With Atlantic Coast Conference play looming, Florida State may have gotten its groove back at the ideal moment.
The Seminoles (6-6) snapped a five-game losing streak with a dominant 96-49 home win over Mississippi Valley State on Friday.
“I felt like I was in the Sahara Desert looking for water after this last stretch,” FSU coach Luke Loucks said after the win. “We found out it’s tough to win basketball games. Winning is a lot more fun than losing.”
They have one final tuneup before ACC play begins when they face Jacksonville on Monday night in Tallahassee, Fla.
In the runaway win, Florida State rained 3-pointers, making 13 of them with four different players making two each. However, the Seminoles needed to attempt 40 threes to make that many, shooting 32.5% from the perimeter.
That’s been an all-too-common theme for a team that was built around a 3-point-heavy offense by Loucks, who began his coaching career in the NBA with the sharpshooting Golden State Warriors.
The Seminoles are attempting 36.5 3-pointers per game, second-most in Division I and the most of any major conference team. But they haven’t made over 35% of their threes since their first two games of the season, failing to do so in their last 10.
Florida State is shooting 31.3% from 3-point range this season, which ranks 277th out of 365 D-I teams. Martin Somerville (39.1%) is the standout shooter, averaging 8.6 points per game and 2.3 made 3-pointers per game.
The Dolphins (5-7) enter on a two-game losing streak and have lost their last three games against Division I opponents. This will be their second straight game in Tallahassee after a 72-65 loss to Florida A&M on Wednesday.
Jacksonville relies on a balanced scoring effort with no player averaging more than 10.7 points per game.
“I see it every day in practice so I’m not surprised (we have so many scoring contributors),” junior guard Jaylen Jones said earlier this month. “I just look forward to everybody pitching in, doing their jobs.”
The team has had a different leading scorer in each of its last four games. Last time, it was Jones (10.3 points per game, team-high 39.3% from three) who had teams highs with 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists against Florida A&M.
–Field Level Media
