Wolfpack fans are shocked by State's late-season free-fall, and few can be optimistic about State's chances this week in the ACC Tournament in Charlotte. Eight straight losses left the Pack 4-12 in the ACC and 15-15 overall, and with the dead-last No. 12 tournament seed.

Why so bad? Here are 15 possible reasons the Pack -- picked to finish third in the ACC in the preseason -- has lost 15 games:

1 - N.C. State doesn't score enough points. The Pack is last in the ACC in scoring, averaging 67.9 points per game.

2 - N.C. State doesn't handle the ball well. The Pack finished 10th in the ACC in assist-to-turnover margin.

3 - N.C. State doesn't force enough turnovers. The Pack's defense caused 11.1 per game, last in the ACC, and State also is last in steals per game (5.03).

Easy baskets? For the Pack, they are few and far between.

4 - Farnold Degand's knee injury. The Pack lost its starting point guard 10 games into the season and could not replace Degand's size and speed.

5 - Point-guard play. After Degand went down, Javi Gonzalez began immediate on-the-job training. But unless your name is, say, Chris Paul, the ACC is no place for a freshman point guard -- not this season. And backup Marques Johnson, a sophomore transfer, was inexperienced.

6 - N.C. State is not a good rebounding team. Despite having space-eating freshman J.J. Hickson at center, the Pack is last in the ACC in rebounding margin and in offensive rebounds.

7 - N.C. State doesn't have good overall team quickness. The Pack's reaction time in rebounding, recognizing screens and providing help defense has been too slow.

8 - Brandon Costner's knee injury. Costner hurt a knee last summer in the Pan Am tryouts, sat out six weeks and never recaptured the form he had late last season, when he was arguably the ACC's best power forward.

9 - Scheduling. The Pack did a poor job setting up its nonconference schedule, leaving too many long gaps between games and leading to a disjointed stretch of season heading into ACC play.

NCSU and Florida State were the only two ACC teams to open conference play with two road games, and the Pack had to go to North Carolina and Clemson. (State coach Sidney Lowe has to figure the folks in Greensboro owe him one next season.)

10 - Player regression. Looking at the returning players from last season, a good argument can be made that Costner, Ben McCauley and Dennis Horner took steps backward this season in terms of player development and improvement.

11 - Limited offensive options. The Pack doesn't have enough guys who can slash to the basket or break down the defense off the dribble, nor is it a good running team. That means State must execute its set halfcourt offense extremely well to win.

12 - Leadership. Does the Pack have a leader?

If so, it was hard to discern.

13 - Smarts. The Pack simply makes too make mindless, careless, unforced mistakes.

At Wake Forest on Saturday, State was inbounding a pass under its basket with four seconds left on the shot clock. If anyone on the court was aware of the big ":04" on the clock, it didn't show. The ball was passed in to Costner, who passed to Trevor Ferguson, who was holding the ball went the shot-clock buzzer sounded.

14 - Toughness. Teams that are physically tough and mentally tough don't lose eight straight conference games. They just don't allow it to happen.

15 - Coaching. Lowe has had some personal, off-the-court issues to deal with in the past year. He said they have not affected his coaching duties, but most would agree this has been an underachieving, under-performing basketball team.

The buck, as they say, stops on the head coach's desk.