By Bill from Tampa
Where/When: Tallahassee, Friday 11/9; tipoff 7:00 PM, TV - None
Record: Season opener for both squads
Last season: FSU 22-13 overall, 7-9 ACC, 16-3 home, 15-4 non-conference. Nicholls 8-22 overall, 7-9 Southland, 2-16 road, 1-13 non-conference
Last exhibition game: FSU beat Valdosta State 87-66 behind Isaiah Swann’s 21 points and Julian Vaughn adding 15 with 6 rebounds. Nicholls State came from four points down with less than a minute to play to beat the University of Mobile 77-76 on the strength of shooting 26-39 from the free throw line.
Projected FSU starting lineup:
Toney Douglas - 12.7 ppg, 2.9 apg in 2006-2007
Isaiah Swann - 10.3 ppg, 3.0 rpg in 2006-2007
Jason Rich - 10.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg in 2006-2007
Uche Echefu - 6.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg in 2006-2007
Ryan Reid - 2.9 ppg, 3.2 rpg in 2006-2007
About Florida State: Al Thornton is no longer in the building. His points will fall to what Leonard Hamilton likes to call his “offense by committee." For FSU that means the backcourt of Swann, Rich, and Douglas. Once again the Seminoles will be a perimeter-oriented team at least to start the season. The frontcourt offense will be an issue again as Echefu is used more at the perimeter and Reid’s job is to play defense and rebound.
Post play was supposed to get a boost from 7-1 Solomon Alabi. Alabi however has been out with a stress fracture and has not been able to participate in practices. The staff is taking no chances with him and thus there is no timetable for his debut.
But there is hope for the Seminoles with FR forward Julian Vaughn. Vaughn has played quite well scoring 15 points with 6 rebounds in the exhibition game against Valdosta.
Casaan Breeden will see more time at the three spot unlike last season when he backed up Thornton at PF. Ralph Mims will obviously spell Douglas at the point. Both will be expected to add some offense when on the floor.
Freshman wing man Jordan DeMercy may see some time in these early games provided the outcome is not on the line. Exactly how Hamilton will use him remains to be seen has DeMercy has played only a dozen or so minutes in the two exhibition games.
Guard Chris Blake will not see the court as he is suspended for the semester.
About Nicholls State: Just as is the case for FSU, the Colonels lost a big part of their offense to graduation. Last season’s leading scorer in the Southland Conference, Stefan Blaszczynski is gone. With him leaves 19.2 ppg and 7.0 rpg. What will make that loss even more problematic for head coach J.P. Piper is because of his team's play at the defensive end. Last season, the Colonels gave up 80.9 ppg and were outrebounded by 6.2 rpg. If the defense does not improve, it could be a long season for Nicholls.
The Colonels are predicted to finish fifth in the conference this season.
Adonis Gray is the top returning scorer for Nicholls State with his 13.9 ppg from a year ago. What needs to happen to help Gray is Justin Payne, the club's point guard, needs to step up his offense. To date Payne has shown little scoring ability.
What the Seminoles will do: Run. A lot. Hamilton feels more comfortable with his motion offense this season and he will be looking to keep the tempo up even when the team is forced into a half court game. Hamilton will try and get more scoring inside the paint feeling that the ‘Noles did not attack the inside enough against Valdosta.
Hamilton has not been pleased with his team’s rebounding. It has been an issue for FSU for several years now. With the exception of Vaughn, the players counted on to hit the boards just have not done the job. Look for an increased effort in that department.
Bottom Line: No disrespect to the Colonels intended. But the bottom line is that if FSU does not win this game and win it by a decent margin Hamilton will have greater issues to work out than he possibly thought he did.
Comments? Questions? Kudos?