FSU basketball: Noles off to strong start in ACC play
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU basketball has played much better than most folk thought in the early part of the season. Let’s discuss their strong start in ACC play.
FSU basketball (12-2) pulled away from Georgia Tech Tuesday afternoon to move to (2-1) in ACC play.
It’s their second consecutive win in conference play after beating Clemson last week. These are wins against teams they absolutely need to beat if they want to make the NCAA Tournament in March.
They’ve won five games since their disappointing loss against Indiana and will travel to take on No. 7 Louisville Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.
It’ll be a huge test in which ESPN’s FPI gives the Noles a 18 percent chance to win on the road.
Florida State Seminoles Basketball
Conference Play
The biggest things to take away from the last two conference games are FSU has done all the little things well. They are shooting the ball decently overall at 46 percent and 41 percent from long-range.
The Noles have only turned it over around 12 times on average
Defensively, they are creating numerous turnovers and limiting teams to shooting around 37 percent overall.
They’ve also averaged nine blocks in these last two games which is remarkable. FSU simply isn’t allowing teams to drive to the basketball without contesting the shot which again points to how they are keeping teams well under 40 percent from the floor.
Just a couple of things I’d like to see improve moving forward? I’d love to see FSU take the ball to the basketball more. FSU has only gone to the free throw line 19 times in the last two conference games.
The Noles are a decent shooting team from the charity stripe and don’t shoot it particularly well overall. One other thing is rebounding needs to improve tremendously as the Noles have too much size to not have an edge against teams there.
Both Clemson and Georgia Tech were able to win the offensive boards battle and at least tie the Noles in total rebounds overall.
Leonard Hamilton continues to tweak his lineup but already has seven players who average 20 minutes or more per game. Devin Vassell, Trent Forrest and MJ Walker lead the way scoring wise but the team has eight players that average at least six points per game.
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The Louisville game will be a great measuring stick to see where they are as a team. However, it looks like this team will be more successful than first thought and should make the NCAA Tournament unless they just fall apart in the remaining conference games.