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Congrats to Mr. Mahini of the Sabre staff and to the hoos.

They clearly took that one from us and in my book beat us worse than the scoreboard showed. But just how much rubber is left on these O&M tires? Can this Hokie hoops team bounce back after such an erratic last several weeks?

In that time we’ve seen the on-court high of beating then #1 Wake on Wake’s homecourt on National TV and the mutual non-court low of ADV vs. Seth and Allen’s middle finger vs. the Maryland students whom my boss Chris Coleman called “diet wvu.”

So where does that leave us for FSU and who will win???

(20-6) #18 R.P.I. Florida State @  (16-9) #55 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:
TV coverage: 8pm, RSN TV
Vegas Line: FSU+3.5

Florida State at a glance:

1. 10th and 16th. FSU is 10th in blocks and 16th steals on the year. As you will see below; this is a damn good defensive team folks.
2. 292nd. As in the Noles are 38 spots from last in Turnovers per game. The worst team vital out of the 20 major ones I track.
3. 30th. The Noles are 30th best in defending the 3-ball from downtown.
4. 4. As in 4 FSU’s 6 L’s on the year are to ranked teams.
5. 15th. As in FSU is 15th best in Defensive FG% allowed. FSU will play in your shirt.
6. No major injures are reported for either side.

FSU is 1st in a streak of five closing teams with no less than 20 wins on the year! In other words, our best chance to snag a win and not close the year on a 6 game momentum killing schnide is FSU at home. IF we do not get this one, you could construct an argument that we are done winning until next year in fact. The ACC Tourney would be tough with 6 straight L’s under our belt; and then 16-15 (with one Tourney L) would not entirely be code for a guaranteed N.I.T. bid either.

Ergo, … beating FSU is paramount and I even called this game the mental or emotional tipping-point for our whole hoops season on one of the TSL MB’s on Thursday. 

This one is big folks; and so is #23 Toney Douglas of FSU (shown or the right). At least in terms of points per game as Mr. Douglas the  6`2“ 205lb. Guard from Georgia leads FSU in Scoring with 20 per game, but has only been south of 21 points in one game in his last 10. In that stretch Mr. Douglas has been on fire for 24 points per game on average while still leading FSU in Assists and in Steals.

Then there is an offensive drop-off; no, make that a plummet all the way down to three guys putting up 8 points per game. Among them would be  7`1“ 245 lb. Center Solomon Alabi all the way from Kaduna Nigeria; who leads FSU in boards (#32 shown below) and is 42nd in all of D-1 in blocks. Solomon is only a true freshman folks; and he sure looks to have a high ceiling as a real live legit Center in the Pivot deficient ACC for a while to come; presuming his nagging stress-fracture problems stay behind him. Also chipping in with 8 per game and about 5 boards each would be Uche Echefu from Lagos Nigeria, a 6`9“ 230 lb. power-forward; and Chris Singleton a 6`9“ 220 lb. small-forward. Mr. Singleton was the highest ranked High School small-forward last year by several recruiting services. He truly has Charles Dickens ‘esq Great Expectations. 

As you can see, FSU has one big-time scorer, and a very big front-line.  The FSU bench is a four man rotation of nothing short of 6`5“ grinders who are very athletic. Nothing special in terms of vitals of points or boards; but they do practice the art of lock-down defensive wear and tear. Therefore, FSU is one of the bigger teams we will face all year; which could suggest a plausible explanation for why Allen got a 1 game suspension. On the less than epic side, FSU is only a so-so team offensively at best. They shoot slightly below average and turn the ball over more than average. But they are a very quality stop-unit on defense. Which tells us that Hokie points will be hard to come by.

In recent play, FSU has a 4% defensive FG% allowed edge as the Noles opponents have only seen 40% of their shots from the floor tickle the twine; and a very parsimonious 25% from downtown find the net. FSU also holds the edge in the so-called Fourm Guide (how individuals or teams did head-to-head vs. common opponents); by a nearly 4-1 margin.

All of this, and the aforementioned FSU size edge conspires to tell me that the Noels are simply not a good match-up for us.

Now that we are playing name teams, the #1 thing we will find out ... is? We will have to out-score everyone from here on out. Our rebounding and defense really need work. Or, this is a sleeper post-season team that everyone missed. View Results  Loading ...

But what is more important and far less certain …  is where are our collective O&M hoops heads right about now; after a drubbing at france and our third super-star suspension of the year? Are we ready to kick things back into a higher Hokie gear; or, did we peak the week of the Wake Forest game? If we do not beat this FSU team in our Cassell, things will only get tougher from here on out.

• @ 21 win and 13th ranked Klempson
• home for 20 win and 9th ranked Duke
• home for 23 win and 3rd ranked UNC
• @ 21 win and 28th FSU again.

Then we will face a pretty good, possibly very good ACC team in the likely first-round, then we would play a quality post-season hoops team, presuming we make it to somebodies Tourney in the first place. See what I mean? We need to beat FSU like a dead man needs a cofin. But sadly, I do not see that happening. The Noles win a close one that could turn ugly as Hokie tension continue to mount. Virginia Tech=66 Florida State=69
“LETS GO!”

“HOKIES!”

b’street.