Florida State Looks Forward to the ACC Tournament as the #3 Seed

March 9th, 2010 by Andrew Brady

The Florida State University men’s basketball team bounced back from the heartbreaking loss to Clemson on February 28th with a pair of clutch victories to close out the 2009-10 regular season. The Seminoles won 5 of their final 6 games, including a perfect 3-0 on the road to claim the #3 seed in the upcoming ACC basketball tournament.

It is FSU’s highest seed in the tournament in 17 years . . . and bests last year’s 4th seed. The reward for a 10-6 conference record is a bye in the first round. In fact, by the time Florida State plays our first game of the tournament, 7 teams will already be on their way home. The Noles will gladly wait until 9:00 on Friday night to play the winner of the Clemson/NC State game that is scheduled for Thursday at the same time.

The brackets in the ACC tournament present an interesting challenge for FSU. Every round potentially brings a revenge game. The Noles lost to NC State on January 12th and were swept by Clemson this season. Should FSU advance in that matchup, it would likely face Maryland . . .a team that also swept us. If we win there to make our second consecutive ACC championship game appearance, it would likely come against Duke . . . who defeated FSU in Cameron Indoor Stadium back on January 27th. Those 4 teams represent the only 6 conference losses on our record. FSU was 10-0 against the remainder of the conference.

Regardless of what happens in the conference tournament this week, FSU can rest comfortably knowing that their season will continue as a part of the Big Dance. That was assured on Saturday afternoon in Coral Gables. By most accounts, FSU had actually assured the bid the prior Wednesday against Wake Forest. In a huge game for both teams, Florida State prevailed by a score of 51-47.

The 47 points scored by the Demon Deacons tied the lowest points scored by an ACC conference opponent in Florida State history. That mark was established two weeks earlier in the season when FSU hosted the Boston College Eagles. Against Wake Forest, the Noles were held to only four 2nd half field goals themselves, but made enough free throws to hold off the Deacons, who were frustrated by the suffocating Seminole defense all night. In fact, the leading scorer for Wake Forest this season, Al-Farouq Aminu, was held scoreless for the first time in his career.

The Noles followed up that crucial win with a bid-solidifying victory against our chief conference rivals, the Miami Hurricanes. Against the Canes, FSU built a huge advantage and looked to run away with the game on several occasions. But, Miami fought back and actually took the lead with 2 minutes remaining on the clock.

FSU’s sophomore point guard, Luke Loucks, hit a clutch 3-pointer with 1:52 left in the game to regain the lead for good. The Seminole defense locked down the Canes for the remainder of the game, including a heart-stopping effort on Miami’s last possession, which ended in a futile jumper at the buzzer.

The bench for Florida State finished with 33 of the 61 points, and they helped FSU to a season sweep of the Hurricanes.

Some ACC honors were handed out on Monday and Florida State was represented. Chris Singleton received the most votes by the media for the all-defense team, followed by his teammate, Solomon Alabi. It is expected that this will be the order of finish in the Defensive Player of the Year voting. Assuming that Singleton wins this honor later today (Tuesday), it will mark the second consecutive season that a Seminole was the conference’s defensive player of the year. Toney Douglas won last year, and was two votes away from that honor in 2007-08.

Both Singleton and Alabi made the 3rd-team All-ACC squad. Freshman Michael Snaer was one of 5 ACC players on the all-rookie team.

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84 Excruciating seconds Later & FSU Falls Back on the Bubble

March 2nd, 2010 by Andrew Brady

It wasn’t pretty, but with 84 seconds left on the clock Sunday night, it looked as if the Seminoles would win their 9th conference game and virtually lock up a bid for the NCAA tournament. With Wake Forest and Virginia Tech losing on Saturday, the Seminoles were on the cusp of moving into sole possession of 3rd place in the league, with an ACC tournament bye all but secured. The Seminoles held a five point lead (47-42) over Clemson and Chris Singleton was at the line shooting 2. What could go wrong?

Everything.

Singleton missed both free throws, and Andre Young made a jumper to cut the lead to three. With under a minute, Ryan Reid saw an opportunity to counter the Tiger basket, but was cut off and turned it over with plenty of time on the shot clock. Derwin Kitchen fouled Demontez Stitt on the transition, and Stitt closed the gap to a single point by sinking both free throws with 54 seconds remaining. FSU called timeout to set up the final minute. That was wasted when Michael Snaer fumbled away the in-bounds pass, and that led to a back-breaking three-pointer by Young . . . giving Clemson a 2 point lead.

With 23 seconds left, FSU called another time-out to set up an attempt to tie the game. That worked as Solomon Alabi was fouled with 14 seconds left trying to make a high-percentage shot after the ball was worked inside. Alabi made the first, but missed the second after a Clemson timeout. Trevor Booker was fouled immediately and the Tiger senior calmly made both attempts to increase the margin to three.

FSU brought in their three-point specialist, Deividas Dulkys, and called a timeout with 7 seconds on the clock to set up a play for him. Clemson was aware of the strategy, and Booker worked through a screen and easily blocked the attempt. He came down with the ball and was fouled again. Two more freebies by Booker and the game was out of reach. Kitchen made a garbage bucket at the buzzer to cut the final margin to 3 points.

