FSU Basketball Recap: Noles Fall in ACC Road Finale to Duke

Another pathetic road showing for the FSU basketball team, who fall  –  to the Duke Blue Devils. Offensive meltdown is what did them in this time.

Water is still wet, and FSU basketball continues to be an abysmal road team. After showing some signs of fight for about ten minutes, the last 30 were all home team. The final score read 75 – 70 Duke Blue Devils, and the game was never that close. For the most part, the Duke did just about whatever they wanted in the second half.

The loss takes the Seminoles out of contention for the regular season ACC title. It also severely hurts their chances at the coveted double-bye to open the conference tournament.

The road (no pun intended) does not get any easier going forward, either. FSU closes the season at home against a really good Miami team before the postseason officially begins.

Let’s get to our takeaways.

Effort was prime

Before we get to nitpicking the performance, I just want to point out the effort was excellent tonight. From the opening tip, FSU played their tails off. Offensively, it just wasn’t there night. And there were a couple of mix-ups defensively, but for the most part Duke deserves credit for making tough shots.

Jonathan Isaac grabbed eight rebounds and freshman Trent Forrest had nine. But the Blue Devils were coming off back-to-back losses, so you knew they were going to take their best shot tonight. And that best shot came against a team in the Seminoles who struggle on the road to begin with.

The effort wasn’t the issue tonight. (At least not for most guys.)

Phew, alright. Now I don’t have to feel bad about what I’m going to say next.

The offense was absolutely porous

After the first half of basketball, the box score told a horrifying story (at least if you’re a ‘Nole). Florida State had ten turnovers and ten field goals made. That is the opposite of a winning formula.

The ways they turned the ball over were fascinating, too.

Some were clean steals by Duke, others were players losing the ball trying to accomplish simple tasks and others, still, were botched fast-break opportunities.

Free-throws were missed, layups were clanked, everything was just bad.

For the game, the Seminoles shot 42 percent from the floor, 65 percent from the foul line, and made just five of their 13 tries from three. The percentages saw an uptick late in the second half, when Duke let off the gas defensively.

An overall paltry showing against a decidedly mediocre defense (statistically, at least).

Florida State Seminoles Basketball

FSU basketball’s rotation of big men were horrible

The Florida State stable of bigs were thought of as a strength of the team. Two seniors in Michael Ojo and Jarquez Smith, and a high-upside sophomore in Christ Koumadje.

Ojo is the calming force, who usually plays within himself, while being a surprisingly adept free-throw shooter. Smith is the more apt scorer, who has some pick-and-pop ability, along with a decent post game. And Koumaje is the explosive weapon, the player who can change games in 10 minutes of action with his shot-blocking and athleticism.

As much as it pains me to admit, there’s no hiding from the truth: All three of them were horrid against Duke.

I’m not sure if head coach Leonard Hamilton wanted his team pounding the ball inside that much (I hope that wasn’t the case, because that would be an abrupt change from what’s been working for the team), or if Duke coach Mike Kryzewski instructed his defense to get the ball out of Dwayne Bacon and Isaac’s hands and force FSU to beat them inside.

Either way, it was a very poor showing from the three centers.

After the first half, they were 0-for-7. Most misses were point-blank opportunities blown after needless hesitation. They finished 1-of-10 for the night. Woof.

Coach Hamilton spent the majority of the second half with a lineup that saw Terrence Mann playing center.

Free-throw shooting

Sad. It’s just sad at this point. No need to go into detail here, I don’t want to sound like a broken record. But imagine the following tweet as an analogy for the Seminoles free-throw shooting on the road this year.

Dwayne Bacon had the quietest 19 points possible

Bacon spent most of the night floating. He didn’t try to assert his presence until the result was out of hand. Credit Duke’s defense, I suppose, but something felt off about his performance.

The super sophomore still somehow inexplicably lead the team in scoring with 19 points on nine shot attempts, but most of them came in garbage time.

A-for-effort, but the defense also struggled

FSU’s defensive effort was great, at least for the most part. Regardless, they allowed Duke to shoot 46 percent from the floor, and did a poor job avoiding fouls. The home team show 19 free-throws.

Blue Devil freshman Frank Jackson absolutely went off, scoring 22 points on just 15 shot attempts. Center Amile Jefferson was also excellent, making all six of his shots from the floor (which also gets back to how bad the big men were for Florida State).

The regular season (mercifully) ends on Saturday for FSU. (Doesn’t it feel like the Seminoles need a kick in the butt, and they’ll get it once they realize it’s time for postseason play? No? Never mind.)

They host rival Miami at the Donald L. Tucker Center, game tips at 4 pm ET. Check back with us on Saturday for a preview.