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RALEIGH -- Last basketball season, the dilemma was always the same: How would N.C. State make do with so few players?

This season it's a complete reversal. With a large influx of talent, the Wolfpack has gone from a situation where everyone had to play to one in which not everyone gets to play.

"We're a different team," coach Sidney Lowe said Tuesday. "There's a different role for all of them now."

Finding those roles has not been a smooth process, as was painfully clear Sunday in the Wolfpack's surprising loss to New Orleans. This clearly was not the State team that was anticipated when the Wolfpack was ranked in the top 25 nationally and picked to finish third in the ACC this season. Certainly it's not what senior forward Gavin Grant had in mind when he boldly predicted the Wolfpack wouldn't lose more than four games all season.

"As a player, I was the same way," Lowe said. "If we had more talent coming in, I would think, 'We're stronger, we're going to be better,' not thinking that there's an adjustment to having new guys."

The obvious, anticipated adjustment was learning how to run Lowe's offense with three inexperienced point guards. But the adjustment that is capturing more attention is the one junior big man Ben McCauley is making.

"This thing with Ben is starting to take on a life of its own," Lowe said. "This is not about Ben, it's about our team."

But McCauley is the most obvious example of the changes State is undergoing. Last season, McCauley averaged 14.4 points and 34.5 minutes per game. In the first two games this season, those numbers are down to 2.0 and 14.0, thanks in large part to the arrival of star freshman J.J. Hickson.

McCauley spent much of the season opener against William & Mary slumped on the bench, prompting speculation that he might be ill. Against New Orleans, McCauley looked like a player who was trying to cram 35 minutes of playing time into 14, making one of four shots.

"He's fine," Lowe said. "I think the first few days it was an adjustment for him."

It also has been an adjustment for sophomore forward Dennis Horner, whose minutes (16.0 last season, 9.0 this season) also are down significantly. And it has been a change for Brandon Costner, who is still playing significant minutes, but has had to concede the primary role in the offense -- at least for the first two games -- to Hickson.

Lowe remained confident that his players eventually will become comfortable with the new state of things. In fact, he reasoned, the home loss to New Orleans might turn out to be a good thing in the long run for establishing better team chemistry.

"Sometimes there's one thing that happens in the season that all of the sudden triggers that mind-set or that understanding," Lowe said. "Some teams, it takes a tough loss. Some teams, it takes a loss that maybe you feel you shouldn't have had."

Has State already had that moment? Thursday's game against Rider in the Old Spice Classic (2 p.m., ESPN2) should provide some insight.

"This first game will tell me a little bit of where we are," Lowe said. "Then I'll have to make some decisions from that point on."

Contact Jim Young at 373-7016 or jyoung@news-record.com