Florida State Basketball: Seminoles Keep Rolling into the Elite Eight

Florida State continues to surprise the country as they have now won three straight games and are headed to the West Regional final after defeating Gonzaga 75-60.

Florida State has been the most underlooked team making a run right now. Obviously, a 16 defeating a 1 is going to receive the most attention. Buffalo was right up there because they knocked off one of the hottest teams in the country with a guy who is going to be one of the top-two picks in the draft.

Everyone has been falling in love with Loyola-Chicago and Nevada. The Wolf Pack have an adorable coaches daughter. The Ramblers have a 98 year old nun who the country is rallying behind. Kansas State has been winning games by beating an eight seed and a 16. They finally got the respect they deserved by knocking a five seed, blue blood team in Kentucky.

Here’s Florida State who won their opening round game against the eight seeded Missouri Tigers. Then they went on to defeat the number one seed in the West, Xavier. The Seminoles advanced to the regional semi-finals and handled the defending runner-up Gonzaga. The Bulldogs were down a player, but a 15-point defeat in Los Angeles over Gonzaga is no small task.

The game against Gonzaga was simply Florida State flexing their depth. It was reported right before game time that Killian Tillie was going to be a no-go for Gonzaga. He injured his hip in practice and never healed in time. Gonzaga only gets two guys off the bench who plays double-digit minutes. The Bulldogs also see two more who appear in just about every game, but they don’t see as many minutes.

Simply put, on Thursday Florida State has so many guys they threw at Gonzaga. The Seminoles played five guys who saw meaningful minutes. There were three more who appeared for at least a moment. The problem sometimes with playing so many guys is that they get out a rhythm and the team forgets their roles. These Seminoles have been anything but that.

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The bench play was what got Florida State going early on. Trent Forest continues to be an x-factor for the Noles. He’s averaging over nine points, five assists and five boards off the bench. Forest scored seven early points to keep Florida State’s starters fresh. He was also dishing out assists. One guy who benefited when the game got close was PJ Savoy. Both of his three-point shots came from passes by Forest for a solid six points in the first half.

The Seminoles needed an extra push in the first half when Gonzaga went up one with just under three minutes left. C.J. Walker has only scored six points in the previous two games and has gone 0 for 1 from deep. The sophomore guard already knocked down a shot from downtown earlier in the half. Teammates found him twice more down the stretch and he hit both of them and Florida State led 41-32 at halftime.

The starters decided it was their turn to get things going in the second half. The star of the team Terance Mann was the key player in the final half of the game. He only scored 12 points in the first two game. Mann went off for 18 against Gonzaga. The junior guard only scored six points in the first half. He then went off for 12 in the second. Mann shot 8 for 13 in the game and hauled in five boards.

Florida State showed what the starters are capable of doing in the second half. Mann scored 12 of Florida State’s 34 points. The second half was just complete domination by the Seminoles. Braian Angola-Rodas and Phil Cofer joined Mann in the scoring output as they pulled away for the 15-point defeat.

Angola contributed a little bit of everything. He scored nine points, dished five assists and hauled in six boards. It was the Angola and Mann show in the middle of the second half. The closing performance was by Cofer. He connected on a few key layups in the final couple minutes along with some clutch free throws to make sure Florida State didn’t blow the lead.

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This was an all-around effort by Florida State. Mann was the star if you look at the box score, but everyone had a hand in this beat down. The bench was so deep. Their size was again too much and the balanced scoring really hurt the already crippled Bulldogs.

Florida State once again will take their Cinderella story to the test against another great team. The Seminoles have Michigan Saturday night. The Wolverines just came off a game where they almost hung 100 on Texas A&M in a sweet 16 matchup. That doesn’t scare Florida State. They just knocked off a No. 1 seed and the runner-ups from a year ago. They’re happy to still be alive and okay with not seeing as much attention as the other surprising teams.

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