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!"

Three Points from N.C. State's 86-84 loss at Wake Forest on Tuesday:

1) No one to blame but N.C. State

Let's get this out of the way: Referees Les Jones, Ed Corbett and Ted Valentine were not good on Tuesday. There were too many fouls called, 44 in all, and there was no consistency to the calls.

That being said, the refs were not the reason N.C. State lost the game, they're not even one of the top two reasons N.C. State lost the game. N.C. State lost because its defense was bad in the second half (Wake scored 51 points) and it couldn't make consecutive free throws or an open shot when it had to.

WINSTON-SALEM — N.C. State didn't know who Devin Thomas was before Tuesday's game. The Wolfpack does now.

With 25 points and 14 rebounds, Thomas led Wake Forest to an improbable 86-84 win over No. 18 N.C. State on Tuesday at Joel Coliseum. It was the second straight road loss for the Wolfpack and the second straight time an opposing fan base rushed the court.

Thomas, a freshman forward, made sure the Wake (10-8, 3-3 ACC) fans could celebrate their first win over in-state ACC opponent under third-year coach Jeff Bzdelik.

N.C. State has a short turn-around for Tuesday's trip to Wake Forest. The Wolfpack lost the back end of both of its two-games-in-three-days sets last season.

The Wolfpack beat Clemson 66-62 on Sunday at home and will play Wake Forest on Tuesday.

Last season, the Wolfpack beat Miami on Jan. 26 and then lost at UNC on Jan. 28. It then lost an emotional game at Duke on Feb. 16 and got flattened at home by Florida State on Feb. 18.

N.C. State basketball coach Mark Gottfried's not sure which cousin he will root for in the Super Bowl, Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers or John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens. Either way it will be a win for the extended family.

The Gottfrieds and Harbaughs are connected by blood and professionally. Mark Gottfried and the Harbaugh brothers are second cousins (their grandmothers, paternal on each side, were sisters).

Three Points from N.C. State's 66-62 win over Clemson:

1) Winning with the changeup

There's winning without your fastball and then there's winning without your fastball, curveball or slider. That's what N.C. State did on Sunday.

C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown scored six points each and the Wolfpack's veteran quartet finished the game with fewer combined field goals (10) than Clemson's Devin Booker (13) had by himself.

RALEIGH — N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried always says nothing comes easy in the ACC.

Nothing was easy about No. 14 N.C. State's 66-62 win over Clemson on Sunday night.

With a late surge from senior Richard Howell, and free throws by Scott Wood, the Wolfpack finally put the Tigers away after a gutsy effort from Devin Booker, who had a career-best 27 points.

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 51-50 loss at Maryland on Wednesday:

1) Mix and match

Some matchups work in your favor and some don't, that's a basic rule of basketball, especially for a team with as many nontraditional parts as N.C. State. Maryland is/was a difficult matchup for N.C. State (and most teams) with its size and athleticism.

Working from the baseline that N.C. State lost a one-point game to a good team on the road, at the buzzer, after a miserable start, the two biggest problems for N.C. State on Wednesday were forward Alex Len and wing Dez Wells.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — If N.C. State played its last ACC basketball game at Maryland on Wednesday, the Wolfpack won't be in a hurry to schedule the Terrapins once they move to the Big Ten.

With a last-second basket from Alex Len, Maryland beat N.C. State 51-50 on Wednesday for the 19th time in 21 home games and 10th time in 11 overall meetings with the Wolfpack.

The loss knocks N.C. State to 3-1 in the ACC and ends its 10-game winning streak. The Pack (14-3) fought back from a slow start to take the lead in the final minute but couldn't close out the Terps. Len's putback of a Pe'Shon Howard miss with 0.9 seconds left sealed the win for the Terps.