FSU Basketball Preview: Noles Hit The Road to Battle Pittsburgh

FSU Basketball returns to action and travel to Pitt to face Michael Young and the Panthers. It’s the Seminoles first game in a week.

The week of rest came at the perfect time for FSU basketball. In the team’s last game — their double-digit loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish — the Seminoles simply appeared to lose steam. (Granted, they’ve struggled on the road through conference play anyways, so I may be misreading them.)

Now, it’s time to return to action. Florida State heads to Pittsburgh to face off against the Pitt Panthers today. Though they may be the worst team in the conference, as we learned after the Georgia Tech game, anything can happen. So let’s not get ahead of ourselves and consider this a surefire win.

It will be interesting to find out which Jonathan Isaac we get. In two of his last three games, he’s scored four points or fewer. In the other, he scored 21 points on ten shots. My guess is we see the aggressive version.

Last Time the ‘Noles Took the Court

Florida State last played a week ago. Their defense was downright atrocious in what was a 84-72 loss against the Irish. The final margin was too kind to the Seminoles, as the game never felt that close after the first few minutes.

Dwayne Bacon and Isaac, FSU’s two most important players, combined to go 7-of-19 for 16 points. Xavier Rathan-Mayes also struggled, scoring 11 points, but finishing with three assists to just two turnovers.

Notre Dame finished the game shooting 49 percent from the floor, and 91 percent from the foul line. Irish star Bonzie Colson scored 33 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

All around, a pitiful road showing by the Seminoles. Like I said earlier, this week off was much needed.

Florida State Seminoles Basketball

Opponent Preview

Pitt are 14-12, a paltry 3-10 in ACC play. They have won two of their last three games, however, so I suppose you could say they are somewhat hot. One of those wins was against a Syracuse Orange team that defeated the Seminoles, so hey, this isn’t going to be a pushover.

KenPom ranks the Panthers as the 68th team in the country. They have the 36th-most efficient offense (not bad), and 177th defense (awful). Even worse, they are allowing 76.5 points per contest, the 275th-worst mark in the country. Pitt’s offensive rebounding rate is 28.7 percent (133rd), so the Seminoles should clean up on the glass. And finally, their pace is 238th, meaning FSU will have to work to get the game in their preferred tempo.

The Panthers have two players to watch out for. Both Michael Young and Jamel Artis are two of the most explosive scorers in the conference. Young — a 6-foot-9 senior forward — averages 20.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He’s a respectable 37 percent three-point shooter.

Artis, on the other hand, is also a senior forward. He is scoring 19.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per contest. Artis is a better shooter from deep, hitting 41 percent of his attempts.

They are the two driving forces behind Pitt’s solid offense. Regardless, the team’s defense is so bad that FSU should have a relatively easy time scoring a lot of points. (I hope so, at least.)

Point Spread/How to Watch

Vegas likes the Seminoles in this matchup. They’re -5.5 point favorites.

To watch this game, just tune into ESPN2 at 4PM. Nothing left to say but Go ‘Noles!