You have to tip your hat to Leonard Hamilton. Sensing the Seminoles were losing a grip on the game versus Texas A&M (24-9) Coach Hamilton made the switch to a 3-2 zone defense—confusing and bottling up A&M—leading to the Seminoles first win in the NCAA Tournament since 1998 when the 12-seeded Seminoles defeated the 5-seeded TCU Horned Frogs 96-87.
- The Seminoles defense swarmed Texas A&M
The game started out on a 7-0 FSU run—but Texas A&M would quickly draw it back in closing the half with the lead 26-23. The Aggies came out in the second half just a hot as they closed the first half pushing the lead to it’s highest point—31-23. That is until—of course—when Bernard James was determined to not go down without a fight.
At the 31-23 mark—and 17:34 to go in the ballgame the Seminoles would begin their charge. Derwin Kitchen got it started with a big 3-pointer which was followed by a missed 3-pointer by A&M’s B.J Holmes. Following a missed layup by Kitchen coming back down the court—Bernard James would reel in two offensive rebounds, and finish with a basket to pull the lead to within 3, at 31-28 A&M.
Following a big blocked shot by Okaro White at with 16:00-to-go mark, Ian Miller would feed Bernard James with the jam pulling FSU to within one point.
FSU would take the lead in the 13:46 mark in the first second half off two more Bernard James points making it. After layups from Bernard James and Michael Snaer al of the sudden—FSU had taken a lead (on a 13-0 run) of 36-31. They would never look back.
Coach Hamilton added this regarding Bernard James: “Bernard is — this is all new to Bernard, We have freshmen on our team that actually have more experience than him. He’s a very humble person. He’s extremely unselfish. He doesn’t need a lot of touches in order for him to feel like he’s contributing. But he wasn’t following the game plan the first half. I didn’t think he did a very good job of running the floor. I didn’t think he did a very good job of posting up strong. I just didn’t think he was doing what we needed him to do”
In this game the Seminoles saw the return of their most skilled defensive player—a still hampered Chris Singleton.
Singleton entered the game at the 7:35-to-go mark in the first half and it was a decision Leonard Hamilton obviously had wrestled with.
“I just — I was uncomfortable with just whatever level of risk that we were taking,” said Hamilton. “It’s important to me that, when these guys come to school, that they get their education and they create an avenue by which they can have a better way of life. And I realize that he has an opportunity to play at the highest level, and I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”
“We wanted to win the basketball game, and I want him to — I wish we could have gotten through this game and won a couple more games and got a little more time under our belt. But he convinced me that he was fine, that he really wanted to play, and he’d worked so hard and been so aggressive with his rehab, doubling up on all of his rehabs.”
Chris Singleton played 16 minutes scoring 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, and 4 fouls.
During the post-game Chris Singleton said “I felt good”. “Like I said before to everybody, I feel like I’m in pretty good condition. I mean, I don’t think that was a factor. The factor is if my foot was going to hold up out there, and tonight it did.
In the ballgame FSU was lead in scoring by Derwin Kitchen who finished the game with 15 points—and who started the rally for the Noles in the second half. With his 15 points, Kitchen added 7 rebounds on the game.
Next in scoring was the catalyst in the come back for FSU—Bernard James who finished with 10 points and 6 rebounds.
Best of the Rest:
Michael Snaer: 9 points, 26 minutes.
Ian Miller-7 points- 5 rebounds- 3 assists- 27 minutes
Okaro White- 7 points- 3 rebounds- 1 assist- 1 steal- 2 blocks- 23 minutes
The Seminoles finished the game with a 14:13 assist-to-turnover ratio—which when considering some of FSU’s performances on the year, is always a positive to finish with an edge in that category.
Further showing their defensive prowess—the Seminoles outrebounded Texas A&M 35-to-33, both had 6 steals, but FSU dominated the paint contesting seemingly every shot effectively finishing the game with a 10-to-1 blocked shot edge over A&M.
The Seminoles now advance to the round of 32 for a chance for a Sweet 16 trip versus Notre Dame—Sunday at 9:30pm ET on TBS.
Leonard Hamilton had this to say regarding the Seminoles next opponent:
“I believe Notre Dame led one of the top two scoring teams in the Big East, I believe,” said Hamilton. “I think they might have been the best three-point field goal percentage shooting team in the Big East, I believe. I try not to ever start on another team until I complete one game. I always have another coach doing that.”
“But I watched them, and they run an excellent offense, a very unique offense, kind of the way a lot of teams in Indiana, a lot of high schools, University of Indiana. Motion offense is kind of a traditional offense in the State of Indiana. And I think they do a great job of creating all different type of defensive scenarios for you to deal with.”
“Whether they’re bringing the ball down the
court, initiating their offenses, their big, strong guys shooting up threes, being good three-point shooters, the perimeter guys tackling the basket off the dribble. So they do a very good job of executing their offense, and they’re going to challenge.”“Right now we’re the number one field goal
percentage defensive team in the country, and
now that I’ve watched them, I know they’re going to challenge all of our defensive principles, and we’re going to have to bring our A-game to the court on Sunday”
Quotes courtesy of FSU sports information
This article was originally published at http://PlantTheSpear.com/. If you are interested in sharing your website's content with SCACCHoops.com, Contact Us.
