FSU Basketball Hopes to Add to Brief Program History in New York City

FSU basketball will look to spend three days this week playing basketball in New York City – a location the program doesn’t have massive history with.

This week, the 15 schools from the ACC will make their way to Brooklyn, New York for the annual conference postseason basketball tournament. For many of the schools in the conference who weren’t a part of the original Big East Conference – including FSU basketball – it will be quite the change of scenery from what they are used to.

The Seminoles are one of those programs who, when you look at their history, don’t have a lot of experience with both playing and recruiting in maybe the best city of basketball in the entire country. When the ‘Noles take the court at the Barclays Center on Thursday for their tournament opener, it will be just the 16th time in the program’s 70 seasons they have tipped off in the NYC.

FSU basketball has never played one of the local schools like Manhattan, St. John’s or Columbia in the Big Apple – only taking part in tournaments at both the Barclays Center and at the “mecca” of basketball, Madison Square Garden.

The Seminoles’ first taste of New York living was in the spring of 1973, one year after the played for the national title. The ‘Noles defeated Seton Hall in their first ever game there before losing to North Carolina. The program wouldn’t return again until 1989, splitting games with N.C. State and Rhode Island, and would lose both their games in 1992 against Indiana and UCLA.

Florida State Seminoles Basketball

Florida State would have some success in the 1997 NIT, defeating UConn before losing to Michigan in the championship game. The following season, the Seminoles again beat the Huskies before losing to Kansas in the preseason version of the tournament. It would be another 15 years before they would return, this time in Brooklyn where they won the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

The ‘Noles have already played twice this year inside the Barclays Center, splitting their Preseason NIT games with a loss to Temple and a win over Illinois – giving the program a 7-8 record all-time.

While FSU basketball has brought in players from across the Northeast – including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and even New York – only six players have ever made their way from one of the five boroughs down to Tallahassee, with three from Brooklyn and one each from Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx.

Only three of those players – Irv Quinn (1950-52), Greg Grady (1972-76) and Karin Shabazz (1997-99) coming straight from high school with Art Adams (1948-49), Dennis Burke (1973-74) and Kerry Thompson (1996-98) coming from either junior college or transferring in.

With the ACC sending their tournament outside of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic for the first time ever, the thought is that it will help expand the conference’s footprint that goes along with the addition of its new Northeast schools. For the sake of programs like Florida State, maybe it will welcome a new pipeline from places like Rucker Park down to Tallahassee.