Florida State’s men’s basketball team has been enjoying the Hawaiian sun the last few days as they’ve been playing in the annual Diamond Head Classic Tournamnent, but that “vacation” was cut short last night after a 67-64 loss to last year’s NCAA tournament cinderella team Butler.
In the semi-final game, the Noles faced a 7-4 Butler team who had reached the game by beating Utah (Florida State had beaten Hawaii). The winner of the game would move on to the final game against Washington State on Christmas Day. Because of the Noles’ loss, they now face #15 Baylor in a consolation game.
While forward Chris Singleton finally had a breakout game since his recent slump (scoring 28 and pulling down 9 rebounds), no other Seminole did much as Singleton was the only starter to score more than 10 points. In fact, no Seminole other than Singleton scored more than 7 points.
Again, the loss can be traced back to poor shooting as the Noles shot just 39.6% field goal percentage. The usually productive bench only added 14 points despite Bernard James and Okaro White playing combined 31 minutes. Over the past eight games since FSU’s 5-8 start, the Noles have shot just 39.93% FG.
Through their first 13 games, the Noles are ranked 172nd in the nation with a 43.7 field goal percentage, ranking them 9th in the ACC. FSU is scoring 73.3 points per game, ranking them 103rd in the nation and 7th in the ACC. On the defensive side, they’re allowing 59.8 points per game, ranking 29th in the nation and 1st in the ACC.
The Seminole have shown flashes of sharp shooting against UNC-Greensboro, Stetson, and Hawaii, but have been so inconsistent with scoring against tougher opponents that predicting how the Noles will play the rest of the season becomes difficult.
After Florida State’s game against Baylor tomorrow, the Noles return home to face one more non-conference opponent (Auburn) on January 3 before beginning a tough ACC schedule that will expose the Noles’ poor shooting if they don’t find some consistency.
