Florida State basketball started conference play with five consecutive losses, and a blowout loss to NC State looked like this season wasn’t going to be worth paying attention to. The majority of the shots FSU was taking were three-pointers, and they were barely making 30 percent of those shots.
Those bad shots and poor defense led to bad losses. FSU head coach Luke Loucks switched gears and made some adjustments, which showed maturity for a young coach. FSU is 4-3 since that NC State game, with two of those three losses by a combined four points.
Mitchum Man of the Game: Alier Maluk — calm, cool, and clutch from the line.#connected | @Mitchum pic.twitter.com/dtpQmsJ9mb
— Florida State Men’s Basketball (@FSUHoops) February 8, 2026
FSU has emphasized more defense and fewer three point shots since the blowout loss to NC State
FSU (11-12, 4-6 ACC) is in seventh place in the ACC, 5.5 games behind Duke and Clemson, tied at the top. They are in position to make the ACC Tournament, which was a goal stated by Luke Loucks a couple of weeks back. FSU has eight regular-season games remaining (four home and four on the road), and three of those are against teams lower in the standings than FSU. They already beat Miami and lost by three to SMU. They host No. 18 Virginia next and travel to Virginia Tech this week. They must travel to No. 20 Clemson the week after that.
If FSU can go 4-4 in the next four at worst, that likely means FSU makes the ACC Tournament. That would be a solid start in Luke Loucks tenure with a lot of talent on the way next year.
Loucks has proven enough proof of concept in year one that he should be able to attract more talent, provided he has the funds to compete with elite programs for top players.