Until allowing Clemson to score 11 points in the final 72 seconds, the Seminoles played solid defense. In fact, Clemson did not score their first points until Booker made two free throws (go figure) with 13:17 left in the first half. That is nearly 7 minutes of scoreless basketball. With 4:10 left in the first half, the score was 19-6 in FSU’s favor. At that point, Clemson was on pace (1 point every 2:30) to score 16 total points.

But, like the fate of the 2nd half . . . Clemson put together a run to end the first half. They outscored FSU 13-2 in the final 4:10 (including a desperation 3-point heave by Young) to make the halftime score 21-19. The Tigers quickly gained the lead and extended it to 27-21 in the first 3 minutes of the second half . . . so the 7-minute run was a total of 19-2 in Clemson’s favor.

FSU refocused on defense and looked to have regained control of the game . . . until the fateful final 84 excruciating seconds of the game.

The win by Clemson moves them up to the NCAA tournament bubble, and moves FSU down to the bubble. Joining those two are Wake Forest and Virginia Tech . . . all tied for third place at 8-6 in the ACC. Georgia Tech is also a bubble team at 7-7. I suspect that Duke and Maryland are locks, and the NCAA selection committee will not take more than 4 of the 5 ACC bubble teams . . . and could take as few as 2 of the 5 depending on how the last week of conference play shakes out.

FSU hosts Wake Forest on Wednesday night in basically a must-win for both teams. The winner could take it out of the committee’s hands with a subsequent 10th victory this weekend. For FSU, their finale is at Miami. The loser of the FSU/Wake must win this weekend, and then it would likely need at least one conference tournament win to remove doubt.

If FSU cannot tally 2 more wins, their tournament fate is again in the hands of the committee . . . and that has not ended well for the Noles in recent Selection Sunday history. FSU was rejected by the committee in 2007-8 (19-14 record, 7-9 ACC), 2006-07 (20-12 record, 7-9 ACC), and 2005-06 (19-9, 9-7 ACC). Last year, FSU removed any doubt (25-9, 10-6 ACC) when it capped a very good season by defeating the eventual national champions, North Carolina, en route to the program’s first ACC championship game appearance.

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FSU wins consecutive league games, Otto Petty named as an ACC Legend

February 23rd, 2010 by Andrew Brady

Florida State took advantage of a weary and reeling Virginia Cavaliers team in the Seminoles only game of the week. For Virginia, they had lost road games to Virginia Tech on Saturday, February 13th; and to Maryland on February 15th. The Seminoles handed the Wahoos a 4th consecutive loss (they began the streak with an overtime loss to Wake Forest on February 6th) . . . this one a hurtful loss in Charlottesville on February 17th.

It was the third game in 5 days for the Cavaliers and that difficult stretch had clearly taken a toll. However, the Seminoles put together one of their better games of the year, so UVA may have fallen at home even with fresh legs.

For Virginia, they have since lost a 5th consecutive conference game to go from a tie at the top with a 5-2 mark, to fighting for their bubble lives at 5-7.

Florida State, on the other hand, has now won consecutive conference games and collected an important road victory . . . their 3rd road win of the season. As of February 23rd, FSU is tied with Clemson in 5th place in the ACC standings at 7-5, only a half-game behind Wake Forest . . . and one-game behind Virginia Tech, whom the Seminoles defeated at home.

FSU rested this past weekend and should be ready for their upcoming games against North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Wednesday, and Clemson on Sunday in Tallahassee. With four regular season games remaining, the Seminoles are in position to make a case for a tournament berth and even seeding advantages should they perform well in this stretch.

Today, the ACC announced that Otto Petty will represent Florida State University as a 2010 Legend.

Otto was the point guard on some very talented Seminole teams in the early 70’s under Hugh Durham. In 1970-71, Petty dished out 227 assists, which remains as the FSU record for most assists in a season. Fourth place on that list is Petty with 202 in 1972-73. In his other year as a Seminole —1971-72 — Petty logged the 9th most assists in a season with 173.

1971-72 was the year that FSU played in the championship game, falling to Bill Walton and John Wooden’s UCLA team by a score of 81-76. Along the way, the Seminoles defeated Eastern Kentucky, Minnesota, Kentucky (Adolph Rupp’s final game), and North Carolina.

Against UNC, Otto Petty was the driving force in the final four victory to vault FSU into the championship game. The following excerpt was from Bill McGrotha of the Tallahassee Democrat on 3/23/72:

Sparkplug Otto Petty scored only 10 points but losing Coach Dean Smith said Petty single handedly took away the Tar Heels’ main weapon – the full court press.

“Mr. Petty acted like a road runner through our press and that press was what got us here. We’d double team him and he’d get through and make the play at the other end. We had to take the press off halfway through the first half.

“I think this game shows there’s still room for a 5-7 guard in the game.”

Petty had 602 assists in his 3-year career, which is 2nd all-time at Florida State (Delvon Arrington dished out 688 assists from 1999-2002. Petty has numerous entries among the most assists in a game . . . twice with 16, twice with 15, twice with 14, and three times with 13.

