Seminoles stop to enjoy experience
While focused on tourney, FSU takes moment to have fun
HARTFORD, Conn. — At this point, the Florida State Seminoles are used to the bright lights that come with the NCAA Tournament.
That doesn’t mean they can’t still enjoy the little things along the way.
Before their first official NCAA Tournament practice Wednesday, the Seminoles received new gameday shoes and quickly shifted from men on a mission to kids on Christmas.
As the team tried on their Nike Kyrie 5s in the cookies-and-creme color, sophomore forward Wyatt Wilkes showed off his journalism chops, grabbing a microphone and hosting a video interview segment he calls “Walking with Wyatt.”
During an impromptu interview, Wilkes approached PJ Savoy and sought his reaction to the shoes. The senior guard responded, “It’s good. I don’t think my foot’s going to bust through it,” taking a playful jab at Duke forward Zion Williamson’s now infamous Nike shoe mishap.
Senior Phil Cofer took in the scene as well. Cofer knows about nice kicks, having rocked the Nike Zoom Kobe 4 Proto “Draft Days” last week during the ACC Tournament. The Charlotte Hornets-inspired shoe color allowed him to have a little bit of fun while the Seminoles tried to take care of business on the court.
Cofer said this year the Seminoles understand more how to balance living in the moment and staying locked in on their goals. He added that not much has changed in how they’ll approach their first-round matchup.
“I think it’s pretty much the same,” he said. “I think from last year to this year, we’re still locked in to playing defense. That’s what wins games in this tournament. Every game is going to be a dogfight, but if we just keep doing us and prepare how the coaches want us to prepare, I think we’ll be all right.”
The Seminoles have used their defense to jumpstart the offense during key stretches in a number of games this season and expect to do more of the same in the tournament.
The Vermont Catamounts are no stranger to big-name competition. This season they faced Kansas, which is No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region, and Louisville, the No. 7 seed in the East Region.
Though Vermont dropped both games, it poses the same threat in the postseason that fellow American East Conference member UMBC posed a year ago when it upset topseeded Virginia, and FSU understands that.
“You saw it last year. Teams from this conference aren’t just happy to be in the tournament; they’re going there to win,” senior guard David Nichols said.
Nichols faced the Catamounts while attending the University of Albany and has been an even more valuable resource to the team, according to Terance Mann.
“We definitely picked his brain. He told us a lot of things. We know that they play kind of like Virginia’s type of style,” Mann said.
In the same manner that FSU is balancing work and play, the team also must find the right formula of confidence and humility going forward.
FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said that while the Seminoles earned a No. 4 seed, they can’t get caught up hanging their hats on past success.
“We haven’t earned the right to do anything else [but stay focused],” he said. “We have not won an NCAA title, we didn’t win the ACC title. What we’ve done is we’ve improved our program and made some accomplishments, but if that’s all we’re about and we start taking bows at this particular time then we’re not very competitive and that’s not the nature of our guys. We’re still trying to accomplish some things and there’s an awful lot out there available for to accomplish.”