March Madness: Ranking the teams remaining in the West Region

4. Florida State Seminoles (9 seed)

Strength: Incredible depth

Most teams go seven or eight-deep at this point in the tournament, but not Florida State, who goes double-digits. Against Xavier, Leonard Hamilton went with 11 players in the game, with six of them going for at least nine points in the upset win.

This team has bodies on both the front and backcourts and isn’t fazed by foul trouble. That’s important going up against Gonzaga who has as much talent 8-deep as any team in the country. It was a team led by individual pros last season, but now it’s a much more cohesive unit.

Weakness: Defense

The Seminoles are on a nice run, but there’s a reason why they went .500 in conference play. As a team, they’re ranked in the 200’s in defensive scoring, and allowed under 73 points just one time in league play (Virginia). That’s going to be an issue against Gonzaga, a top-five scoring offense who just dropped 90 points on Ohio State.

Another issue is while this is a very deep Florida State team, there isn’t a go-to scorer for them. That could be an issue if they can’t get it going, but Hamilton hopes that his wide array of options can negate it.