FSU Basketball Update

The 'Noles played a very ugly and frustrating game last night, losing to Northwestern 73-59. Despite being infinitely more athletic the Seminoles could not stop the Wildcat's princeton offense and could never get anything going on the offensive end. Though they led at the half the 'Noles were hampered by foul trouble, with Chris Singleton, Soloman Alabi, and Xavier Gibson sitting out much of the first half after all of them picked up two fouls in the early minutes of the game. That's two freshman starters (Singleton and Alabi) and a freshman off the bench (Gibson) that is FSU's second tallest player after Alabi. Alabi was off to a hot start accumalating a handful of blocks and points before he had to sit due to foul trouble. While the officiating was atrocious, the loss still was due to FSU's inability to score and to sloppy play that resulted in way too many turnovers.

I have stood behind coach Leonard Hamilton the last few years, as others have called for him to be fired, becuase of his success on the recruiting trail. While no one can deny that Hamilton has raised the talent level at FSU the case against his floor coaching is becoming harder and harder to defend. FSU never adjusted their defense last night and the offense once again resembled a street ball game. Hamilton opted not to take advantage of FSU's athleticism and only pressed the last minute of the game. It was just a frustrating performance overall and does not provide much optimism for the rest of the season. On the bright side the 'Noles are 7-1 at a time when most people thought we would have 2 or 3 losses. This weekend's game against Florida would be a great time for FSU to put everything together and hopefully last night's pitiful performance will make the team more focused so they can bounce back with a big win on Sunday.

Links:
FSU basketball bows to Northwestern, 73-59
FSU Suffers Its First Defeat

FSU men's basketball update: Cold-shooting Seminoles lose, 73-59