Here is my ballot for this week’s Raycom Power Poll:

1 Duke
2 Maryland
3 Wake Forest
4 Virginia Tech
5 FSU
6 Clemson
7 Georgia Tech
8 Virginia
9 Boston College
10 UNC
11 NC State
12 Miami

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Florida State Splits Again, Moves into Critical Stretch Run

February 16th, 2010 by Andrew Brady

For the 4th time this season, the Florida State men’s basketball team split their two-game ACC slate of the week. Calculate in the 2-1 record in weeks that only one ACC game was played, and we reside in the middle of the conference standings at 6-5. This week marks another single game week . . . and it is a big one for our tournament resume. Win or lose, we will not be talking about another ACC split next week. More on that game later.

On Wednesday of last week, FSU traveled to Clemson to face a desperate Tiger team, full of preseason hype, but so far . . . short on results. The game was crucial for Clemson and they prevailed by a score of 77-67.

It was an ugly game, with the officials dictating the action from start to finish with very active whistles. In fact, 48 fouls were called in the game, many of which did not affect the flow of the game and probably should not have been called. But, it was obvious that the referees planned to keep the game from getting physical and both teams were forced to adjust.

Clemson did a better job of that, hitting 44.4% of their field goals (52% in the first half) and making 29 of 38 free throws. FSU made only 37.9% from the floor in the game, and only 25% in the critical first half when Clemson extended a lead to 13 points going into the break. Solomon Alabi, Derwin Kitchen and Luke Loucks combined to make 16 of 18 free throws, but Chris Singleton was only 1 for 5.

The Seminoles refocused during the week, and dominated Boston College on Sunday night. Actually, it was the second half that FSU dominated.

At halftime, the game was tied at 30 and the statistics were mostly even for both teams. But, check out the disparity in the second half:

Points: FSU 32, BC 17
FG %: FSU 43%, BC 26%
Rebounds: FSU 20, BC 13
Turnovers: FSU 5, BC 10
Points off turnovers: FSU 16, BC 1
2nd Chance Points: FSU 13, BC 2
Points in the Paint: FSU 20, BC 4

All of that led to a comfortable 15 win on Valentines Day. FSU held Boston College to only 47 points in the game . . . the fewest points allowed to an ACC foe in FSU’s history. Also, it was the fewest points recorded by Boston College this season.

The star for Florida State was a freshman, Michael Snaer, who scored 18 points by slashing the lane time after time in the second half. He also hit a long-distance three pointer that ripped the hearts out of the Eagles. On defense, Singleton shined with 5 steals and 6 defensive rebounds (8 total). Alabi had a career-high 7 blocked shots.

The win sets up Florida State for a great opportunity on Wednesday night. In the only game of the week, the Seminoles will travel to Charlottesville to face Virginia . . . who has lost three straight games, and fallen from the top of the ACC standings down to the middle at 5-5 in the conference. A win by FSU would move the Noles to 7-5 in the league and comfortably ahead of some direct competition for tournament bids. Our “feel-good” goal is 9 wins and a victory on Wednesday would move our magic win number to 2. A loss would be a big hit to the tournament chances, moving FSU back to even and essentially requiring 3 wins in the final 4 regular season games.

The Raycom Bloggers mid-season awards were announced. The list can be found here:
Mid-Season Awards

Here was my ballot:

1st team
G Malcolm Delaney-VT
G Jon Scheyer-DU
F Tracy Smith-ST
F Kyle Singler-DU
F Trevor Booker-CU

2nd team
G Sylven Landesberg-VA
G Greivis Vasquez-MD
F Landon Milbourne-MD
F Al-Farouq Aminu-WF
F Gani Lawal-GT

Defense
G Ishmail Smith-WF
G Andre Young-CU
F Chris Singleton-FS
F Jeff Allen-VT
F Ed Davis-NC

Freshman
G Michael Snaer-FS
G CJ Harris-WF
F Derrick Favors-GT
F Scott Wood-NCS
F Jordan Williams-MD

Player of the Year: Jon Scheyer
Defensive Player of the Year: Chris Singleton
Freshman of the Year: Derrick Favors
Coach of the Year: Tony Bennett

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Florida State University Moves On After Unfair Punishment by the NCAA

February 9th, 2010 by Andrew Brady

FSU basketball team is mired in middle of the ACC pack, but it sure beats the bottom

The FSU men’s basketball team continued their 1 step backward, 1 step forward pace in the ACC standings by splitting games against Maryland and Miami last week. The downside this time was that both games were at home, thereby increasing the pressure to pick up another road win down the line.

As of today, FSU has home losses against Maryland and North Carolina State, evened out with road wins against Georgia Tech and Boston College. The conventional thought in Tallahassee is that a 9-7 regular season conference record would be enough to feel good about our NCAA tournament chances. 8-8 might be enough, but FSU’s non-conference schedule was not overly challenging . . . and there are no signature non-conference wins on the tournament resume. So, 9 conference wins is the target.

FSU’s current ACC record is 5-4, with 7 games remaining. That means, FSU will need to find 4 wins among: Clemson (away), Boston College (home), Virginia (away), North Carolina (away), Clemson (home), Wake Forest (home), and Miami (away).

NCAA rules unfairly, denies reasonable appeal by FSU. With no options left, the University will accept it and move on.

