up higher (and) we had to swing it around.

"What you have to do is make some open shots to pull that defense out. What they were saying is that, 'We're going to play one behind and one in front and we're going to force you to swing it around and make a couple of shots.'"

Upon reviewing the game tape, however, Florida State never double-teamed Hickson in the second half. Ryan Reid and Uche Echefu fronted Hickson several times, but they never doubled down to prevent the entry pass. And N.C. State never set a screen to free him, either.

"We have strategies," according to Lowe. Maybe this is an example of why they never seem to work.