Florida State was not given many gifts when it came to the start of its Atlantic Coast Conference schedule.
The Seminoles (7-8, 0-2 ACC) opened conference play with a pair of powerhouse programs in North Carolina and Duke, picked to finish third and first in the ACC, respectively.
After a week between games, Florida State will have its hands full once again when it faces North Carolina State Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee, Fla.
The Wolfpack (11-5, 2-1) were picked to finish fourth in the ACC under first-year coach Will Wade and have the ACC Preseason Player of the Year in Darrion Williams, who is coming off a breakthrough game.
After 10 straight games below 20 points, Williams tallied 22 points in a 79-71 win at Boston College on Tuesday to snap a 15-game road losing streak for NC State.
“We just made a concerted effort to get him the ball, which we haven’t done in other games for whatever reason,” Wade said of Williams. “We’ve gone away from that, but he makes the right play when he gets the ball.”
Williams was 4-of-7 from the arc and four other Wolfpack shooters combined for the team’s best 3-point performance of the season at 59.1% (13 of 22).
NC State enters with an ACC-leading 38.9 3-point percentage this season, good for 17th among Division I teams.
Florida State is at the other end of the spectrum, 16th in the ACC and 260th nationally in 3-point percentage (32.2).
However, the Seminoles are also coming off their best perimeter-shooting game of the season. They shot 46.7% from three (14 of 30) in last Saturday’s 91-87 loss to the sixth-ranked Blue Devils.
Chauncey Wiggins and Kobe MaGee each drilled four 3-pointers, combining for 39 points, as Florida State nearly pulled off a major upset for its first win over a major-conference team this season.
It was closer to the vision first-year coach Luke Loucks had for his program and an encouraging trend with a more manageable portion of the schedule coming up.
“It stinks to lose, but you can feel the improvement,” Loucks said. “… From where we were in that (five-game losing streak) to where we are now, to me, is two completely different teams. We have some fight to us.”
–Field Level Media
