RALEIGH -- In six seasons, Mark Gottfried went 0-5. In four seasons, Sidney Lowe went 1-2. Four games into ACC play in his first season, Kevin Keatts has started off 1-0.

What's the statistic we're referring to? Following wins over either Duke or UNC, NC State has regularly had an immediate letdown with a loss in the following game. In fact, since the 2001-02 season, the Wolfpack had gone 2-11 in the games following a win over one of its Triangle rivals -- including losing seven straight and 10 of its last 11 last season after a win in Cameron.

Just months into his new job in Raleigh, Keatts already knew if he lost, the questions were going to come. Is this the same old NC State team that only gets up for big games? Could the Pack carry momentum and topple two straight ranked opponents?

Keatts and his team that less than two weeks ago said was "not as talented as most teams in the ACC" answered those questions against No. 19 Clemson.

"I know the biggest question that everybody has had coming into the game is could NC State win a big game," Keatts explained, "win another good game, after coming off a big game against Duke, and I thought our guys were tremendous. We played with great effort."

What makes NC State's win on Thursday even more impressive is the fact that it came over a ranked foe. Those last two wins following Duke or UNC came against unranked opponents with a win over Matt Doherty's 19-16 UNC team in 2003 and a victory over Virginia in 2007 in the ACC Tournament.

Speaking of that 2006-07 team, that was also the last season in which State took down two straight ranked opponents in No. 16 Virginia Tech and No. 3 UNC -- the first red blazer game for Lowe. That happened to be Lowe's first season and most NC State fans remember how that tenure worked out, but this doesn't feel like a "blip on the radar" type moment for Keatts.

Sure, he's doing it with many of Gottfried's former recruits with Omer Yurtseven coming into his own with a career-high 29 points, four rebound and four blocks, but Keatts is clearly building something. He has unleashed Yurt in a way Gott never did -- allowing him to shoot from outside with regularity and proving that he can find ways to make his system work regardless of the personnel.

"To be honest, everyone expected us to relax and just chill after we won a game against Duke," Yurtseven said. "But when we started practicing, we kept our hustle. ... We lost a game at their home by a lot of points -- I'll just say -- so we knew that they were a good team and No. 19.

"All we thought about was, 'We've got another challenge, another opponent, another barrier against the No. 19 team.' That was all we thought about."

While there have been some strange losses early on -- losing to Northern Iowa and a Notre Dame team without its best player -- Keatts' team has shown growth early on. Whether it's Yurt developing into a true stretch-four (five?), Braxton Beverly's consistency on both ends and Lavar Batts' defensive prowess as freshmen or Torin Dorn as a clutch shooter, Keatts has found a role for everyone.

And when they're fitting into that role, his players have thrived.

It certainly wasn't a pretty finish at the end with Clemson falling just one made free throw away from heading to overtime after NC State led by 12 with 1:34 remaining. But in the end, the Pack led for more than 33 minutes against Clemson and clearly looked like the better team -- which is all Keatts wanted to focus on after becoming the first coach in more than a decade to win after downing Duke.

“I will tell you this: When I went into the locker room, we played and we won a great basketball game, so I didn’t want to focus on those last couple minutes and take away from our great win," Keatts said. "What I did tell those guys is to get used to winning. I feel like it was a team at the end that was so excited being there and not used to finishing the games. ...

"We are a good basketball team, we are getting better, so I want those guys to know how to finish.”