FSU basketball: Noles need strong performance against Virginia

FSU basketball looks to continue their winning ways by defeated defending national champion Virginia for the second time in the last three games.

No. 5 FSU basketball (17-2, 7-1 ACC) will travel to take on defending national champion Virginia (13-6, 5-4 ACC) looking for their 11th consecutive win.

The Noles defeated Virginia just three games ago 54-50 in a game they could have easily lost. They could have easily lost their last three games as they’ve only won by an average of three points.

Surprisingly, the biggest issues have been their defense as they have allowed teams to shoot 46 percent, 47 percent and 44 percent the last three games.

The bad part is all of those percentages are well above those team’s seasonal averages. The Noles are ranked No. 5 in the country but haven’t been playing like a top 5 team the last few games.

They’ve failed to cover the spread in their last three games and need a strong performance against Virginia for fans to regain some confidence in the team’s chances of winning the ACC.

However, it’s telling the Virginia game is a pick’em according to the Action Network.

It’s not a team that’s easy to look good against because they play an ugly style of basketball. However, the Noles need to start putting complete games together as they have the toughest stretch of their schedule coming up.

They have back-to-back road games against Virginia and Virginia Tech before hosting a UNC team that’s trying to regroup by winning two straight. Then they’ll host a Miami team that took them to overtime before traveling to Duke.

They’ll likely need to win all of these games to keep pace with Louisville to stay at the top of the ACC conference.

However, that’s going to be tough sledding if this team can’t get it together. FSU will play Virginia Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET with the game airing on ESPN.