FSU Basketball: 3 takeaways from ‘Noles loss against Duke

No. 13 FSU basketball suffered a heartbreaking loss against No. 1 Duke Saturday. Check out our three takeaways from the game.

FSU basketball played with a ton of heart and effort in Saturday’s loss against Duke. A lot of folk may have questioned the win had the Noles pulled off the upset with Zion Williamson sitting out the second half after getting poked in the eye.

It should be noted FSU had a 39-38 lead at halftime with him playing virtually all of the first half.

However, it came down to the little things as it always does when playing against a team that’s more talented.

FSU won the battle of the boards and shot free throws better and had more blocked shots. However, ultimately the game was decided with shot selection and turnovers.

Three Takeaways

FSU basketball shot just 40 percent from the floor overall and 32 percent from three-point land. These are two areas we pointed out that needed to improve along with not turning the ball over.

The Noles had 17 turnovers (11 in the first half) and had several instances where they had the ball and just fumbled it out-of-bounds. One in particular was costly late in the game as losing that possession allowed Duke to hit a three-pointer just seconds later.

FSU played hard but didn’t make smart decisions in terms of shooting the ball. I can recall at least five shots that were just awful where either it was too early in the shot clock or just an awful shot period.

One final thing to mention is Duke shot the three pointer much better than their season average. They came in the game shooting just over 30 percent from long-range, but made 11 of 24 against the Noles.

FSU will be a factor in March as long as they play hard and avoid dumb turnovers. There are no moral victories in the ACC, but FSU basketball should gain confidence by taking Duke to the brink of defeat.