FSU basketball: Noles ranked No. 18 in CBS Sports Top 25

FSU basketball wins its seventh straight game and the Emerald Coast Classic Championship. The Noles enter the top 25 for the first time this season.

A lot of fans were clamoring for FSU basketball (7-1) to be ranked after its win over No. 17 Tennessee Friday. Needless to say most rankings are only updated once per week so that couldn’t happen with FSU scheduled to play again anyways.

However, an overtime win over Purdue to win the Emerald Coast Classic Championship has certainly done the trick with FSU basketball checking in at No. 18 in the CBS Sports Top 25.

The Noles dropped their 2019 opener against ACC conference foe Pittsburgh but has rattled off seven consecutive wins, including two wins ranked SEC teams Florida and Tennessee.

Leonard Hamilton has the team playing well early while still working on finding the best possible lineups/rotations as they ready to enter conference play shortly.

There are 11 FSU players averaging 10 mins or more per game.

Defense has always been a Hamilton trademark and it’s showing as they are only allowing 60 points per game while averaging 10 steals and five blocks.

In fact, defense carried them to their last two wins as they held both Tennessee and Purdue to less than 35 percent shooting from the floor and forced 45 turnovers in those two games.

Another area that’s been strong for the Noles is their ability to get to the free throw line where they are converting at a 78 percent clip.

They didn’t shoot it well particularly in those two games, but got to the free throw line 54 times and converted 37 tries (68.5 percent) which was well below their season average thus far.

They’ll travel to take on an undefeated Indiana (7-0) team Tuesday at 9 p.m. as part of the ACC/B1G Challenge with the game airing on ESPN2. Indiana hasn’t played a single power five opponent or away from their home court all year.