Florida State hoops hoping to continue season’s hot start
TALLAHASSEE — Before this season, Florida State forward Terance Mann believed the Seminoles’ basketball team was better than it was a year ago.
Now, after a 9-0 start and a No. 19 Associated Press top 25 ranking, there may be some truth to Mann’s assertion.
The Seminoles, who have lived up to longtime coach Leonard Hamilton’s win-by-committee approach, hope to tie their best start in school history with a win over Oklahoma State (7-2) on Saturday at the Orange Bowl Classic at the BB&T Center on Saturday in Sunrise.
“We realize no one expected us to be in the conversation for top 25,” Hamilton said.
“Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean we didn’t believe that. … But as young people say, we don’t have it twisted. We know where we are and still have a lot of work to do with this team.”
FSU’s 2016 team featured now-NBA rookies Jonathan Isaac of the Magic and Dwayne Bacon of the Hornets along with NBA GLeague guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes, players who provided leadership and did most of the heavy lifting in the scoring department for the Seminoles.
FSU went undefeated at home, finished second in the Atlantic Coast Conference, reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years and fell one game short of tying the school record for wins in a season last year.
Now Mann, starting point guard C.J. Walker and at least five others who gained significant experience coming off the bench for FSU’s self-proclaimed 2016-17 “Boom Squad” are making their own mark this season.
“Everyone has a chip on their shoulder. We’re trying to prove people wrong,” said Mann, a junior who leads the team averaging 15.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. “The older guys are trying to get the younger guys with the mentality that you have to come out with a tough mentality all the team, and it’s working.”
FSU’s road victory over then-No. 5 Florida, an 83-66 blowout over a team that beat Gonzaga and was in a tight battle against Duke, helped put the Seminoles on the nation’s radar.
But FSU’s play — highlighted by having six different leading scorers through nine games — has been a testament to buying into an unselfish mentality Hamilton believed his players could thrive under without its departing star power.
“I don’t feel like it’s that hard — especially if you want to win,” said Walker, who scored a game-high 24 points in a road win at Rutgers on Nov. 28 and leads the Seminoles with 17 steals this season.
“I just feel like being unselfish helps the team, and that’s how everybody should approach the game. That’s how our team is approaching the game, and it’s helping us so far.”
Walker and Mann say the selfless team spirit was forged during a summer trip to Jamaica, where the Seminoles fostered a greater sense of team unity — around the same time Mann believed his team could be better than initially expected.
“I realized this summer, but the public probably realized after the Florida game because that’s just how it is,” Mann said with a smile.
They hope a win over their last major nonconference opponent in Oklahoma State and strong performances at home against Charleston Southern on Dec. 18 and Southern Miss on Dec. 21 can prepare them for the start of a grueling conference schedule at Duke on Dec. 30.
“We’re still a work in progress. We still don’t have everybody hitting on all cylinders,” Hamilton said. “[But] our attitudes are good. We understand how we have to play with the effort we have to play with.”