FSU Basketball Weekly Preview: December 25th-31st

Here’s a preview of FSU basketball and their upcoming week of games scheduled for play during the 2017-18 basketball season.

After suffering their first loss of the season in a one point set back just days before, the FSU basketball program bounced back in a big way this past week with two huge wins that got the Seminoles to double digit wins on the season and set the Noles up in a position to make some noise this season in the ACC with conference play set to begin.

Head coach Leonard Hamilton was able to use both games this past weekend to get his bench players some quality minutes and game action – something that is invaluable with a three game stretch of games looming that will go a long way to seeing if this year’s Florida State team is for real.

Florida State Seminoles Basketball

Here’s our recap of last week’s action and a preview of this week’s games for the Seminoles.

Last Week Recap

Coming off the loss to Oklahoma State down in South Florida, FSU basketball struggled early on when they faced Charleston Southern, leading the Buccaneers by just two points at the half last Monday. The second half would be a different animal, pulling away with 19 points by Phil Cofer and 17 from Terance Mann for the 69-58 win.

“You get a good start, you get nationally ranked, everybody is patting you on the back and telling you how wonderful things are going and sometimes you can lose your focus,” Hamilton said after the game. “But we’ve got a great bunch of guys. They love each other.”

On Thursday, things were a lot easier for the Seminoles as they led by 26 points at the half and coasted to a 98-45 victory over Southern Miss in the final non-conference game of the season. The bench was responsible for 66 points on the game, led by 17 from PJ Savoy and 15 from M.J. Walker – who combined for 10 three pointers on the day.

Opponent Preview

The Noles will open up ACC play on Saturday against one of the top teams in all of college basketball, the Duke Blue Devils, in their only meeting of the season. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski (and no, I didn’t know that by memory…thank you, copy and paste) has the men from Durham at 12-1 on the season after losing their conference opener against Boston College, but bouncing back last Wednesday to thump Evansville.

Recent history has not been good for the Seminoles against Coach K’s team as FSU basketball is just 9-30 against Duke since the 1994-95 season. Last season, the teams split their games with each team winning at home.

Next: FSU destroys Southern Miss to end non-conference slate

Interesting Fact

As the Seminoles start a streak of three games against ranked foes to start conference play (because someone at the ACC offices really hates Florida State), the Noles look to do something that hasn’t taken place in nearly two decades if they can defeat the Blue Devils: win their ACC opener in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1998-99 / 1999-2000 seasons.