FSU Dominated by Siena in Opening Round of ESPN Invitational

The Seminoles never led against the Saints in another disappointing effort.

I don't know how to describe how disappointing this game was to watch. The lack of on-court leadership, the body language, the lack of communication... lacking everything. The score was embarrassing enough as it is; having to sit through 40 minutes of it and watching it unfold was even worse. Siena was beating FSU to almost every 50/50 ball, was hustling at every opportunity, and seemed to simply want to win this basketball game more. It was painful to watch as Naheem McLeod lost his emotions and was ejected at the end of the first half for elbowing somebody in the chin on a dead ball. FSU was down 43-26 at halftime, having shot just 29.6% from the floor compared to Siena who shot 57.7%. And that's just the first half. 

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The 'Noles showed some fight in the first couple of minutes of the second half, opening with two dunks and two steals, but Siena quickly called timeout and got things settled down. The lead got down to 9 in the second half after Darin Green Jr. hit two free throws about two minutes into the half, then Siena opened up a 16-6 run over the next 6 minutes and that would effectively close it out. A late run got FSU back within 11, but Siena stretched the lead out yet again to 20 in the closing minutes and would go on to win 80-63. Siena shot 51.9% from the floor and 41.2% from 3, while FSU was 36.4% from the floor and 26.7% from 3. 

This is embarrassing, painful, pitiful... whatever you want to call it. This is not Florida State Basketball. They never even led in a game against Siena, who was coming off of two straight losses to Army and Harvard. 

After never having scored more than 5 points against FSU in his career at UNC, Andrew Platek came out and scored a career high 20 points, including 5/6 from 3. His previous career high was 15 against any team, and he scores 20. 

Javian McCollum was superb as well for the Saints, scoring 18 points, dishing out 8 assists, and snatching two steals. Even if he had four turnovers, his fingerprints were all over this game. 

Once again, FSU was beaten on the boards, but at least they were able to do a decent job controlling the offensive glass, though Siena did only miss 25 shots. The result on the boards was more attributed to how many shots FSU was missing. Siena was doing a great job of getting back in transition, dropping 4 people back after they shot to keep FSU from getting easy offense in transition, as that's the only way they can consistently score. 

Matthew Cleveland had an uninspiring 14 points on 15 shots, Cam'Ron Fletcher had 13 points and 6 rebounds, adding in 5 steals, though he did turn it over 4 times. 

Darin Green struggled today shooting just 1/9 from the floor and 1/7 from 3, he was uncharacteristically cold all day, but at least you can tell he cares.

FSU as a team was just 9/23 on layups, and if you can't convert the ones in close, it's going to be a struggle. 

The 'Noles will play the loser of Ole Miss and Stanford at 1:30 pm on Friday.

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