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Florida State Seminoles: Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon are Playing up to Their Hype

By James Fitzgerald

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With all the press that Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram and Skal Labissiere are getting in the early goings of their freshman campaigns, some of the other incoming freshmen may be getting lost in the shuffle.

Two such freshmen are down in Tallahassee helping to guide the Florida State Seminoles to a 7-2 record and seem to be getting better with every game.

That freshman dynamic duo being Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon.

Wednesday these freshman put on a show in defeating the Mississippi State Bulldogs 90-66 in front of a bunch of rabid Seminoles fans who came to watch the show.

Guard Dwayne Bacon was the high scorer for the Seminoles finishing with 20 points and six rebounds shooting an efficient 7 of 12 from the field.

Malik Beasley who came into the game as Florida State’s leading scorer at 18.1 points per game logged a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds.

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These freshmen, for the season, combine for 40% of the Florida State Seminoles offensive output this season.

But that is not what makes their early season success completely ridiculous.

Bacon and Beasley are already playing like they have this college basketball thing figured out.

Malik Beasley for example, besides the fact that he is leading the Seminoles in scoring at 18.1 points per contest is also shooting 52.8% from the floor and 45.0% from three-point land.

Beasley has shown that he can get to the rim whenever he wants, but more importantly, he has provided the Seminoles with some consistent outside shooting either from behind the three-point arc or in the mid-range where he is hitting jumpers off the dribble on a regular basis.

Dwayne Bacon is the slasher who can get to the rim and finish with either hand. His 16.2 and 5.1 rebounds compliments Beasley’s output quite nicely because of the fact that he can get his buckets in a different fashion.

The thing that can irritate you about Dwayne Bacon is that the game seems to come so easy to him that he appears to get bored and drift on occasion.

He needs to develop his killer instinct because it is obvious that he knows that very few people can stop him on the basketball court. Bacon simply needs to be relentless and go for his buckets at will when those opportunities present themselves.

When you put these two dynamic freshman with a player like Xavier Rathan-Mayes who is running the point guard extremely well this season for the Florida State Seminoles dishing out 6.4 assists to go along with his own 12.0 points per contest, it looks like Florida State has one of the best trios in the country.

Florida State Seminoles
Florida State Seminoles /

Florida State Seminoles

Let’s face it, last time the Seminoles had a trio that was this potent on the basketball court it was Sam Cassell, Bob Sura, and Charlie Ward.

All three players helped to lead the Seminoles to the Final Four in 1993 and went on to have pretty decent NBA careers.

That is the kind of talent that Leonard Hamilton is trying to bring together right now.

Three players that are all going to find themselves on NBA rosters at some point in their basketball careers coming together to propel the Florida State Seminoles to NCAA Tournament and possibly a deep run in the tournament.

While everyone is getting hyped up about the seasons that Brandon Ingram and Ben Simmons are putting together, make sure not to overlook the jobs that Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon are doing at Florida State.

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They are on the verge of being the catalyst for a huge turnaround in fortune for Florida State basketball and are gaining job security for Leonard Hamilton with every victory.

Bacon and Beasley are definitely living up to the hype!