But who could have ever dreamed this?

The Pack, picked in the preseason to finish third in the ACC, finished last at 4-12. It finished with a losing season. It finished in record-setting fashion, with nine straight losses, becoming the first team in school history to end with such a resounding thud.

A 63-50 loss to Miami in Thursday's opening round of the ACC Tournament at Charlotte Bobcats Arena brought to an end a season as baffling and bewildering as any in State's long basketball history. It ended with the Pack's lone senior, Gavin Grant, on the bench, where Lowe kept him most of the game, saying Grant was not ready to play.

Had it not been for freshman center J.J. Hickson, who fought and hustled for 27 points and 14 rebounds, State (15-16) would have had no stars this day. And Hickson may soon be headed to the NBA, although he said no decision had been reached on entering his name into the draft.

"There's no timetable," Hickson said. "I want to take time to relax. I'll sit down with Coach Lowe and my family and see where I'm at with the draft and go from there.

"If I'm not where I want to be ... I'll come back and try to make a big difference in my team next year."

Hickson did not start Thursday after breaking an unspecified team rule, Lowe said. But Hickson quickly became the Pack's only effective offensive option -- he hit 8 of 14 shots from the field. The rest of the team was 8-of-33, going 2-for-15 on 3-pointers.

"I called his number just about every time," Lowe said.

Hickson scored 11 of State's 17 first-half points as the Pack shot a wretched 22.7 percent, missing 17 of its 22 field goal attempts. State's first field goal -- a one-hander in the lane by Trevor Ferguson -- came with 10:35 left in the half after the Pack butchered its first 13 possessions: six turnovers and seven missed shots.

Ferguson also figured in the Pack's most inept offensive moment. After a strip and steal by point guard Javi Gonzalez, State had an easy breakaway, but Ferguson missed a layup.

So it went for the Pack this game. And, in truth, too many other games.

"The most disappointing thing is I know we're a much better shooting team than we showed this year," Lowe said. "That's been our biggest downfall -- our shooting, or lack of it."

Grant was the hero in the Pack's only game this season against Miami (22-9). He scored 22 points in the Jan. 19 game in Raleigh, and it was his darting steal and layup in the final seconds that gave State a 79-77 overtime victory.

But Grant, averaging 13.5 points, scored two points Thursday on two early free throws and played only 13 minutes -- three in the second half. It's hardly the way he expected to close a career, or a season in which he famously declared the Pack was so talented it might not lose but four games.

"I just don't think he was ready to play," Lowe said. "We tried to get a group in there to give us a little energy. I hate it because obviously it's Gavin's last game, but we were trying to win a ball game. And if we could have gotten through this one, then he would have been ready for the next one."

And Grant's take?

"Coach [Lowe] coached the game the way he saw fit. I didn't have a problem with that," he said. "I thought the guys out there were playing hard. It's a tough thing to swallow, but it doesn't always go your way. I'm proud of my team and the way they played."

The Pack played reasonably well defensively, holding Miami to 36.7 percent shooting. Junior guard Jack McClinton, a first-team All-ACC pick, finished with eight points, without a 3-pointer.

A year ago, the Pack hit shots and hustled and reached the ACC Tournament final as forward Brandon Costner scored 90 points. Costner, who started Thursday, did not score against Miami and had four turnovers.

Only one other State team lost nine in a row -- in the 1991-92 season. The 1983-84 team lost the last seven games of the season, including an NIT game.

But there never had been anything quite like this season.

"Obviously we had high expectations," Costner said. "If anything, we disappointed ourselves more than anybody else by how we played."