Three Points from N.C. State's 87-76 win over Wake Forest on Saturday:

1) Brown back on track

State guard Lorenzo Brown had 15 points with eight assists in a season-high 38 minutes on Saturday. He even gave a half-smile as he left the locker room after putting an end to his mini-slump.

"It was a little better," Brown said.

Brown, who is his own biggest critic, was pleased with his turnovers, only two — a low in ACC play for him. He was more aggressive against the Deacs with 11 shots (making six) after only taking five against Boston College on Wednesday, despite an obvious mismatch with Jordan Daniels.

Updated 7:30 p.m.

RALEIGH — N.C. State will always have Wake Forest.

The ACC will regularly take a game against North Carolina away from the Wolfpack when the league expands to 14 teams but State and Wake will continue to play twice a season.

Since 2006, that has been a good thing for State. The Pack beat the Demon Deacons 87-76 on Saturday for the fifth straight time and the ninth time in the past 12 games.

Scott Wood's 23 points lifted the Pack in a closer call than the earlier meeting this season, a 76-40 wipeout in Winston-Salem, and the two lopsided State wins from last season (by 25 and 21 points).

N.C. State no longer will be guaranteed home-and-away basketball matchups with North Carolina in the new 18-game conference schedule announced this morning by the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The ACC announced a new scheduling format this morning for when Syracuse and Pittsburgh join the league. According to the new schedule, beginning in 2012-13, each school will play every other league team at least once each season, but each school  will have only one "primary partner" for guaranteed home-and-away games.

Updated at 12:40 p.m. with scheduling details and a statement by ACC commissioner John Swofford.

Quarterback Tyler Cameron, tight end Anthony Cook and defensive tackle Josh Banks (Cary Middle Creek) headline Wake Forest's list of football signees today.

As usual, Demon Deacons coach Jim Grobe dipped into Florida for recruits, including Cameron, a three-star recruit from Jupiter, Fla.

WINSTON-SALEM — Following his team’s less-than-aesthetically-pleasing 68-53 victory against Wake Forest, North Carolina coach Roy Williams began his postgame press conference with the kind of smooth execution his team lacked here on Tuesday night.

“You guys smell something burning?” Williams asked.

Someone mumbled that maybe it was popcorn. After a pause, Williams said, “I knew it wasn’t the nets.”

Williams insisted he wasn’t trying to be his own “set-up man” but his one-liner fit after a game in which both teams missed, on average, seven of every 10 shots they took.

Updated 10:42 p.m.

DURHAM – From Ryan Kelly’s free throws against Georgia Tech to the frantic end-of-game sequence against Virginia to Andre Dawkins’ jumpers against Clemson, just about every play meant something in Duke’s previous ACC games.

That wasn’t the case in the Blue Devils’ 91-73 win over Wake Forest on Thursday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Using strong outings by Dawkins and Austin Rivers as springboards, the fourth-ranked Blue Devils (16-2, 4-0) walloped the Demon Deacons, building a commanding 20-point lead early in the second half to cruise to their most lopsided victory in three weeks.

1) Challenge accepted

C.J. Williams spent his first three seasons at N.C. State as a beacon of hard work and hustle on teams otherwise lacking in both categories. As a senior he has emerged as both a leader and reliable scorer, to complement his yeoman effort.

So if anyone was going to be receptive to being called out by the coach, it was Williams, who was challenged by Mark Gottfried to step up his defense after giving up big scoring efforts to Terrell Stoglin and Glen Rice in State's first two ACC games.

"Being a senior, you have to be able to take that," Williams said. "Coach is definitely on me a little more than everybody but I accept that challenge."

WINSTON-SALEM — A slow start and lax defense cost N.C. State in its last ACC game. Neither was a problem for the Wolfpack in a 76-40 blowout of Wake Forest on Saturday.

With 20 points and six assists from Lorenzo Brown, N.C. State won its first ACC road game of the season and rebounded from Wednesday's loss to Georgia Tech.

Wake Forest made just two 3-pointers, in 20 attempts, and neither of its top scorers, Travis McKie or C.J. Harris, could get untracked. McKie was ejected with 11:37 left in the game with only two points, 16 below his season average.

WINSTON-SALEM — A slow start and lax defense cost N.C. State in its last ACC game. Neither was a problem for the Wolfpack in the first half against Wake Forest on Saturday.

State leads Wake 33-17 at the half with eight points each from Scott Wood, Lorenzo Brown and C.J. Williams and an improved defensive energy.

Georgia Tech scored 82 points in Wednesday's upset in Raleigh and shot 60 percent from 3-point range. Wake's 1 of 12 from 3 and its top two perimeter scorers, Travis McKie and C.J. Harris have two field goals and six points between them.

In each of its first two ACC games, N.C. State has allowed an opposing shooting guard to score at least 20 points.

That's a trend Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried wants to end for Saturday's trip to Wake Forest but the Demon Deacons have two of the best wing scorers in the ACC in Travis McKie (18.0 points per game) and C.J. Harris (17.7). The two rank second and third, respectively, in the league in scoring.

"We have to be better than we've been on the perimeter, or those guys will have big nights," Gottfried said Friday.