Florida State suffered a bad loss earlier this week. Can the team make up for it with a win over the Louisville Cardinals?
TV schedule: Saturday, February 3, 4:00 p.m. ET. ACC Network
Arena: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
The ACC basketball conference was always going to receive several NCAA tournament bids. According to Busting Brackets latest Bracketology, that’s the case, with the league getting eight teams in.
But we all know this is a fluid situation and Wednesday night proved that, with several ACC bubble taking some bad losses. One of them was Florida State, who went on the road and fell to Wake Forest, 76-72. Phil Cofer had a good game with 23 points, but poor defense and free throw shooting in the second half ultimately did them in.
Right now, there are three teams in the ACC that qualify as a “bad loss – Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, and Pittsburgh. The Seminoles lost to one of them and considering they were regarded as a No. 8 seed to start the week, they are inching closer to the cut line,
Louisville is also coming off of a loss this week, but this one came to one of the best teams in the country in Virginia, so the team’s projected No. 7 seed standing is okay. The Cardinals played well enough but fell by 10 to the Cavaliers. Ray Spalding had 16 points to lead his team while Deng Adel chipped in with 15.
This will be the second meeting of the season between these two clubs, with Louisville winning the game from three weeks ago,73-69. Adel and Spalding had 31 points between them while Ryan McMahon had 11 off the bench. On the other side, Terance Mann led all scorers with 25 points and Braian Angola had 18 points himself. Although Cofer had 10 rebounds in the game, he went just 1-for-10 from the field.
Next: ACC Mid-season recap and awards
For now, the position of the Cardinals is secure with how it pertains to the NCAA tournament while the Seminoles’ position is a bit dicier. They have a home game next week against the ACC leader Virginia so a losing streak is very possible. They’ll need to find a way to win on the road, something they’ve done just once out of five times in league play.
Prediction: Louisville 70 – Florida State 65