FSU Basketball: Gonzaga coach Mark Few gives Noles mad props

FSU basketball will face No. 1 seeded Gonzaga Thursday in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. Gonzaga’s coach has a lot of respect for the Noles.

FSU basketball will enter as the betting underdog for the first time in the NCAA Tournament when they take on No. 1 seeded Gonzaga Thursday night.

The Noles are a consensus seven point underdog against the Bulldogs despite having a great record in arguably the best conference in the nation.

FSU had one of its best games in their last outing against Murray State as they shot lights out and played suffocating defense to contain one of the nation’s best players in Ja Morant.

This will be a rematch from last year’s NCAA Tournament that saw the Noles roll Gonzaga to reach the Elite 8. The Noles were underdogs in that game too.

That hasn’t been lost on Gonzaga’s head coach Mark Few who had nothing but praise for the Noles after watching them destroy Murray State.

Thoughts

I’m not sure I think FSU basketball should have been a No. 2 seed like Few said. That’s probably some coach speak, but the Noles definitely should have been a No. 3 seed and got shafted by the selection committee.

He’s right in Gonzaga isn’t the same team as last year, but the Noles are vastly improved compared to last year’s version and just as deep. This game is going to answer a lot of questions regarding Gonzaga’s schedule for the season.

Aside from an early win against a young Duke team, they’ve taken losses against other highly ranked teams like Tennessee (who’s overrrated) and North Carolina.

Gonzaga is deep and do a lot of things well but how good are they really?

Their stats are inflated a bit similar to Murray State who plays in a sub-par conference, and we saw how that turned out against an experienced team like FSU basketball.

I’ve said all along the Noles can play with anyone in the country when they lock in defensively and I expect them to be ready Thursday night as they play in the remembrance of Phil Cofer’s dad.