FSU basketball (17-14, 8-12 ACC) will play the Syracuse Orange (13-18, 7-13 ACC) in the first round of the ACC Tournament in Charlotte on Monday night. The game will start at 7 p.m. and air on the ACC Network.
FSU upset the SMU Mustangs in Leonard Hamilton's final game in the Tucker Center over the weekend to grab the No. 11 seed in the tournament. Syracuse is the No. 14 seed, having won two of their final five games in the regular season.
The two teams matched up in early January, with the Noles pulling away about midway through the second half to eventually win 90-74. It was one of the better games for the Noles, who shot 53 percent overall, 39 percent from three-point range, and 74 percent from the charity stripe.
FSU scored 40 points in the paint and had 16 points off of 14 Syracuse turnovers. Syracuse made 10 of 25 three-point attempts but had no answers for the Noles. FSU had four players to score in double figures.
FSU will enter Monday's game as a -3.5 betting favorite. The over/under points total is 149.5, which implies a 76-73 win for the Noles. The points total started at 151.5.
Interestingly, FSU is the small betting favorite, but it is on a neutral court and the first game was a home game with a two-point FSU lead at halftime. Will FSU shoot that high of a percentage again? Will they shoot the three-ball as well as the first game?
FSU played with a defensive urgency against SMU on Saturday which we haven't seen much of the year. Will that carry over into Tuesday night's game? Will they continue to play hard for Leonard Hamilton to give him another game to coach?
If FSU gets past Syracuse they would rematch SMU in the second round on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET.