Know Your Opponent: Florida State

By Matt Bowers

Florida State Seminoles (Seminoles.com)
Location: Tallahassee, Fla.
Rankings: No. 18 KenPom, No. 5 AP
Record: 18-3, 8-2 ACC
NET/SOS: No. 15 NET, No. 42 SOS
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): UNC leads, 50-13 (UNC 77, Florida State 59 on Feb. 23, 2019, in the Smith Center)

Head coach Leonard Hamilton is doing it again. Year after year, media and pundits seem to pick his Florida State squad to finish in the middle of the ACC standings. With some regularity, the Seminoles exceed those expectations.

Last year, FSU was picked seventh in the ACC preseason poll but won 29 games, earned a top-four seed in the ACC Tournament and reached the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

This year, Florida State was fifth in the conference preseason ratings but are tied with Duke second place at 8-2 and ranked fifth in the nation in last week's Associated Press poll (the new poll will be released on Monday afternoon).

The other thing the Noles seem to excel at every season is defense.

The always-pesky Seminole defense is a weapon once again and can smother opponents. FSU leads the nation in defensive blocked shot percentage (17.4), is sixth in steal percentage (13.6) and fifth in defensive turnover percentage (25.7). The 'Noles lead the ACC in turnover margin (+5.15) and steals (9.75 per game) and are second in blocked shots (5.55 per game). They hold their opponents to just 40.6 percent shooting from the floor.

FSU comes into Monday night's game on a roll, having won 11 of its last 12 games and boasting a perfect, 10-0 at home this season. It has won 18 consecutive home games over the last year, including 12 in a row at home versus ACC teams.

Since starting the season with a loss at Pitt, the Noles have won 18 of 20, losing only at Indiana in early December in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and at Virginia last Tuesday night.

Devin Vassell leads FSU in scoring at 13.9 ppg and is coming off a career-high, 27-point effort in the road victory over Virginia Tech on Saturday. He hit all seven of his three-point tries against the Hokies, leads the team in three-pointers made and is shooting 44.3 percent from behind the arc.

Trent Forrest and M.J. Walker both score just over 11 points per outing in FSU's three-wing lineup, with Forrest also averaging 4.2 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game and Walker hitting over 37 percent of his three-point attempts.

The trio of sophomore Malik Osborne (6-9, 225), freshman Patrick Williams (6-8, 225) and sophomore Raiquan Gray (6-8, 260) log most of the minutes in the paint for an athletic front line.

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