Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Florida State basketball team has ‘tremendous opportunity’
TALLAHASSEE — Leonard Hamilton and the Florida State men’s basketball team have already ousted one of the four top seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Now, they’re tasked with playing against last season’s national runner-up in the Sweet 16.
FSU, a No. 9 seed that dramatically beat No. 1 seed Xavier Sunday weekend in Nashville, will meet No. 4 seed Gonzaga at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Thursday at 10 p.m.
The Seminoles are eyeing the program’s first Elite Eight bid since 1993.
“We've been very focused the last couple of days, and I feel like the team has a sense of the importance of where we are,” Hamilton said of his players to media in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
“They realize how we've gotten here by playing extremely hard and giving a tremendous amount of effort with an unselfish spirit. So I feel that we're in a pretty good mental state, and we're anxious and excited about the opportunity to play against an outstanding team that has traditionally been very successful over the last number of years — a team that's basically dominated this part of the country.
“Our guys, because we have a lot of young, inexperienced guys, I think they feel like this is a tremendous opportunity for us, and we're excited about it.”
The Seminoles, who are competing in their second consecutive NCAA Tournament, know they face a daunting task against the Bulldogs.
Gonzaga has reached the tournament in all 19 seasons Mark Few has coached the team, with this season being the seventh Sweet 16 appearance. The Bulldogs have won at least 30 games during four of their past six seasons.
But Few, who aims to reach the Elite Eight for the third time in the past four years, hopes his players do not buy into the notion Florida State is an underdog.
In fact, Few praised the Seminoles entering the matchup.
“Just watching them tells me more than beating a top seed. Physically, probably easily the most physically imposing and athletically gifted team we've faced maybe in the 20 years I've been head coach, I would say,” Few said of the Seminoles.
“Just the bodies, the size, the length and the athleticism is really impressive, and the amount of pressure they can bring, just the size and athleticism and the voracity they go to the offensive glass and the way they drive downhill, it's impressive.”
Florida State — which joins Duke, Syracuse and Clemson as one of four ACC teams still in the tournament — beat No. 8 seed Missouri in convincing fashion before mounting an 18-4 run in the final 5:30 against Xavier, highlighted by P.J. Savoy’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:08 remaining, to advance.
The Seminoles may have underachieved against conference teams this season, going 9-10 overall against their ACC counterparts, but they strongly believe their experience gained against stiff competition has prepared them for a deep NCAA Tournament run.
Hamilton knows his team, once again, will not be considered the favorite against Gonzaga.
But he hopes the Seminoles can continue thriving with the edge that comes with the underdog mentality.
“I look back and see that they won almost 30 games for the last 10 years in a row, I'm extremely impressed with the job that coach has done,” Hamilton said of Gonzaga.
“They play with a spirit, a level of toughness. And they seem to be so fundamentally sound. They execute their systems very, very well. They have been one of the most successful programs for a number of years. … I'm hopeful of the fact that they've been so successful, they're going to bring the best out of us.”