FSU Basketball Recap: Win Streak Ends in Loss to North Carolina

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Jan 14, 2017; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Leonard Hamilton talks to the official in the first half at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /

3. Officiating was a disaster

First and foremost, I want to say I’m not blaming the refs for the loss. UNC was clearly the better team today. Rather, I’d like to point out how bad the officiating was, both ways.

Today’s game was the perfect example of why college basketball has been hurting in recent years. In what should have been a fast, free-flowing game between two athletic teams, the end-result ended up being the opposite. Fouls were whistled at the most random times, often times on players away from the ball, not effecting the play.

FSU was called for 27 fouls, and UNC for 22. That, plus all of the whistles for traveling, timeouts and everything else, and I am still hearing a whistle blowing in my head. It’s just ridiculous that college basketball officials refuse to let the players play. I hope that it changes one day, but sadly, I doubt it does.

These refs are here to remind you that if you're gonna win an ACC game at Carolina, you've gotta be a LOT better than Carolina.
— Ira Schoffel (@IraSchoffel) January 14, 2017

Yep.

4. This was only FSU’s second true road game, and it clearly showed

Florida State didn’t do a good job in what was a tough atmosphere. They did better in their first true road game (at Virginia) of handling the crowd. That may have to do with the fact that Virginia plays at a snail’s pace, which I presume must even put their own fans to sleep.

UNC, on the other hand, is an exciting team, and made some plays today that got their fans going absolutely crazy. FSU did an okay job of responding early on, but in the final stretch, when the lead grew from single to double digits, it was just too much for them. The crowd noise probably had a hand in the Seminoles’ porous free-throw shooting too.

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