On Super Bowl Sunday, FSU released the list of vacated wins as a result of the NCAA penalties, thus ending the saga that has dragged on so long that it hardly seems conceivable that it involves technology as modern as an online test. Nearly all Florida State fans disagree with the NCAA’s ruling, but most were ready to accept the penalty so that the programs affected can move on.

The football team will forfeit 12 victories (five from 2006, seven from 2007), and those will also be deducted from Bobby Bowden’s “official” win total. The men’s track team will be stripped of their 2007 national championship. The women’s basketball team will lose 16 wins from the 2006-07 season, including 2 NCAA tournament wins. In total, 10 sports were punished by this decision.

All of these forfeited games and championship are events that took place with at least one of the 61 affected student-athletes competing while ineligible. The athletes were deemed ineligible for accepting assistance on an online exam . . . the famed academic misconduct scandal.

In my opinion, had the coach of any of the 10 sports known that a player had cheated and thus was ineligible, they would have certainly not played them in a game. The player is deemed ineligible at the moment that they are proven to be guilty . . . or at least suspected of guilt. How could anyone be deemed ineligible prior to being suspected of guilt?

The timeline of events in the FSU academic misconduct case:

1. Athletes cheated on exam.
2. One (or more) athlete(s) blew the whistle.
3. An investigation was launched by FSU and it was determined that many athletes in various sports were involved and they were led by corrupt tutors, who were fired immediately.
4. FSU turned themselves in to the NCAA.
5. FSU, under the advisement of the NCAA, self-imposed penalties . . . including probation and scholarship reductions, among others.
6. One penalty agreed to by both FSU and the NCAA was that involved athletes were to be suspended from competition. For football players, this suspension was 4 games (including the Music City Bowl, as well as a loss against Wake Forest in 2007 that arguably cost FSU an ACC Championship Game berth). Basketball players were suspended for 9 games. Baseball players for more.

The NCAA, in their absurd follow-up ruling several months ago (unsuccessfully appealed by FSU) went back in time . . . between steps 1 and 2 . . . and imposed the additional penalties, essentially altering history. At least on their own books.

Certainly, cheating cannot be accepted and there was just cause for punishment . . . no doubt. But, the NCAA essentially levied jail time for a parking ticket in this case. How many collegiate athletes have committed far worse crimes (including actual crimes) yet have received relatively minor punishment . . . such as suspension for a game (usually a cupcake), or maybe they sit out the first half? It happens every year across the country at every level. It has happened here. Has the NCAA ever gone back in time and vacated wins between the point that a player commits a crime and the point that they were proven guilty?

The FSU athletes involved . . . some of whom testified that they did not know the procedure for completing an (open book) online exam and thus were only doing as instructed by the tutor . . . were punished far more harshly than fair.

Furthermore, it is a fact that the vast majority of FSU athletes during this time period had no involvement whatsoever in the cheating scandal. But, they too are being punished . . . just as harshly as the guilty . . . by having their wins taken away. The track team had one athlete involved (who maintained a 3.0 GPA at FSU according to the coach, Bob Braman). But, the national championship was stripped from all innocent athletes and coaches as if they too were guilty.

Is the lesson here that Universities should never perform step #4? Based on the severity of the punishment in this case, there can be no other conclusion. How could FSU have been punished any worse had it not self-reported? This is clearly not a good message that the NCAA is sending.

As for me and my non-NCAA-approved Raycom opinion blog, I will not vacate any wins earned by FSU athletes during this time, and I am seriously considering changing the results against Kentucky (Music City Bowl) and Wake Forest from losses to wins. Yes, I have that kind of power here on my opinion blog.

Seriously though, FSU still has back-to-back-to-back track national champions if you ask me or anyone else who is reasonable. And if you want to know who won the FSU-Colorado game on September 15, 2007 in Boulder, I can tell you because I was there and I took this picture:

Does this look like an FSU loss?

Does this look like an FSU loss?

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Florida State Splits Two Games on Road Trip, ACC Standings are Murky

February 2nd, 2010 by Andrew Brady

Since my last entry, the Florida State men’s basketball game completed a two-game road trip . . . losing at Duke by a score of 70-56, and then beating Boston College in another tight ACC game, 61-57.

The Seminoles had opportunities against Duke — the lead was only 4 with about 10 minutes to play. But turnovers, missed layups, and empty trips to the free throw line doomed the Seminoles. The Blue Devils heated up late from the perimeter to pull away for good. With the win, Duke appears to be establishing itself as the team to beat in the ACC. They are alone in first place at 5-2. But in this crazy ACC season, even their lead over the last place teams is only 3 games. Miami and NC State, two decent teams by anyone’s standards, are 2-5.

FSU is in the middle at 4-3 after the big bounce-back win at the Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The Seminoles, in fact, have two road victories (Georgia Tech, Boston College) on their resume. The first half of ACC play concludes at home against Maryland in a revenge game. Greivis Vasquez and the Terrapins shimmied their way past the Seminoles on January 10th by a score of 77-68.

As it stands in the conference (before the games on Tuesday night), Maryland and Virginia . . . having played only 6 conference games . . . are tied for second place at 4-2. FSU, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest are log-jammed at 4-3. Clemson has played 8 conference games and have split them.

