Basketball.

Well, N.C. State beat Duke last night, 88-74.

Hell of a game, too. We took the lead at 17-15 and never trailed the rest of the night. It was not without its tense moments. Duke hit a ridiculous 3 at the buzzer to cut the lead to 41-38 at halftime.

And then with an 8-point lead in the waning minutes of the game, Javi Gonzalez was dribbling out the shot clock and somehow managed the drill a 3 from WAY behind the line over 6-foot-10 Mason Plumlee to push the lead back to 11. Talk about the definition of a dagger play.

That was the game right there. State's up by 8 with around four minutes to play, and the shot clock winding down. If Duke gets a stop there, you KNOW they're nailing a 3 at the other end. It's Duke. That's what they do.

Then the lead is 5 points, and State would have found a way to blow it. We're State. That's what we do.

But Javi sank the 3, pushing the lead to 11 and igniting a crowd that has been yearning to explode for far too long now.

Where do we go from here? Well, in the most technical sense, we go to College Park for a date with Maryland on Saturday evening. Then what promises to be a lively atmosphere on Tuesday night as we host UNC (losers of three in a row, by the way [!!] Think that preseason No. 6 ranking with a first-place vote may have been a farce?).

In the more philosophical sense, I see this playing out in two ways.

First, the team who showed up for the second half of the Clemson game and the Duke win shows up Saturday and takes out Maryland to improve to 14-6 (3-3 ACC), setting up a ridiculous main event Tuesday night where we'd probably enter the top 25 if we beat Carolina.

Second, the team gets caught up in OMGWEBEATDUKE mode and sees a little powder blue on the schedule Tuesday night, and Maryland gets a little lost in the shuffle and blows us out of the water. The Terps have a talented senior point guard, and you cannot take those lightly -- especially not in the ACC (even if he is the biggest walking toolbox the ACC has seen since Chris Paul or Steve Blake).

The second scenario has been the story of this program for the better part of our recent history. We play to the level of our opponents, hanging with and occasionally beating the big boys, and tripping up against the mid-level teams. If Sidney Lowe is THE guy we all hope he is, he needs to put this trend in the past.

The team from the last game and a half should beat Maryland AND Carolina (especially with the way the Heels are currently playing).

That would be the first scenario, which would create some much-needed momentum for a program that has been caught in the doldrums all year. From narrowly missing out on Derrick Favors, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins to Lorenzo Brown not being eligible to heart-breaking losses in games against Arizona, Florida and Virginia (all games where we held late leads and should have won).

Finish strong this season, make a run in the ACC tournament, perhaps an appearance in the NCAA tournament and then the stud recruiting class Lowe has for next year with Brown finally arriving, Ryan Harrow and Luke Cothron -- now that's some momentum.

LET'S GO BOYS. Play up to your potential for the first time in too many years and win the games you're capable of winning. Let's get this thing on the right track.