Jim Larranaga is known for his gift of gab. He regales reporters with anecdotes and basketball tutorials every chance he gets. On Sunday afternoon, there was no friendly chit-chat after his University of Miami team trailed by as many as 16 and lost at home 78-73 to North Carolina State.

The coach stared ahead with a furrowed brow and admitted that the Hurricanes are not as ready to compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference as he expected when he took the job last April, back when he stood excitedly at his first UM news conference touting his scramble defense and promising a thrilling team “so everyone is going to be dying to get a ticket and seat to watch us play!’’

Larranaga wasn’t envisioning a team that would show up listless for a home game, have one assist to nine turnovers at halftime, and shoot 2 for 20 from three-point range. He didn’t figure that the senior guard duo of Malcolm Grant and Durand Scott would go 4 for 18 and 0 for 7 from beyond the arc with a combined three assists and costly turnovers by Scott in the closing minutes. Or, that his 6-10 and 290-pound center Reggie Johnson, by far the beefiest guy on the floor, would finish with only four rebounds and five shots.

He certainly was hoping for better than a 1-3 conference start and a 10-7 overall record heading into a pair of road games with a game at Duke two weeks away.

“I was anticipating what our squad would be like before my staff and I arrived, and I’ve found that we have a lot more work to do than we originally thought,’’ said Larranaga, whose team dropped to 10-7 and 1-3 in the ACC. “The first half was really disappointing and very discouraging to me. The same mistakes keep occurring.’’

The BankUnited Center crowd of 4,371 — which included NFL players Colin McCarthy and Leonard Hankerson and baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin — gave up a gloriously sunny afternoon to watch the Canes. Most of the fans were heading toward the exits when Scott Wood hit a pair of free throws for the Wolfpack (15-5, 4-1) to go ahead 77-68 with 18.9 seconds remaining. Wood led all scorers with 21 points and made 4 of 6 three-pointers.

A dunk by Kenny Kadji off a perfect pass from Shane Larkin had pulled UM to within four, 72-68, with 1:44 left. That dunk gave the Hurricanes new life, and Kadji blocked a shot at the other end to get the ball back in Miami’s hands with 1:28 to go. But then Kadji and Shane Larkin missed back-to-back three-pointers, and the Wolfpack scored five consecutive points. Kadji led UM with 20 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

At crunch time, starters Grant and Johnson were on the bench. Larranaga replaced Grant with Larkin with 11:58 left and Grant never returned. Larkin, a freshman, snagged three steals and hit a late three-pointer. Rion Brown and DeQuan Jones also provided a spark off the bench. But it wasn’t enough.

“It was a gutsy win for us, and I’m proud of our team,’’ N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said. “They made a charge and we were able to withstand it and still find a way to win.’’

Jones played on the same AAU team with N.C. State’s Richard Howell, C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown, and knew they’d be tough to contain. He conceded UM was far too passive early on.

“We just came out as a team lethargic, not being aggressive, not attacking the basket, not putting pressure on the defense,’’ said Jones.

Larranaga said the team’s problems are mostly mental. “They’re about being mentally tough, and when the opponent challenges you, to rise up to that challenge as a competitor does, and not avoid the competition and think that you can get away with less than a 100 percent effort.’’

Asked how he plans to correct that by Tuesday night, when the Hurricanes play at Georgia Tech, the typically loquacious Larranaga was at a rare loss for words. “That’s a good question,’’ he replied.