I have mentioned 7 teams in the conference standings and have not typed the words North Carolina. In fact, you have to go past Virginia Tech (3-3) and Boston College (3-5) to finally arrive at UNC, who sits at 2-4 in conference play and all alone in 10th place.

For a while on Saturday afternoon, it looked like the Seminoles were destined to be swept on the road trip, and positioned in the bottom half of the standings alongside the Tar Heels. The first 20 minutes were about as ugly as FSU has played. Eleven turnovers were committed, and the Noles were shooting only 32.3% from the field, including a miserable 0-8 from behind the three-point arch. They trailed to the BC Eagles by a score of 27-22 at the break.

Something clicked at halftime and the Seminoles came out scorching hot. They made 15 of their 22 shots, including 14 of 18 from inside the arch. The only made three pointer in the game for FSU came with 44 seconds on the clock and the game tied at 54. Derwin Kitchen picked a clutch time to sink the 21-footer. Michael Snaer followed a BC turnover with 2 free throws and the Seminoles held on for the huge road victory.

For FSU, four players scored 10 or more points with three of those hitting exactly 10. Solomon Alabi led the way with his usual 16 on 8 of 13 shooting. Chris Singleton, Ryan Reid and Michael Snaer had ten apiece. Singleton also had 11 rebounds and 4 steals to lead the way defensively. Snaer is beginning to shine as a freshman. He has scored in double figures in consecutive road games, and has begun to garner starter-like minutes off of the bench.

Snaer’s minutes will increase as the team learned after the game that junior forward, Jordan DeMercy, has left the team. That leaves only Derwin Kitchen in the junior class for FSU. With Ryan Reid as the team’s only senior, the Seminoles are obviously very young.

Florida State now has 2 consecutive home games . . . Maryland on Thursday, and Miami on a quick turnaround game on Saturday night. I expect the biggest crowds of the year for those two contests. Wins in both could move the Seminoles to second place in the ACC standings by the end of the weekend. Two losses, and we could find ourselves with North Carolina near the bottom of the standings. That is how close . . . and bizarre . . . we find the current makeup of the ACC standings.

Here is my ACC power poll ballot, submitted to Raycom Sports on Monday afternoon:

1 Duke
2 Clemson
3 Maryland
4 FSU
5 Georgia Tech
6 Virginia
7 Wake Forest
8 Virginia Tech
9 UNC
10 NC State
11 Miami
12 Boston College

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FSU Completes Sweep of a Good Georgia Tech Team

January 27th, 2010 by Andrew Brady

Led by sophomore forward Chris Singleton, FSU defeated Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon to complete the regular season 2-game sweep of the Yellow Jackets.

I can say that not too many ACC teams will be able to boast that accomplishment by the season’s end. Georgia Tech is a very physical team with some outstanding athletes. They are young and improving with each game. The Seminoles are also young and physical and improving, so it made for a very exciting ACC basketball game at noon on Sunday.

The final score was 68-66, and the game was every bit as close as the final score. There were a total of 20 lead changes in the game . . . the epitome of a see-saw affair.

Singleton was able to penetrate into the lane against Georgia Tech and did most of his damage inside. In fact, he shot 11 times from inside the 3-point line and made 8. He also drew numerous fouls . . . shooting 10 free throws. He scored 23 points in thirty minutes of playing time. He also had a couple of steals and 7 rebounds. The negatives for Chris were his outside shooting . . . 1 of 6 from behind the three point line and many were wide open; 4 of 10 from the free throw line . . . all were wide open.

For the second time in two games, Singleton, Solomon Alabi and Ryan Reid were able to hold down the big men for Georgia Tech. Gani Lawal finished with 8 points and Derrick Favors with 10. Iman Shumpert, who was injured for the 12/20/09 overtime game in Atlanta, played on Saturday . . . but only made 3 of 10 shots from the field. He did have 10 points and led the Jackets in minutes played with 37.

The player who was most effective against the Florida State defense was a freshman guard who came off the bench. Brian Oliver . . . much like Scott Wood of NC State . . . found a rhythm against Florida State from behind the 3-point arch . . . making 6 of 13. He added a two-pointer for 20 total points.

One of Oliver’s misses came with 15 seconds left and Tech behind by a score of 67-66. That lead was achieved for the Seminoles by Alabi, who made two free throws with 22 seconds left. The first (and tying) free throw, bounced high off the rim before finding the net. Oliver launched his 13th three pointer that bounced off the rim and fell into the hands of D’Andre Bell of Georgia Tech. Head coach, Paul Hewitt called a timeout with 10 seconds (which unfortunately for the Jackets preceded a made three pointer after the whistles blew).

Lawal missed a jumper that bounced around and through several hands, and landed out-of-bounds to FSU. Jordan DeMercy was fouled and made the second of two free throws to run the margin to a deuce, which became the final margin.

The gym was hot and humid on Saturday afternoon, and a couple of high-energy Noles (Dulkys and Singleton) were cramping near the end of the game. Michael Snaer, Luke Loucks, and Xavier Gibson gave some meaningful minutes off the bench, and the Seminoles had just enough stamina to finish the game.

The win over Georgia Tech moves the Seminoles to 3-2 in conference play (15-4 overall). As of Wednesday (before the FSU-Duke game), the Seminoles are by themselves in 5th place in the ACC. A loss tonight would drop FSU to a tie for 5th with Georgia Tech. A win tonight, and the Noles would be tied with Wake Forest in 3rd place.

