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GREENVILLE -- N.C. State has won just once in the past year and is searching for a glimmer of hope at the midway point of coach Tom O'Brien's first season in Raleigh.

But the Wolfpack won't find any encouragement today from the rowdy fans at East Carolina. They're eager to create the most hostile environment the Wolfpack will face all season as they look to beat another in-state ACC team.

Not that N.C. State will notice. As guard Kalani Heppe put it, "When you're 1-5, everything kind of winds up being a bad-blood game."

N.C. State has lost 12 of 13 games since midway through last season, including 12 straight against teams in the NCAA's highest division. The Wolfpack's victory this year came against Wofford, which plays in the second-highest division. Four of the five losses have come by at least 17 points.

"The turnovers and giving up big plays, those are the things that have contributed to the 1-5 start, and you have to minimize those things and then you put yourself in a chance to win," O'Brien said. "We haven't done that. We haven't given ourselves chances to win."

The Pirates (4-3) -- who survived a tough first month of the season -- have won three straight games and put themselves in the hunt for the Conference USA title. But more important to their respect-starved fans, the Pirates have the chance to beat the two spotlight-hogging ACC teams to the west in the same season.

East Carolina beat North Carolina at Greenville on a last-play field goal in September. The Wolfpack arrives today for its second-ever trip to Greenville in what has been a fierce rivalry -- including a brawl between fans after East Carolina won in Raleigh 20 years ago. N.C. State leads the series 14-10, though ECU has won five of the last seven.

East Carolina coach Skip Holtz admitted the game takes on added significance as the Pirates fight to prove themselves and provide fans with some bragging rights by winning what Holtz considers a state championship.

"I wouldn't say there's more pressure, but everybody in the program needs to understand there's more involved than just a 'W' or 'L,' " he said. "This has long-term implications with recruiting and the way that we are viewed.

"This is a championship we have to win. We're almost like in a one-game playoff, so to speak, for a championship, so you put all your eggs in that basket: What are you trying to do to win the state?"

O'Brien, who left Boston College last December to take over at N.C. State, already knows plenty about the rivalry, too.

"It's pretty obvious as I went around the pulled pork circuit this summer that this was an important game," he said. "Anything with Carolina in it is a rival game here. I think that's good. If they're excited, we're going to be excited."