FSU Basketball Preview: Seminoles Travel to Virginia Tech
By Kelvin Hunt
The FSU Basketball team will travel to Blacksburg and take on the Virginia Tech Hokies Saturday with the game beginning at 3 p.m. airing on ESPN3.
Talk about a season crushing loss. FSU Basketball probably had their NCAA Tournament dreams crushed in the 86-80 loss against Georgia Tech on Wednesday night. The Noles have now dropped three straight after winning four in a row in ACC play.
Leonard Hamilton and crew just simply have not been playing very good basketball, allowing teams to shoot an average of 51.3 percent from the floor in those three losses. They are also averaging 13.6 turnovers per game and shooting 45.3 percent from the floor.
The Noles seemingly can’t avoid slow starts in their last two games, being down double digits at the half and then playing valiantly in the second half only to see their rallies come up short.
We said that Georgia Tech was better than their record, but wins can’t be expected when allowing teams to shoot well over 50 percent.
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Virginia Tech’s record is (13-13, 5-9 ACC) and actually a game ahead of Georgia Tech in ACC play. They own wins over Virginia, Clemson and only lost by five points against UNC.
The Hokies are led by Zack LeDay and Seth Allen who average 15.2 and 13.7 points respectively. LeDay can shoot it from deep as well, making 37 percent of his shots from beyond the arc while nabbing near eight rebounds a game. The other player to keep an eye on is sharpshooter Justin Bibs, he’s hitting at a Steph Curry like 46.3 percent from beyond the arc on (56-121).
Luckily for the Noles, LeDay is the only big threat to crash the boards. The Noles absolutely need to get out to a fast start in the game, just from a confidence standpoint. Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley HAVE to show up in the first half as they have been virtually invisible the past two games during the first half.
Xavier Rathan-Mayes has been playing a bit better in the past two games, averaging about 12 points.
It’s just fundamentals and consistency for the FSU Basketball team to turn this thing around. They need to win the battle on the boards, limit turnovers, make free throws and take good shots. If they do those things consistently, they have the talent to beat a lot of teams out there.
The Noles have four games remaining against three tournament teams. The first step is knocking off Virginia Tech on Saturday. The game will begin at 3 p.m. and air on ESPN3.