Here is my ACC power poll bracket, submitted to Raycom Sports on Monday (prior to Clemson’s loss to Boston College . . . what a wacky ACC season so far!):

1 Duke
2 Clemson
3 Maryland
4 FSU
5 Georgia Tech
6 Wake
7 Virginia Tech
8 UNC
9 Virginia
10 NC State
11 Miami
12 Boston College

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FSU Bounces Back and Defeats Virginia Tech in a Crucial Home Game

January 19th, 2010 by Andrew Brady

The Florida State men’s basketball game on Saturday night in Tallahassee against the Virginia Tech Hokies was a crucial one for the Seminoles . . . as are most of the games against middle-of-the-ACC teams, particularly at home. But, for a team who had already lost one home game against NC State, and another on the road against Maryland . . . the game against Virginia Tech was nearly a must-win . . . even though it was only the second home — and fourth overall — ACC contest.

Led by a much better effort on defense than they have shown recently, the Seminoles did prevail by a final score of 63-58 to even their ACC record at 2-2.

Though FSU led the entire game, it was a typical ACC slugfest until the Seminoles had seemingly put the Hokies away on a Derwin Kitchen made layup with 1:32 left in the second half. That basket extended the Seminoles’ lead to ten, 57-47. In fact, the score stayed that way for another minute . . . and then Dorenzo Hudson of Virginia Tech made a layup in transition to make the score 57-49.

A quick turnover by FSU, followed by a Hokie three-point shot about 10 seconds later, and things began to get interesting at 57-52. Virginia Tech was forced to foul at this point, and Michael Snaer managed to make one of two free throws to give FSU 58 points. But, Hudson sank a deep three to give the Hokies 55 with only 8 seconds left in the game.

Derwin Kitchen replicated Snaer’s effort on the free throw line, but that was followed by another deep three by Virginia Tech . . . this one by their star guard, Malcolm Delaney. It was suddenly a 1-point game, 59-58 . . . and FSU was struggling to inbound the ball. After a Virginia Tech knock-away, FSU called time out and designed an in-bounds play.

That worked as the ball was safely thrown into Snaer, who was immediately fouled with just under three seconds remaining. On this trip, the freshman sank both free throws to extend the lead to a still-precarious three points. The ensuring desperation in-bounds pass was intercepted by Deividas Dulkys, and he was fouled with only 6/10ths of a second elapsing on the clock. Dulkys made both to take us to the final margin of five.

Virginia Tech made 4 baskets in the last 37 seconds of the game for a total of 11 points in that span. Before those four shots, the Hokies were 15 of 51 from the field for a dismal 29.4% field goal percentage. They ended up at 34.5% with the 4 late heaves, though the FSU defense were instructed to not take any foul risks by this juncture. Overall, the effort by FSU on defense for the first 39 minutes was the difference in the game.

The star of the FSU defense on Saturday night was Chris Singleton, who had 5 blocks, 3 steals and 6 defensive rebounds (8 overall). Dulkys and Snaer were praised by Leonard Hamilton for their defensive platoon effort on Delaney, who ended up with 23 points, but was pressured the entire game.

On offense, Ryan Reid had some big offensive rebounds and put-backs in the first half and finished with 9 points in the game. Solomon Alabi with his consistent point output . . . 13 points against Virginia Tech. Dulkys also tallied 13, including two big three-pointers in the game. The Seminoles finished with only 4 made three pointers out of 17 attempts. Derwin Kitchen and Luke Loucks made the other two deep shots.

The other concerning aspect on offense for FSU was again the turnovers. The Seminoles finished with 23 turnovers compared to only 18 made baskets.

The big win allows the Seminoles a chance to breath again, but there is another crucial home ACC game against another middle-of-the-ACC team on Sunday. Florida State hosts the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at noon after a much-needed 7-day break. FSU has already defeated Georgia Tech this season . . . a heartstopping, overtime victory in Atlanta on December 20th.

Here is my ACC power poll bracket, submitted to Raycom Sports earlier today:

1/19/2010
1 Duke
2 Clemson
3 UNC
4 Maryland
5 FSU
6 Georgia Tech
7 Wake
8 Virginia Tech
9 Miami
10 Virginia
11 NC State
12 Boston College

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FSU Stumbles in a Couple of Early ACC Contests

January 13th, 2010 by Andrew Brady

The Atlantic Coast Conference slate of basketball is now in full swing, and Florida State University has stumbled in recent games to a couple of teams that could later be direct competition for ACC tournament seeding and NCAA bubble positioning.

FSU lost to Maryland in College Park on January 10th, and then at home to North Carolina State on a quick-turnaround, January 12th matchup. In both games, FSU was victimized by a hot-shooting guard, and poor defensive effort . . . or least a delayed defensive response to a hot-shooting guard.

In the Maryland game on the road in College Park, we expected that Greivis Vasquez would be their scoring threat, and he was . . . shooting 18 times (making eight) and scoring 22 points. But, Eric Hayes was the dagger with 5 of 6 three-pointers in the game and 17 total points.

