Florida State basketball has been on a heater lately, where they just defeated the SMU Mustangs on Saturday afternoon by a score of 91-78. This was thanks to a 31-point showing by forward Chauncey Wiggins.
Head coach Luke Loucks has this squad trending in a positive direction as they have won ten of their last 13 games. Wiggins was asked in a post-game interview about how the team has gelled together so well, and he highlighted the embarrassing blowout loss to North Carolina State as the change that they needed.
To be honest, it had to be stressful for Coach Loucks to pull out of a rut in the first year of his coaching tenure. Being a former player also has to be a ton of expectations because he knows the ins and outs of the program.
The Seminoles will be an eight-seed in the ACC Tournament, facing the nine-seed California at 7 PM EST on Wednesday, March 11th. The winner of the contest will play the one-seed Duke on Thursday, March 12th at 7 PM EST.
Auburn's Steven Pearl thinks that the Tigers deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament
Florida State will have to win the entire ACC Tournament to get into March Madness. However, the Seminoles have a strong belief in themselves to make a deep run and keep it interesting. They also know that a couple of early losses hurt their chances of realistically making the NCAA Tournament.
However, don't mention that to Auburn head coach Steven Pearl, who still thinks his resume stands over everyone else's, where they have an overall 16-15 record. The SEC mindset continues, where those teams think that they are better than everyone.
Steven Pearl after Auburn falls to 16-15:
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 8, 2026
"We have the best win in college basketball at Florida. If you look at our quality wins and other teams on the bubble, I don't think those teams get those wins... I think our resume stands up against anybody's"pic.twitter.com/PqVTEdZKeb
This is a disrespect to Florida State basketball and how they have beaten quality SMU, Miami, Clemson, Virginia Tech, and California squads over the past couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Auburn has lost eight of its last ten games.
I get the belief that Coach Pearl is confident in his squad (as you always should be), but the arrogance of thinking your team is head and shoulders above everyone else is delusional. The Tigers should not be able to make it to the NCAA Tournament without a deep conference tournament run like Florida State.