Florida State Basketball: Seminoles keys to beat Vermont in Round of 64

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 15: Teammates Trent Forrest #3 and Mfiondu Kabengele #25 of the Florida State Seminoles react after defeating the Virginia Cavaliers 69-59 in the semifinals of the 2019 Men's ACC Basketball Tournament at Spectrum Center on March 15, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

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LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 22: Christ Koumadje #21 of the Florida State Seminoles with the ball against Johnathan Williams #3 of the Gonzaga Bulldoigs in the first half in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament West Regional at Staples Center on March 22, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

2. Dominate the Boards, don’t get lazy rebounding

As mentioned, Florida State is one of, if not the tallest team in the country. Vermont is not even close. The Catamounts have one center on the roster and he is a freshman who has played in four games. Of their four forwards who average more than ten minutes per game, none are taller than 6’8”.

On the other side, center Christ Koumadje stands at 7’4” and star forward Mfiondu Kabengele at 6’10”. Some of the Seminoles guards match up in height to Vermont’s forwards. There is no reason to expect this will not result in Florida State dominating the boards, so they need to make sure they actually come out and dominate the boards rather than simply assuming they will.

Pulling off an upset in the first round is like winning a championship for lower seeds and Vermont will try to be perfect in every facet of the game. Rebounding is one of those areas where a team can become complacent and forget to put the effort in. Vermont will be flying around on both the offensive and defensive end trying to get extra chances knowing there is a major height discrepancy. As long as Florida State matches the energy they are likely to face, they should comfortably win the rebounding advantage.

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