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RALEIGH -- If the weight of expectation really fell on Farnold Degand's shoulders, N.C. State's 6-foot-3, 185-pound point guard probably would crash through the floor.

After all, he's Farnold, not Arnold. He's a basketball player, not a bodybuilder. And his travels have taken him from his native Boston to Ames, Iowa, and now to Raleigh rather than from Austria to Hollywood.

So it's not all on him. Yet, the Wolfpack undeniably needs a full season out of its most reliable ball handler to improve an offense that placed last in the ACC in turnover margin last season.

That's the fact that best explains how a team with a future first-round NBA draft pick (J.J. Hickson) and an accomplished senior (Gavin Grant) could bottom out so thoroughly. In short, the Pack has to make the most of what it has, which may actually be more than anybody realized a year ago.

Degand averaged a turnover every 15.3 minutes on the court in his 10-game, pre-injury stint last season. By comparison, UNC's Ty Lawson had one miscue every 15.8 minutes of play. But the former Iowa State Cyclone was long gone when the Pack's implosion began.

State dropped its final nine games, and in the last seven, it endured a minus-57 turnover ratio. That is not a trivial stat. Imagine starting every game by allowing the opponent to have the first eight possessions. The net effect of a minus-8 margin is "Make It-Take It" on the big stage, not the playground.

Hickson became the preferred target of a peeved fan base last season. He was going to be a one-and-done guy, and the progress of everybody around him seemed to stagnate once he showed up. That's not entirely fair. The numbers suggest Hickson wasn't a clueless gunner.

At the same time, you can't deny that the production of Wolfpack big men Ben McCauley and Brandon Costner dipped considerably. McCauley went from averaging 34 minutes a game as a sophomore to 20 as a junior, and Costner wound up taking way too many 3-point shots.

More than half of his field-goal attempts last season were 3-pointers, and his accuracy plummeted. That line is now one foot farther back by rule change.

Sure, Costner can do the long-ball thing. (Feel free to insert a "Bull Durham" reference at this point.) But perhaps a midrange exploration is a better idea, and if things are working in an orderly fashion, State won't need him to jack up the 3-pointer late in the shot clock.

That's where smooth offensive flow plays a part. Everybody struggled when the ball didn't get where it was supposed to wind up in a timely fashion. If Degand and Javier Gonzalez, who had plenty of ups and downs as a freshman, steady the ship and facilitate proper role play, the Pack will discover that it has enough weapons to stay in most games.

At various points in their careers, McCauley, Costner and Courtney Fells have enjoyed breakout moments. If all three can adapt, the Pack will get some of its swagger back.

In that regard, this season's candidate for Most Improved Player at State could be Tracy Smith, a swingman who put together solid games against Duke and Florida State in the midst of the late-season collapse. (For what it's worth, Smith delivered 14 points in 13 minutes in Tuesday's exhibition win over Division II Catawba.)

Defensively, State will need to create more perimeter mayhem than it induced a year ago. This doesn't have to be an all-out, pressing machine; it just has to do a better job of deflecting passes and forcing ill-advised shots.

It's fashionable to presume the Pack is still down in the ACC, but contrary to popular presumption this is not a league that necessarily buries the mediocre anymore. Upward mobility is available to the right applicant, and some of N.C. State's best recent seasons have come when the Pack had been prematurely dismissed. Wasn't it just in 2006-07 that coach Sidney Lowe's first State team won 20 games?

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels @news-record.com