Recruit ratings in football can be wildly unpredictable.

Here's a review of five long shots who turned out to be among the best college players in the nation.

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien, in sizing up his 23 signees, believes the Pack put together a "long, tall, very athletic class."

Take the four defensive ends signed by the Pack All are at least 6 feet 4, weigh at least 220 pounds. All can run, O'Brien said, and fit the progression the Pack has made the last couple of years in getting taller, longer.

"When you look at the kids who are pass rushers now on the outside that we signed, that's a whole different breed than we brought in before," O'Brien said.

N.C. State forward Richard Howell had a career-best 18 rebounds against Virginia on Saturday but fouled out for the third straight game.

Howell, a junior, had fouled out in only two career games before State's trip to Miami on Jan. 22. He fouled out, after playing only 18 minutes against the Canes, after 16 minutes against UNC last Thursday and 28 minutes on Saturday.

Three Points from State's 61-60 loss to the Cavaliers on Saturday.

1) Effort vs. execution

Effort was a problem for N.C. State before coach Mark Gottfried was hired. "Was" as in past tense and Saturday's 61-60 loss to Virginia is the latest proof of how far a State team, made up of essentially the same players as a year ago, has come on the effort front.

Any of Rich Howell's nine offensive rebounds, or the three jump-ball tie-ups on Virginia's end of the floor he caused, qualify as proof, but there's also the matter of State's defensive effort as a team in the second half.

RALEIGH — N.C. State made one 3-pointer in the final minute of Saturday's game against Virginia. It needed one more.

Lorenzo Brown's 3-pointer fell short at the buzzer and Virginia escaped with a 61-60 road win over the Wolfpack at the RBC Center.

Scott Wood's 3-pointer from the left corner with 46.3 seconds left gave State (15-7, 4-3 ACC) a chance to complete a 10-point comeback in the second half against one of the best defensive teams in the country.

Staff columnist Caulton Tudor discussed with readers the Tar Heels' big win over the Wolfpack and all things ACC today.

Three Points from N.C. State's 74-55 road loss to UNC on Thursday:

There's no shame in losing to the best team in the country on their home floor but there is in the way N.C. State lost to UNC on Thursday.

The Wolfpack (15-6, 4-2 ACC) kept making the same mistakes — at least while the game was still close in the first half — over and over and over. And they were the same mistakes from last year's losses to the same UNC team.

N.C. State's only highlight from Thursday's 74-55 loss at UNC.

H/T: Run the Floor

CHAPEL HILL — Mark Gottfried didn't watch the tape of either of N.C. State's losses to North Carolina from last season. He didn't have to, UNC gave him reprisal on Thursday.

In the same dominant, defensive fashion from a year ago, UNC looked every bit like the preseason No. 1 team in the country in a 74-55 pasting of the Wolfpack at the Smith Center.

State started the day tied for first in the ACC, with four wins in its first five games, but it got a dose of reality from a motivated UNC team, which beat the Wolfpack for the 11th straight time and improved to 17-1 under coach Roy Williams in the series.

Updated 11:19 p.m.

CHAPEL HILL — It had been eight years since N.C. State entered the Smith Center with as strong of an ACC record as it brought here on Thursday night. After five long, losing seasons in league play, the Wolfpack’s resurgence inspired thoughts that maybe they’d closed some of the margin between them and North Carolina.

But the No. 7 Tar Heels proved otherwise on Thursday during a dominant 74-55 victory that reaffirmed the gap between these programs remains wide. The Heels’ victory was their 11th consecutive in this series, and that stretch of supremacy is UNC’s longest over N.C. State (15-6, 4-2) since the formation of the ACC in 1953.