Florida State Basketball: 2018-19 keys to success at home against Duke

Florida State Basketball will look to move to 2-1 in the ACC when they host No.1 Duke on Saturday. How can the Seminoles pull off the upset? Here are some keys.

With the calendar turned to 2019, conference play is upon us and positioning for Selection Sunday has begun. The ACC may be the deepest conference in college basketball, with six teams in the current top 25, and three in the top nine, including No. 1 Duke. There is bound to be a pivotal game every night.

One of those pivotal games takes place on Saturday when, perhaps the most under-discussed team in the conference, the Florida State Seminoles host those No. 1 Duke Blue Devils (13-1, 2-0) at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

The No. 13 ranked Seminoles currently sit at 13-2, with a conference record of 1-1. Leonard Hamilton’s team was on a roll, having won seven in a row, since losing to Villanova until they ran into the defensive phenomenon know as Virginia last Saturday. Florida State who averages 78.5 points per game was held to just 52 in the 65-52 loss. The 52 points were the team’s lowest point total of the season and their lowest output since they scored 54 in last season’s Elite Eight loss to Michigan.

With the top team in basketball coming to town, the Seminoles have a chance to put the rest of the conference on notice that, they too are not only contenders in the ACC, but contenders for the national championship as well.

Getting a win over Duke will be a tall task, but doing so will certainly put the Seminoles into the national conversation. Here are three things Florida State must do in order to take down the Blue Devils.