Thomas de Thaey left the N.C. State program in November, but he took one last shot at his former coach on Wednesday morning.

In response to N.C. State's 86-84 loss at Wake Forest on Tuesday night, de Thaey wrote on his Twitter account on Wednesday:

"That's what happens when you're a great recruiter, but terrible coach!"

N.C. State had two fouls to give at the end of Wednesday's game at Maryland.

Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried used one of the fouls and he said Friday that he thought he used what was the best strategy to win the game.

Maryland's Alex Len scored off a Pe'Shon Howard miss with 0.9 seconds left for a 51-50 win, but Gottfried was pleased with the shot his defense forced Howard to take.

"The truth of the matter is, Pe'Shon Howard took an off-balance, awful shot and shot an airball, which is what you would want to have," Gottfried said.

Three Points (and 1) from N.C. State's 84-76 win over Duke:

1) You can't fake confidence

While the fans and N.C. State players stormed the court to celebrate the Wolfpack's win over Duke, coach Mark Gottfried fretted to ESPN's Jeannine Edwards about Wednesday's trip to Maryland. That's what coaches do, understood, but if there's anything N.C. State has shown in 53 games under Gottfried, it's that when it gets confidence, it keeps it.

The crazy thing about N.C. State last March was it started to play with confidence after a four-game losing streak. What will a rare win over Duke, and 10 straight wins overall, do for this group?

Three Points from N.C. State's 78-73 win at Boston College on Saturday:

1) All wins are not created equal ...

… but they all count the same in the conference standings.

Mark Gottfried made the point before Saturday's ACC opener, all 18 conference count the same, no matter how much more we (media/fans/players/coaches) want to put on the Duke or Carolina games.

N.C. State was not great, by any definition, on Saturday, but the Wolfpack was good enough to win. More importantly, it was a game it could have lost but did not.

Rodney Purvis might start for N.C. State in the season-opener on Friday. Or maybe it will be T.J. Warren or Thomas de Thaey.

Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried said he hasn't decided on a fifth starter for the opener against Miami (Ohio).

"I'm still debating it," Gottfried said. "I'm not sure it's really that important to me. We'll see tomorrow."

N.C. State basketball coach Mark Gottfried is taking a break from recruting future superstars to sign autographs at the Time Warner Cable booth at the N.C. State Fair on Sunday.

Gottfried will be there from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30.

The Time Warner Cable booth is next to Dorton Arena on the Jim Graham Building side.

Staff photo by Ethan Hyman

N.C. State will leave Spain without a loss.

The Wolfpack completed a five-game, 10-day trip with an 86-71 win on Monday against CB Gran Canaria.

Junior forward C.J. Leslie led N.C. State with 19 points and freshman point guard Tyler Lewis added 14 points and eight assists.

Mark Gottfried is collecting former college head coaches for his N.C. State basketball staff.

Larry Farmer joined Gottfried's staff on Thursday as the director of player development. Farmer's the third former head coach to work for Gottfried. Farmer worked at UCLA, Weber State and Loyola-Chicago.

N.C. State will play North Carolina and Duke at home next season in basketball.

Neither game will be a given once the league expands to 14 teams before the 2013-14 season so it's noteworthy that both the Tar Heels and Blue Devils will visit Raleigh.

Who knows when that will happen again?

RALEIGH — N.C. State and the NBA will have to wait a little longer for a decision from C.J. Leslie.

The Wolfpack's star forward said Monday he hasn't made up his mind about where he will play basketball next season — in the ACC or the NBA.

Leslie, who led N.C. State in scoring as a sophomore, said he's leaning "one way" but he's not ready to make a decision.

"I'm not stressing about it, whatever I decide to do is going to be whatever I decide to do," Leslie said.