UNC begins ACC play with Florida State

For years, when you looked over at the Florida State bench, you’d see Leonard Hamilton roaming the sidelines. The legendary coach ruled the Seminoles for over two decades and was a constant thorn in the side for the Tar Heels. In recent seasons, though, the quality of the Seminoles basketball program suffered as they didn’t seem to recover past the cancelled 2020 season.

So last season Hamilton left Florida State and Luke Loucks was hired to take over. Loucks was a player for FSU and led them to consecutive NCAA Tournaments in his career from ‘08-’12. He eventually ended up assisting on NBA coaching staffs, and had the experience of being on an NBA Title winning Golden State Warriors team. At a school where football is king, Florida State seems willing to take a more long-term approach to rebuilding the baseball program.

That’s shown in the non-conference results for the Seminoles. They come in to tomorrow’s game 7-6 overall, but all of those wins have been against what could be considered lesser competition. Their losses have come to Florida, Texas A&M, Georgia, Houston, UMass, and Dayton. They are coming off two straight wins, albeit against Mississippi Valley State and Jacksonville. Right now, this game would be considered a quadrant three game for Carolina, and there’s really not a lot there to think it’ll ever bump up any higher.

It’s easy to forget, with how non-conference play has gone and the continuing hoopla surrounding UNC Football, but with ACC play beginning it’s worth remembering that the conference has moved back to an 18-game conference slate. The way the ACC decided to handle this? One team is left off the schedule completely, two teams are played twice (including a permanent partner), and the rest are played once. With that being said, this will be the only time the Tar Heels will see Florida State this season unless they cross paths in the ACC Tournament.

The Tar Heels are coming off perhaps their best overall performance of the season in a 99-51 win over ECU last Monday. It was the best in the sense that Carolina controlled the game from beginning to end, the entire bench played, and they did it despite a come-from-behind last second win over Ohio State in Atlanta about 48 hours prior. The ability to refocus and not try to get to the Christmas Break early speaks to how this team is coming together, and should have fans excited for the potential of this squad.

When the Tar Heels take the court, they’ll be staring at a team that has only had two players start all 13 games for the Seminoles. Robert McCray and Lajae Jones have pulled off this feat, but they have had nine players average fourteen minutes a game. In terms of three point threats, only Martin Somerville is hitting at over 40% on the season, but is actually shooting better from three than all field goals overall. McCray is their leading point scorer with 13.5 points per game, and Alex Steen is the leading rebounder at 6.7 per game.

Those individual stats show just how rough it’s been for the Seminoles, despite their winning record. Opponents are shooting better overall, shooting better from three, shooting more free throws, and are rebounding more on average than Florida State. When you look at their schedule and the number of blowouts they’ve had against vastly inferior opponents, it helps highlight just what sort of matchup the Tar Heels are in for.

The biggest opponent for the Tar Heels may the combination of rest and rust. With the leading rebounder only 6’9” and the Tar Heels having a significant size advantage, there’s every reason to think the conference season will begin well for the team from Chapel Hill. Carolina will get the chance to further re-integrate Seth Trimble into the lineup, and there’s nothing that Florida State has done so far to show that they can counter the combination of Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar.

We’ll see what shows up on the court tomorrow night. Can the same killer instinct Tar Heels show up? A strong start would show the rest of the league that the Tar Heels are indeed a team to take seriously. With a trip to Dallas staring them in the face this weekend, a good start will be imperative.