RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina State once had the look of an Atlantic Coast Conference title contender. Now it seems all the magic has gone from coach Sidney Lowe's famous red blazer.

Picked to finish third in the league in the preseason, the Wolfpack quickly slid into the middle of the muddled league race with a series of head-scratching performances. But now, N.C. State is in a total free fall that has turned the season into a full-fledged disaster.

At this point, the only thing the Wolfpack are contenders for is last place in the league.

"It's a freak thing," reserve point guard Marques Johnson said after Wednesday's home loss to Florida State. "We have tons of talent. I don't know what it is."

The Wolfpack (4-10, 15-13) has lost six straight games, making it the first team to have at least 10 ACC losses. N.C. State is at the bottom of standings alongside Virginia (3-9, 13-12), though the Cavaliers won last weekend's matchup, which would be a tiebreaker between the teams. That means the Wolfpack could earn the No. 12 seed for the ACC tournament in Charlotte by losing its final two games.

The schedule doesn't do the Wolfpack any favors with its final home game today against No. 7 Duke before a visit to improving Wake Forest on March 8. But even more stunning is how N.C. State seems to be getting worse with each passing game, illustrated Wednesday night when the team fell behind 12-0 and 25-6 in the opening minutes of the 72-62 loss in front of a largely lifeless home crowd.

It was quite a change from the confidence that players exuded in October. Gavin Grant said the Wolfpack might not lose four games all season, and the Wolfpack started the year ranked 21st nationally.

"I don't think -- I know -- that they're not giving up," Lowe said after the FSU loss. "I know that."

Still, Lowe didn't know why his team turned in such a lousy performance in a winnable home game. And when asked how much responsibility fell on the coaching staff to have the team ready to play, Lowe seemed to direct at least some of the blame at his players.

"We do everything we can to have these guys ready to play," Lowe said. "We prepare. We have strategies. We can't rebound. We can't make the shots. We can't get in front of a guy to defend him. So strategy-wise, I think we prepare them pretty good.

"It's no different than when I played the game. [Former Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano] gave us the plan, and we had to go out and do it. That's just the way it is. This is not something where I'm calling out my players or anything like that. This was just a bad game for us."

For his part, Lowe repeatedly has cited the team's lack of a proven point guard, something the Wolfpack had last year in Engin Atsur. With the senior at the helm, N.C. State stunned Duke and North Carolina, played for the ACC tournament championship and reached the NIT quarterfinals.

N.C. State hasn't had that kind of consistency this year. The team lost the improving Farnold Degand to a knee injury in December while rotating Johnson and freshman Javier Gonzalez in his place.

But that doesn't come close to explaining N.C. State's collapse.

Brandon Costner and Ben McCauley, two of the Wolfpack's top players from 2006-07, have looked like ghosts of their former selves while seeing their minutes fluctuate from game to game.

Costner, a 6-9 sophomore, is averaging 9.1 points and shooting 38 percent, down from his 16.8 points and 47 percent shooting from last year. McCauley, a 6-10 junior, is averaging 5.9 points and 42 percent shooting, down from 14.4 points and 58 percent last year.

Despite having talent in Grant, star freshman J.J. Hickson and Courtney Fells, N.C. State has failed to score at least 70 points in 17 of 28 games -- most notably during a humbling 93-62 loss to then-No. 1 North Carolina in which the Wolfpack scored just 13 first-half points.

It's all made those days of preseason optimism seem about as distant as the Wolfpack's stunning NCAA championship run 25 years ago.

"It's hard on all of us," reserve Trevor Ferguson said. "We all want to win. Nobody wants to lose."