FSU basketball (13-9, 4-7 ACC) has lost four straight games, with three of them against bad teams.
They'll face another bad team on Tuesday night when they host Notre Dame (10-11, 4-6 ACC), one day after the announcement that Leonard Hamilton would conclude his coaching career at FSU at the season's end.
FSU is a slight betting favorite at -1.5, with an over/under points total of 142.5 via FanDuel. FSU has been the betting favorite in three of the last four games they've lost.
The team seems to have mailed it in with nothing left to play for. They can't make the NCAA Tournament unless they win the ACC Tournament. It sounds cliche, and one would think they'd want to win for Leonard Hamilton regardless, but will his announcement provide any extra motivation? We've seen different things motivate teams before, but this is a common one. FSU football wanted to win for Bobby Bowden in his final games.
FSU baseball wanted to win it all in Mike Martin Sr.'s final year. They had a "Do it for 11" mantra. FSU played well for most of its last game against Boston College.
They had a five-point lead at halftime and grew it to 15 in the second half. They had a four-point lead with eight seconds remaining and lost 77-76. FSU only had nine games left in the Leonard Hamilton era, and five of those will be home games starting with Tuesday night.
It would be nice to see the fans show up in these final few games to show their appreciation for FSU's all-time winningest basketball coach. The Tucker Center was an intimidating place to play when Leonard Hamilton had FSU basketball at its peak a few years ago.
Here's to hoping they can capture that magic down the stretch. They have a chance to win a few of these games, starting with tonight. The game will start at 7 p.m. ET and air on the ACC Network.