FSU did have some encouraging signs against the Terrapins as Deividas Dulkys continued his hot shooting from three-point territory and Solomon Alabi was effective in the post. Chris Singleton was very active in this game on both ends of the court. However, our guard play was poor and Vasquez and Hayes were the difference for the Maryland Terrapins.

Speaking of Greivis Vasquez, I think we have found the new unofficial showboat of the league . . . an honor that will undoubtedly garner him much grief at future ACC road venues . . . particularly in Tallahassee on February 4th. At home, the crowd and Vasquez seemed to feed off each other, and he soon found himself shimmying down the court after made baskets. On one occasion, it nearly cost the Terps as FSU attacked the basket quickly while Greivis was busy doing his backpeddle-shimmy-shake. Fortunately, his teammates are evidently accustomed to his hotdog antics and covered for him on defense — allowing him to finish his dance. On the return trip on February 4th . . . a late 9:00 pm start . . . the Maryland Terrapin basketball and dance team will be reminded of Vasquez’ antics by a rowdy FSU crowd.

On Tuesday night against North Carolina State, it was a freshman guard, Scott Wood, who lit the Seminoles up for 31 points. Wood hit 7 of 11 three-pointers . . . each seemingly to kill an FSU rally. In the second half, the Seminole defense made some adjustments and contested many of his 3-point attempts . . . but he was well into a zone by then. In the waning moments after the game was decided, Wood finally laid off and missed a couple of free throws. But, he had long since surpassed his season average of roughly 8 points per game.

Credit NC State for setting screens and taking advantage of his hot shooting . . . but FSU will have to do a better job of guarding the perimeter if we expect to win games in the ACC.

The Seminoles made only one three pointer until very late in the game against the Wolfpack, and received no help from the bench outside of Michael Snaer, who played one of his better games as a freshman. In fact, Snaer . . . who was 5 of 7 from the floor . . . was the only player off the bench to score at all. Xavier Gibson, Luke Loucks, and Jordan DeMercy were a combined 0-7. Pierre Jordan and Terrance Shannon did not score in their limited time on the floor at the end of the game.

The Wolfpack collapsed on Alabi, who still fought through the double-teams and had some success. However, until a Dulkys three-pointer in the second half (his only 3 of the game), the Seminoles were not effective in finding an open outside shot . . . and they missed more than a few layups and dunks on the inside.

FSU had only 2 assists in the first half against 10 turnovers. Ryan Reid and Alabi had solid games despite the obvious attention, and Chris Singleton heated up late in the game and scored a career high 22 points. Derwin Kitchen looked good few times driving to the basket, and FSU had five players in double figures.

But overall, Scott Wood . . . with his 31 points and hot shooting . . . was the difference in this game. FSU is not scheduled to play the Wolfpack again during this year’s regular season, but we will hopefully be ready for him when we play in his sophomore season.

If Wood continues to have hot-shooting performances such as last night, he should contact Greivis Vasquez and learn a few dance moves. With some hard work, he can be just like Vasquez and earn detestation by fans of the opposition for two reasons: being extremely good, and by performing some chest-thumping showboating that would make Terrell Owens blush.

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The Seminoles Win One for Bowden

January 4th, 2010 by Andrew Brady

I took last week off from writing the FSU Raycom Sports Blog to enjoy the holidays. During that time, there was plenty going on in the Seminole sports world. The men’s basketball team won games against a couple of overmatched opponents and have moved up to 18th in the rankings released today. The women’s basketball team is also having a successful season (ranked #11 currently), despite losing to #1 Connecticut over the holidays. The Seminoles put up a fight at the Tucker Center, but they are not quite to the level of the Huskies, who won their 50th consecutive game at our expense.

But, my most favorite Seminole sports event of the holidays . . . and of the year . . . and quite possibly of all time . . . was the Gator Bowl played on January 1st.

Everyone knows that the bowl game against West Virginia marked the end of Coach Bobby Bowden’s remarkable career at Florida State University. For many of us, this farewell tribute came a year too early and about 13 games too few (assuming a 14-game farewell tour in 2010 that is now canceled). Fortunately, the best was certainly made out of the situation thanks to accommodations by the Gator Bowl and the FSU Sports Information Department . . . and Bobby was treated grandly for his final game as Head Coach of the Seminoles.

Bobby Bowden, throughout the days following his announcement after Thanksgiving weekend, was as humble and classy as always. Each quote attributed to Bowden was to honor his players, coaches, Florida State University, and its fans, and the mutual love was reciprocated from those who attended the events in Jacksonville.

More than 350 former players attended the game on Friday afternoon. A few hours before that, they lined the walk from the team bus to the stadium entrance in front of a few thousand other fans, media, cheerleaders and the Marching Chiefs. Coach Bowden, along with retiring defensive coordinator, Mickey Andrews, and resigning linebacker coach and long-time FSU assistant, Chuck Amato, and other retained and non-retained coaches, walked through with the current roster of players. For Coach Bowden, he admitted that the emotional walk was the nearest he came to tears during the bowl festivities.

My family was among those who arrived early at the stadium (not an easy thing to do on New Year’s Day) to weather the cold and rain in order to witness this brief, but memorable moment. We found our place around 10:15 and the lines of fans were already 4 or 5 deep on each side for the 10:30 march.

