The start to the 2014-15 season has certainly been a disappointing one for Florida State as the Seminoles sit just 3-4 with half of their losses coming at home. Though the Seminoles have been a tremendous disappointment to this point, there may be time to salvage the season, but that time needs to be now.
The good news for Florida State is its second half effort against Nebraska, in which the Seminoles brought what was a 16-point halftime deficit down to one before falling 70-65 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, was the best its looked all season. The loss of Devon Bookert has and certainly will continue to hurt the ‘Noles, but the backcourt of Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Aaron Thomas, who recently returned from injury, is by far Florida State’s most potent offensively.
The trio of 7-footers that have been disappointingly quiet finally showed some life on Monday as well as 7’3″ junior Boris Bojanovsky became the first Seminole this season to record a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
With the ACC absolutely loaded with the addition of Louisville and immensely improved teams like Miami and Notre Dame., the Seminoles will need to finish the non-conference strong. FSU plays host to UCF Saturday afternoon before taking on Notre Dame in the ACC opener next week. Following the visit to South Bend, Florida State will play its final five non-conference games which includes a home date with Florida and a trip to Mississippi State.
It won’t be easy, but if the Seminoles can go 6-1 over the next seven games, they would be 9-5 when ACC play fully got underway. The Seminoles then could possibly sneak into the NCAA Tournament by finishing .500 in ACC play and perhaps winning a game in the conference tournament. That would put FSU at 19-14 for the season in what most believe is the nation’s best conference.
At this point, Florida State really has only one bad loss and that came at home to Northeastern. Providence is the reigning Big East champion while UMASS and Nebraska were each NCAA Tournament teams a season ago.
While Florida State’s 3-4 record leaves much to be desired, the Seminoles are getting healthy and have seen a number of returning players show improvement including Jarquez Smith and most of all, junior Montay Brandon.
There are a number of reasons for Florida State’s early struggles which include getting outworked on the glass, turning the ball over too frequently and doing a poor job defending the three-point arc, but those aren’t things that cannot be fixed or at least improved. Winning the close ones is also an area of concern as three of Florida State’s four losses weren’t decided until the final two minutes.
It’s no secret that Florida State has done itself little favors early on by starting 3-4, but with only one bad loss and a number of opportunities to notch marquee victories, it may be too soon to write FSU off just yet. With a potentially loaded ACC however, the Seminoles must find a way to shake off their early season woes and they need to do it fast.
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