Florida State Basketball: Seminoles are legit national title contenders

SUNRISE, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 21: Head coach Leonard Hamilton of the Florida State Seminoles looks on against the South Florida Bulls during the first half of the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic at BB&T Center on December 21, 2019 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

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LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – JANUARY 04: Coach Hamilton of FSU instructs. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Seminoles can win on the road.

Good teams defend their home court, but great teams win on the road. Since the start of the 2016-17 season (the first season the ‘Noles returned to the NCAA Tournament), they have a record in true road games of 16-19, which is far from terrible.

In fact, they already have two road wins over Top 10 teams in this season alone: over Florida when it was ranked No. 6, and Louisville when it was No. 7. Now, granted, Florida isn’t quite the team we thought they were going to be in the preseason, but the statistic remains the same. In fact, if you want to revisit the first slide, which was coaching, Leonard Hamilton is 91-81 in road/neutral games since 2010-11. His teams are typically prepared to play on the road.

In fact, when they defeated top-seeded Xavier in the tournament a couple of seasons ago, it was in Bridgestone Arena, just four hours from Cincinnati. When they defeated Gonzaga in the following round, it was on the West Coast in Los Angeles.

While 16-19 in true road games may not wow you, the Seminoles are an undeniably impressive 22-9 in games that take place in a neutral location during that same span. For the mathematically challenged, that is a road/neutral record of 38-28 over the span or a 57% winning percentage.

This season, the Seminoles are 6-2 in road/neutral site games and only once have exhibited a defensive rating greater than 97 (against an Indiana team that got red hot).

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