The rain put a damper on tailgating plans for many, so we found ourselves waiting it out inside the stadium under the concourse. The rain lightened somewhat around noon, and many Seminole faithful were in their seats for the warmups and well before the tribute that began about 12:45 under clearing skies.

Bobby and Ann were introduced and walked out of the tunnel to hordes of media and the FSU sideline entourage (no players yet), and we all watched a tribute on the video board. It included footage of Bowden’s time at West Virginia, the nearly forgotten team on the other sideline. Also, the dynasty years at Florida State were highlighted, along with some footage of the early days at FSU. Bowden was honored with a new automobile from the Gator Bowl Committee and then he acknowledged his appreciation on the public address microphone, followed by some brief comments to the Seminole and Mountaineer fans in attendance.

After presumably a few words with his team, Bowden and the players were led back out of the locker room by Chief Osceola and Renegade to a rousing ovation. In an emotional moment, Bobby took the flaming spear and planted it at midfield to the cheers of his surrounding players.

2010-1-1c

The Hollywood script seemed to take a sharp deviation when the game kicked off. Someone forgot to tell Noel Devine and the West Virginia Mountaineers that the game was to be a coronation of the legendary coach’s career, and they jumped out to a 14-3 lead before the goosebumps of the pregame ceremony (or was it the cold?) had subsided.

But the touchdown at 5:13 remaining in the 1st quarter to extend the lead to 11 points were the last points until a final touchdown was scored by the Mountaineers early in the 4th quarter.

The Noles would score a touchdown and another field goal to make the score 14-13 at the half. The field goal followed a possession by WVU that ended on a rare 4th and 43 play. The Mountaineers had set up 1st and 10 from FSU’s 22 behind three nice rushes by Devine for 47 yards to answer FSU’s lone 1st-half touchdown. But . . . a holding penalty, a grounding penalty, a rush for no gain, and a 9-yard sack drove them back to their own 45. It should be noted that the ensuing punt (to the FSU 8 yard line) did carry past the first down marker, which was no easy task. Reid returned it back to the 25 and the Seminoles drove methodically down the field to narrow the margin to a single point.

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Those who stayed in their seats at halftime were treated to another emotional moment to honor Bobby Bowden. The Marching Chiefs spelled out B-O-B-B-Y across the field and played a heartfelt rendition of the FSU Fight Song.

The Seminole players continued their determination to win this game as the 2nd half commenced with Greg Reid returning the 2nd half kickoff 69 yards to the West Virginia 9 yard line. Hopkins kicked his third of four total field goals to give FSU its first lead of the game.

Neither team scored for the next three possessions. Then, Jarmon Fortson made an outstanding one-handed catch on the first play of the FSU possession that began with just under 5 minutes remaining in the third quarter. Two plays later, Jermaine Thomas rushed for 19 yards and the touchdown to extend the lead to 9 points.

The teams traded touchdowns and the Seminole led 30-21 when the Mountaineers were faced with a crucial 4th and 8 play about mid-way through the 4th quarter at the FSU 33 yard line. The predominantly Seminole crowd was at its loudest and West Virginia committed a false-start penalty, which I attribute to the noise. That moved them to 4th and 13 and the Mountaineers threw an incomplete pass to turn it over on downs.

The Seminoles marched down the field on a 5-minute drive that also necessitated 2 critical timeouts for WVU, and then Hopkins sealed the game with a 37-yard field goal with 2:02 on the clock.

The celebration was on. The game continued in the background as the West Virginia fans left the stadium, but the Seminole fans’ attention was focused on Bobby Bowden. He threw his hat to the band as he traditionally has done at the end of games. Then, former and current players took turns on the sideline hugging and congratulating the legendary coach. The media surrounded this spectacle in a surreal scene as the game wound down behind them.

When Mountaineer QB Geno Smith fumbled and was sacked as the clock ticked to 0:00, a mass of players, coaches and media escorted Bobby to midfield to shake the hand of West Virginia coach, and former Bowden player, Bill Stewart.

The presentation of the Gator Bowl trophy was made and Bowden took one more trip to the stage to collect the hardware. There was a microphone malfunction which led to some of his comments to be unheard by the Seminole crowd . . . of whom, I estimate 99% remained to pay homage to the only coach that most of us have known at FSU. That audio difficulty will need to be edited in an otherwise perfect script.

Manuel was awarded the MVP of the game, and we were able to hear him express thanks to the coaches, teammates, and Christian Ponder for helping him prepare for the game.

Following the post-game, mid-field interview, Bowden was hoisted on the shoulders of his players and carried off the field. As he was lowered, and walked the remaining distance to the tunnel, he waved to the cheering crowd in a final emotional moment, and it hit me that this was his final time exiting the field as head coach of the Florida State Seminoles.

Bobby Bowden’s press-conference was packed as expected, and there are several accounts and transcripts of the vintage Bowden final postgame interview with the media. Following that, he signed the game jerseys of dozens of players who lined the locker room hallway in an impromptu act that shows their respect for what Bowden has accomplished in his career.

There will never be another Bobby Bowden in college football and I think that the emotional scenes from Jacksonville, Florida on January 1, 2010 told that truth in vivid detail. Like a great Hollywood script.

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