Florida State basketball (5-6) has lost five consecutive games, and the early shine that Luke Loucks had has vanished. All of their losses have come against solid teams, except the UMASS loss, where they were -10.5 betting favorites, according to Fanduel.
The Noles will enter Friday evening’s contest as massive betting favorites, with an excellent chance to stop the losing streak. FSU will host the Mississippi State Valley Delta Devils (1-10) as -41.5 betting favorites. The over/under points total is 160.5. Those odds imply a 100-60 win for the Noles.
If FSU loses this game or it's close, Luke Loucks will have a bigger problem on his hands. FSU will have one more winnable game against Jacksonville before it enters ACC play against North Carolina and Duke.
The issues for FSU have been known for a while. Their defense has become horrendous and the rely on the three-point shot way too much, although they didn't take a many as they normally do in their last outing.
They must stop fouling on defense. Opposing teams average well over 20 free throws, and the Dayton Flyers shot 47 in their last outing, making 40. I'm curious to see what kind of effort the guys play with this evening. FSU is on winter break and the crowd probably won't be great. If we couple that with a bad team, it's easy to mail it in. It's going to be a long season regardless, but if that's the case, it's going to be a really long season.
The game will start at 7 p.m. and will air on the ACCNX channel.