FSU Basketball: Upcoming games against bad foes are must wins

FSU basketball faces an upcoming stretch of games against teams that they should not have a problem being the favorite against and must avoid a letdown.

To start their ACC schedule this season, the FSU basketball team got somewhat of a pass from fans and critics as they played a slate of three games that included facing teams ranked No. 1 and No. 4 in the country – losing both of those games, but still putting up a good showing in one of them.

That was followed by a set of two games last week in which the Seminoles had a disappointing loss on the road to Pittsburgh before heading up to Boston College this past week and losing to/winning against the Eagles.

Now, sitting at (record) on the season and facing the final 13 games of the regular season, FSU basketball faces another trio of games over the next two weeks that might even be more important than the first one – because they can’t afford to look bad against these teams.

In the upcoming weeks, the Seminoles will face off against the Clemson Tigers, their second game of the season against the Miami Hurricanes followed by a game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets – all three teams who entered this week either below or tied with the Noles in the ACC standings.

It is beyond important for the Seminoles to win these games against perceived easier foes – yes, I know there is no easy opponent in the ACC, but you know what I’m talking about – considering that they still have foes in the final 10 games of the regular season that include currently ranked teams like North Carolina, Virginia Tech and N.C. State.

Now, FSU basketball did get a slightly easier road this season considering they only have to face all of those ranked teams in the conference – the ones mentioned above along with Duke and Virginia – just one time each while getting the chance to play teams like Wake Forest, Miami, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame twice in years which all of them have not started well.

But, at the risk of sounding like a pessimist, we have seen this story before where the Seminoles start solid and even beat a ranked team in conference play before playing down to the level of their competition and lost games they have no business suffering setbacks in. It’s been the calling card of the Noles in the past and has started to appear again this season.

For their season’s sake and the hopes of making it back to March Madness, head coach Leonard Hamilton must stop that problem right now – or it will be back to the ‘Nole Invitational Tournament’ like it was for much of the last two decades.