MOSTLY dead...

Oh, Billy Crystal...if there were only some magic turd pill you could give this Wolfpack team heading into the tournament, then maybe we'd stand a chance.

Alas, this ain't Hollywood and Cary Elwes ain't walking through that door.

It's been a while, but State is back in some familiar territory heading to Charlotte: The Les Robinson invitational.

State wrapped up the 12th seed by ending the season on a strong eight-game losing streak, with especially painful losses at Maryland, at Boston College, at Virginia and at Wake Forest.

The Wake loss might have been the most painful of them all, as the team had shown what looked like some life in giving Duke everything it could handle. I felt like State would stand a decent shot against Wake Forest and build some momentum heading into the tournament.

Opening the game as poorly as they did, however, it was clear that the same team that lost the six games prior to Duke was not gone, nor forgotten. True, they did make a game of it a couple of times, closing large gaps with some impressive defensive stretches. But the same bugaboos that have done the Pack in all year long--getting out-rebounded and committing a high number of turnovers--did the Pack in again this final game of the year.

Good on Gavin Grant for closing out his regular season on a high note with 16 points, and Brandon Costner cracked double figures with 10.

But we're definitely limping into the ACC Tournament this year, much less confident at the guard position than last year. Making it to the finals this year would surpass last season's miracle run, or even Herb's run in 1997, in improbability.

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Missing: Brandon Costner

Brandon, if you're out there and can hear the sound of my, uh, blog(?), come home. We miss you.

Kinda of lost in all the warm fuzzies after the near win against Duke was the continued disappearance of Brandon Costner. Zero points on 0-3 shooting. Five boards and not much else.

It's been a hard fall from grace for Costner, who was cementing himself as one of the ACC's bright young stars by this time last year. He had one of the great ACC tournaments of any State player, and had the Pack won against Carolina he probably would've placed himself alongside Randolph Childress as two of the top ACC tournament performers of all time.

But this year has been a "Promise Unfulfilled" year of staggering proportions. Early on there were hints of chemistry issues with he (and McCauley) and the new guard being brought in by Sidney Lowe, particularly with the amount of minutes and attention J.J. Hickson was getting.

I can't speculate as to how valid any of those reports are or were, but they definitely seemed validated by Costner's play throughout the year. He rarely has seemed "involved" in the flow of the game while on the court, and his sieve-like defense has been particularly painful to witness. In the home game against Carolina, Brandon all but pulled up a chair to watch Tyler Hansbrough rotate to his side for an easy dunk.

Coach Lowe has tried desperately to get through to him in a manner of ways; letting him try to play through it, later benching him to try to send a message, then blending him in with other player combinations. Sid has figuratively thrown everything and the kitchen sink to get through to him, and to this point it's not worked.

But with the ACC tournament on the horizon, perhaps the opportunity to shine in Charlotte will awaken the Brandon Costner we remember from last season. If he does find his game there, Lordy Moses, imagine what this team could do! We haven't had a consistent long-range threat all year, and his size and athletic skill presents all sorts of matchup problems on the perimeter.

If he starts hitting a string of threes to open Thursday's game and can continue to shoot well from there on out, just about every other piece of the offensive puzzle for State could fall into place: Hickson will have more space inside to operate and face fewer double teams from Costner's man sagging inside. J.J. would also have more space to pass from the interior, allowing him better opportunities to find other open shooters. Teams would be less-apt to play zone against us.

The key question to ask Brandon is: "Are you will to give it everything on the defensive end?" To this point he seems stubbornly content to only play on one half of the court, and we're not a good enough offensive team to overcome 5-on-4 basketball on the other end. If he gives enough defensively to simply not be a liability (forget lockdown defender), and shoots as well as we know he can, this team could do some great things.

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