Game Preview: Florida State's ACC Tournament

The 'Noles are hunting for a big tournament run.

Florida State enters the ACC Tournament as the 8 seed, and will play 9-seeded Syracuse, a team they split the season series with. This won't be too much of an actual preview as it will be my thoughts on the ACC Tournament in general, and how I think FSU can perform, that will be updated as the tournament progresses and FSU potentially advances. 

Let's take a look at where the bracket stands entering Wednesday morning in Brooklyn, NY. FSU vs Syracuse will be at noo

No surprises at all for me, at least so far. Boston College may have been the worse seed, but I expected them to beat Pittsburgh. From what I can tell, this is the first time the defending ACC Tournament Champions (Georgia Tech) have lost in the first round of the tournament since Duke in 2007. 

If Florida State wants to make the NCAA Tournament, they have to win the whole ACC Tournament; that's their only hope right now. Having won 3 straight heading this tournament, they certainly have some momentum, and this team is the healthiest its been in basically two months. So there is some reason for optimism. However, the 8-seed has not beaten the 1-seed in the ACC Tournament since 1997, and the 8-seed has never won the ACC Tournament. The highest seed to ever win the ACC Tournament is 6-seeded Maryland in 2004. So if FSU were to get past Syracuse today, they have their work cut out for them the rest of the way. 

For this first game, I like the matchup against Syracuse. They've already beaten them once without Malik Osborne in the state of New York. FSU should've won the first matchup too but they went an ice-cold 4/30 from 3. Syracuse enters this game on a 4-game losing streak, including one of the most fantastic collapses I have ever seen against Miami in the final game of the regular season. Syracuse led 70-60 with 2:29 left and lost 75-72 in regulation. Syracuse fans can't see the season end fast enough. 

As mentioned earlier, FSU comes into this having won three straight, including wins over Notre Dame and Virginia and they're as healthy as they can get right now since Cam'Ron Fletcher, Malik Osborne, and Naheem McLeod are out for the season with various injuries. Everyone else will be available in this game, including Caleb Mills, who left the last game against NC State with what seemed like an ankle injury. FSU opened this game as 1-point favorites with an over/under of 147, but KenPom has Syracuse winning in a 75-74 game. 

As long as FSU can limit Syracuse's 3-point attack of Joseph Girard and the Boeheim's, I like their chances in this one and will take them in 72-68 win. I do think whoever wins this game will be falling to a motivated Duke team.

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