Aaron McFarling

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• Tuesday: Harris tests broken hand; New superconference not so super; A video you’ll love

RALEIGH, N.C. -- They walked out of the locker room glassy-eyed and stoic. Every question thrown their way prompted a pause and an attempt at an answer. But that's all they were -- attempts. Truth is, there were no answers after this one. Not for Virginia Tech.

The Hokies got mauled here Sunday. Lost to N.C. State, 81-56. And if they played again tomorrow, the Wolfpack would win again. This team is in Tech's head, and bad.

N.C. State is not this good. Promise. This is the same team that brought a three-game losing streak into the day, the same team that was only two games over .500, the same team that has so little depth that four players are averaging 34 minutes or more a game. Boston College and Duke are the only other ACC teams that even have one such player.

But State does have some nice pieces: A veteran point guard in Engin Atsur, a pair of capable big men in Brandon Costner and Ben McCauley, and a couple of playmakers on the perimeter in Courtney Fells and Gavin Grant. And against Tech, that's been enough. Twice now, it's been enough.

Don't bother wondering how a team that won at Duke and North Carolina could lose twice to a team that's now 4-8 in the league. It's futile. If the players don't know, then how can we?

And the players don't know. Just listen:

Tech guard Zabian Dowdell: "You can't describe it, man. You come here and just hope to have a chance to win the game. And from the first 10 minutes of the game, we really didn't have a chance to win the game."

Tech forward A.D. Vassallo: "In sports there's always that one team or that one player that always performs good against you, and I think N.C. State's got the upper hand against us."

Tech guard Jamon Gordon: "I really couldn't tell you, man, to tell you the truth. It ain't like they're quicker than us. They ain't faster than us. I guess against some teams you got their number, and they got ours."

State hit 10 of its first 11 shots from the field. If my math is correct, that's ... aw, forget math. It's sick.

But halftime came, as it always does, giving the Hokies a chance to make adjustments and fix things and recenter their focus. They were only down 12, after all. This wasn't over.

Until State came back out and hit 11 of its first 12 to start the second half. Eleven of 12! And the miss was a short jumper blocked by Deron Washington -- a block that looked a lot like it might have been goal-tending.

"It was just frustrating," Vassallo said. "It was really frustrating, to be honest. I really couldn't figure out myself what possibly I can do to help my team. I really couldn't think about myself, and I know my teammates probably at one point thought the same thing.

"It was really mind-boggling, just keep on looking at them hitting shots. At one point we came down and missed a layup or an easier shot. ... Man, it was really bad for us."

It was. So much so that coach Seth Greenberg took the only approach he could: Forget about it, and move on.

"I'm not OK with the loss, but I also understand the big picture," he said.

"In the big picture ... it doesn't make any sense to beat these kids down, because I know it's important to them. They've been through too much for it not to be important to them. So you know what? They hurt. I'm going to support them. We'll get through this."

They probably will. They have all season.

And the best news?

Tech has four games left -- and not a single one is against N.C. State.