FSU basketball got their third straight win against a team below them in the standings of the ACC, but it wasn’t a pretty victory for the Seminoles.
Sometimes in the world of college basketball, you don’t win pretty but you still take the victory no matter what. That would be exactly the case for the FSU basketball team, who didn’t play anywhere close to their best game on Saturday but still showed up enough to get the 59-49 victory over Georgia Tech.
The Seminoles were led by 12 points in each from Terance Mann and Mfiondu Kabengele – including several highlight plays that showed what the Noles were capable of and overtook the fact that 13 of their combined 24 points came off of free throws.
As the Noles moved to 16-5 on the season and more importantly moved back to .500 in the ACC standings entering the final 10 games of the regular season, FSU basketball saw plenty of good and bad that they can build off of heading into the final third of the season.
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Here are the top three takeaways for head coach Leonard Hamilton’s team after their boring but effective win over the Yellow Jackets.
The hot and cold shooting could spell problems later in the year
Six days ago in a win against the Miami Hurricanes, FSU basketball shot 56 percent from the field and 60 percent from the three point line. Against the Yellow Jackets, those numbers went down to 35 and 25 percent respectively.
It’s one thing to shoot like that against a team that isn’t among the upper level of the conference, but with games up ahead against North Carolina and Louisville among others the Seminoles must figure out a way to be more consistent.
FSU Basketball still knows how to play defense when needed
We mentioned it above, but when you are able to hold a team under 30 percent from the field and under 15 percent from the three point line for the game you are doing something right – and Hamilton’s team continues to be one of the best defensive groups in all of college basketball.
It’s also just the second time this season that the Seminoles have held their opponent under 60 points in a game, with the other time coming December 22nd when they held St. Louis to just 59 points in the Orange Bowl basketball classic.
The Seminoles will still need plenty of help to get a double bye
The win for FSU basketball got the Noles firmly in the seventh spot right now of the ACC standings, a half game above N.C. State and a full game above both Georgia Tech and Clemson – who the Noles will each play one more time this regular season.
The top six spots in the conference are all separated by just one game as of 4 p.m. on Saturday, with the Seminoles being a full two games back of the three way tie for 4th place between Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Louisville. Translation: the Noles need to win out as much as possible and pray for help.