NC State is a basketball team with many useful parts, but few are good right now, and none work well together. NC State is now 1-4 in the ACC following an unfortunate 86-76 loss to Georgia Tech at home on Sunday night. I feel as though the word “embarrassment” has been tossed around a lot lately, but it’s appropriate.

This season is over. Let’s all save ourselves from whatever ounces of denial remain—this team is very bad, and it has no spine. Somewhere along the way, Mark Gottfried’s message became useless, and I think when the team faltered under Dennis Smith’s tenuous leadership, everything caved.

It’s telling enough to see how this team responded to getting pantsed in Chapel Hill. Don’t think any additional explanation is necessary.

I might be wrong about that, but you do not come back from a 1-4 start to league play in this year’s ACC; it’s just not happening. The ACC is as good as it’s ever been, and also, forget about coming back from 1-4—there is no evidence that NC State is even vaguely capable of any such rally. State’s lost to Boston College and Georgia Tech—and neither game was close in the last minute. Those are bad basketball teams. NC State is bad.

So it goes.