Florida State Seminoles: Noles’ Games Against North Carolina is an Important Test
The Florida State Seminoles will be facing their toughest test of the season when the No.7 North Carolina Tar Heels come to Tallahassee.
Though the Noles’ have a 10-3 record on the season, they have not played anyone the caliber of the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley have established themselves as two of the best freshman basketball players in the nation with both averaging around 17 points, five rebounds and an assist per contest.
Bacon showed his acumen for hitting big shots by hitting a game winner against the Florida Gators on December 29th to help the Seminoles snare the Gators 73-71.
They then followed that game up with an 84-75 loss to the Clemson Tigers on the road. Bacon did not play up to par in the game against the Tigers finishing with 10 points on 5 of 16 shooting from the floor, snapping Bacon’s FSU record four straight games with at least 20 points.
The loss to Clemson can be taken one of two ways. It can be seen as an expected loss since it was the second of back-to-back road games.
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Or it could be seen as the Seminoles possibly looking passed Clemson knowing they had a huge game coming up on the calendar against the Tar Heels.
Either way you look at it, this game coming up against North Carolina is a huge statement game for the Seminoles.
It can be a game that could give the Seminoles some major momentum as they move forward through ACC conference play. Beating North Carolina would also be a major resume win for Florida State as they pursue a tournament bid.
Most importantly, it is going to be a nice gauge of how much the Seminoles have gelled as a team.
Florida State should be in a position to match the depth that the North Carolina Tar Heels bring to the floor.
Florida State Seminoles
Boris Bojanovsky and Chris Koumadje should be able to make things interesting in the front court against Brice Johnson, Joel James and Isaiah Hicks.
Xavier Rathan-Mayes, Dwayne Bacon, Malik Beasley, Benji Bell and Devon Bookert should provide a nice challenge for Marcus Paige, Joel Berry, Nate Britt, Justin Jackson and Theo Pinson.
Basically this is going to be a matchup of two teams that can go nine players deep with talented and bigs and versatile wing players.
Last time both of these teams hooked up was January 24, 2015 when Xavier Rathan-Mayes went off for a Florida State freshman record 35 points.
This time around Rathan-Mayes is going to have some extra offensive help from a couple stellar freshman standouts who are just as capable of matching that offensive output.
North Carolina is going to be without Kennedy Meeks who is still trying to heal up his bruised left knee. This will be the seventh contest that the North Carolina forward will have missed because of this injury.
Next: West Coast Conference Notebook January 3, 2016
The Florida State Seminoles are seen as the team in the ACC that should will make the most significant jump in the league because of the talent and depth they possess.
Getting a huge home win over a No.7 ranked North Carolina club will go a long way toward make that sentiment feel a bit more legitimate.