Three Points from Wednesday's 56-51 win at Boston College:

1) Body language counts

When Richard Howell, Lorenzo Brown and C.J. Leslie slumped their shoulders, dropped their heads and sloughed off to the locker room at halftime, they were greeted with a warning from N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried.

"I told them that is not acceptable and we won't do that — and we have not done that any night this year," Gottfried said. "We were allowing things to bother us. Mentally, we were out of synch."

Updated 11:15 p.m.

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Boston College started the week at No. 229 in the Rating Percentage Index, one spot ahead of Savannah State and one behind Lafayette.

That's not the kind of company N.C. State can afford to keep if it wants to end its season in the four-letter postseason tournament instead of the three-letter one. Scott Wood and C.J. Leslie saved the Wolfpack from an RPI-crushing loss on Wednesday — and string of other four-letter words from a portion of its fan base.

Wood (16 points) and Leslie (13) lifted a cold-shooting and sloppy State (16-7, 5-3 ACC) team to an ugly 56-51 ACC win, in name only, over the Eagles.

1) The Richard Howell Fan Club

Junior forward Richard Howell lost 25 pounds in the offseason and found his game. Howell always played with a high basketball IQ but didn't always have the physical means, or stamina, to maximize his potential.

Howell's still undersized — he's listed at 6-8 but is really about three inches shorter — but he's made up for his lack of height with effort. He was all over the court on Thursday with 11 points, 16 rebounds and three steals. (I actually think he was short-changed by the official scorer in the latter category as State produced a season-best 16 steals.)

RALEIGH — N.C. State already gave away an ACC home game to one of the teams at the bottom of the conference standings earlier this month.

The Wolfpack wasn't interested in repeating any such mistakes against an out-manned Boston College team on Thursday night at the RBC Center.

With a focused and high-energy effort, State dispatched the Eagles, 76-62 to improve to 3-1 in the ACC for the first time in six years.

N.C. State will go "back to normal" for Thursday's game against Boston College, Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried said. That means a return to the starting lineup for sophomore forward C.J. Leslie.

Gottfried benched Leslie for disciplinary reasons, stemming from a practice incident last week, in Saturday's 76-40 win at Wake Forest.

CHARLOTTE – North Carolina received 57 of a possible 59 first-place votes to finish atop the ACC media poll released Wednesday at the conference’s Operation Basketball media event.

The Tar Heels return all five starters, including preseason ACC player of the year selection Harrison Barnes, from a team that finished 29-8, reached an NCAA regional final and won first place in the ACC with a 14-2 conference record last season.

Duke was picked second in the poll, followed by Florida State, Virginia, Miami, Virginia Tech and Clemson. N.C. State was selected to finish eighth, with Maryland, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College closing out the poll.

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Duke University’s football program has experienced its share of mind-bending losses down through the years. On Saturday afternoon at Boston College’s Alumni Stadium, the shoe was literally on the other foot.

With 43 seconds remaining, BC place-kicker Nate Freese attempted a 23-yard field goal attempt that caromed off the left upright and Duke ran out the clock for a 20-19 ACC victory. Earlier in the game, Freese missed a point-after attempt that bounced off the right upright.

You don't have to look far to find ACC talent in the NFL.

Every team in the league has at least three players from ACC schools and the conference has a total 249 players in the league as the season begins tonight in Green Bay.

Despite a recent downturn on the field, Miami leads the ACC with NFL players with 44. For the first time since expansion, Maryland takes over the second spot with 28, edging Florida State, which is down to 25 from an ACC-best 46 in 2006, and North Carolina (24).

Updated at 1:48 p.m. to include complete Preseason All-ACC list.

GREENSBORO — Florida State and Miami led all ACC teams with four players from each school selected to the Preseason All-ACC Football team announced today.

Virginia Tech, Clemson and North Carolina all had three selections apiece, Boston College and Duke each had two players named and N.C. State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, and Virginia each had one player selected.

Wake Forest was the only league team not to place a player on the Preseason All-ACC team.

PINEHURST – In a matter of 15 minutes, four different reporters asked Boston College running back Montel Harris about Ted Brown.

Brown is the former N.C. State player who set the ACC record with 4,602 rushing yards from 1975 to 1978. Harris enters his senior season with 3,600 rushing yards, so he needs 1,003 more to break one of the ACC’s longest-standing records.

“I’m starting to hear a lot more of Ted Brown,” Harris said. “Once I go back home, I’m going to look up some tape on him.”