FSU Basketball Preview: Noles Face Important Road Game at Clemson

FSU basketball heads to Clemson, South Carolina to face the Tigers. It will be a challenge for a Seminoles team that struggles away from Tallahassee.

The FSU basketball team is set to face one of their biggest adversaries today. No, not the Clemson Tigers. The football rivalry between the two schools doesn’t really translate to basketball, for obvious reasons. Rather, I meant a conference road game.

The Seminoles tend to struggle outside of Tallahassee. As the Tallahassee Democrat’s Corey Clark points out:

Although the Tigers aren’t a great team by any stretch, they’re certainly good enough to give FSU trouble. It’s comforting that Clemson hasn’t done a very good job protecting their home-court advantage, as they are currently 2-4 in home ACC games.

The Last Time the ‘Noles Took the Court

The Seminoles are coming off a demolition of the Boston College Eagles on Monday night. Of course, the Eagles are absolutely horrid, and the game was at home.

(I’m way more curious to see what happens today against Clemson.)

Florida State’s bench carried them in the contest. They scored 58 points, to just two by the Boston College reserves. FSU shot 54 percent from the floor, 41 from three, and — most surprisingly — 82 percent from the free-throw line. (More of that last number, please.)

Xavier Rathan-Mayes scored 7 points, to go with 5 rebounds and 10 assists. Oh, that’s double-digit assists to just one turnover. The turnaround he’s made to a more play-making role has been outstanding. Dwayne Bacon finished with 16 points and four rebounds, while Jonathan Isaac had 14 and four.

The final tally read 104-72, Florida State.

Florida State Seminoles Basketball

Opponent Preview

The Tigers are currently 14-13 on the year, 4-11 in conference play. Somehow, they remain on Joe Lunardi’s bubble, though hope is fading fast.

They remain 36th-overall on KenPom, with the 28th-most efficient offense, but 84th defense in the country. We must also mention that Clemson traveled to Tallahassee Feb. 5th, and got absolutely walloped, 109-61. Since then, they are 1-4, with losses to Duke, Syracuse, Miami and Georgia Tech. The lone team they beat in that span was Wake Forest.

For players to know about, we pull this from our last preview piece between the two teams.

"The players FSU fans should be wary of are Jaron Blossomgame (awesome name) and Avry Holmes. Blossomgame is a senior who is projected to be a first round pick after this season. The 6-foot-7 small forward is an athletic and efficient player. He averages 18 points, 5.7 rebounds and over a block per game. He shoots 52 percent from the field, but just 25 percent from three, and 67 from the foul line. So FSU must force him into deep shots, and if he gets a good look at the basket, just foul him. Holmes, meanwhile, is a senior guard who is one of the best three-point shooters on the roster. He scores 11.4 points per game, to go with 2.5 rebounds and 2.2 three-pointers. He shoots 42 percent from behind-the-arc."

Furthermore, here are other important numbers you should know.

"They are a team that likes to keep it slow, averaging just over 70 possessions per game, which is the 264th slowest pace in college basketball. And their rebounding rate is 244th, so the Seminoles should be able to dominate the glass. (Both stats provided by Team Rankings.)"

Those numbers haven’t changed much in two weeks. We are deep enough into the season where the sample size was relevant back then.

Point Spread/How to Watch

Vegas favors the Seminoles, but not by much. The point spread opened up at -1 Florida State via Odds Shark. Just goes to show Clemson is far better than their 14-13 record wold indicate.

To watch the game, all you have to do is tune into Watch ESPN, or, if you’re based in Florida, find the ACC Network on your television. Go ‘Noles!