Game Day Essentials: Game #7 vs Florida St

Florida State Info

Head Coach: Leonard Hamilton

Location: Tallahassee, Fl

Conference: ACC

Nickname: Seminoles

Last time out: Lost to Stanford
Opening Line: Nebraska by 2

Famous Alumni: Charlie Ward, Burt Reynolds

Other:  

• Nebraska is 1-1 all-time vs Florida St. Won 70-65 Husker in Tallahassee on Dec. 1, 2014, in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge while losing 74-60 in the Orange Bowl Classic on Dec. 31, 2005.
• Leonard Hamilton is 74 years old. He's also a former NBA coach, having coached the Wizards during the 2000-01 season.
• Florida St's lineup is KenPom's #2 in average height (#1 Oregon)

Player to watch: Cam'Ron Fletcher

Florida St's most rounded player leads the team in rebounds and is second is scoring. Shooting 39.4% from three, he's one of the Seminoles' two 3pt threats (UCF transfer Darin Green)

KenPom most used lineup

Others to watch

• Green is shooting 44.2% from 3 and 39% for his college career
• Caleb Mills has been capable of making 3s in the past but hasn't taken or made many this season. The lengthy PG is a ball hawk and is likely another person who will give Sam Griesel fits
• Matthew Cleveland is a former 5 star recruit who can't shoot and doesn't rebound well.
• Freshman center Cameron Corhen has a nice shooting touch and can knock down outside shots. Bruising 7'4" center Naheem McLeod is more of a rebounding/rim protector type
• Jalen Warley is a ball handler/defensive specialist. Can't shoot a lick.

Probable starters for Nebraska
5    Sam Griesel    G    6-7
25  Emmanuel Bandoumel    G    6-4

0   C.J. Wilcher    G    6-5

4   Juwan Gary  F  6-6

13  Derrick Walker    F    6-9

Bench

15   Blaise Keita C   6-11

30  Keisei Tominaga    G    6-2

32  Wilhelm Breidenbach    F    6-10

10  Jamarques Lawrence - G  6-3

12  Denim Dawson - F  6-6

33  Oleg Kojenets    F    7-0
12   Sam Hoiberg    G    6-0

31  Cale Jacobsen  G  6-4

35  Henry Burt  F  6-6

24  Jeffrey Grace III  G  6-3

Injured

3   Quaran McPherson   G   6-3 - Out for the Year

The Skinny: 

Known for pushing pace the entirety of his college coaching career, Fred Hoiberg's 2022-23 Huskers currently clock in at 303rd in pace in part because they struggle to bring the ball up the court.  Memphis spent most of the game denying Sam Griesel the ball to the point we had Derrick Walker dribbling it up. Perhaps Nebraska simply needs to embrace their lack of ball handling and let whomever gets the rebound start the ball of the court.  It certainly would pick up the pace.

This weirdly bad Florida St team with their length is absolutely going to pressure Nebraska.  Hoiberg talked about putting in some actions after the Memphis game to help so we'll see what we come up with in a day. Besides pressure and fast breaking off a miss, Florida St relies on the FT line for points.  The Huskers have proven they can guard without fouling so we might see a Seminole team really struggle to score in this one.

Perhaps the weirdest thing about Florida St is how poorly they rebound.  On one hand you might understand that they give up offensive rebounds in order to fast break down the court but on the other hand they're bad on both sides.  Remarkable how one of the largest teams in D-1 gets outrebounded by Stetson. Nebraska has a chance to break a fragile FSU team if they can continuously keep possessions alive.

It's Nebraska's lack of ball handling vs. Florida St's lack of rebounding in this matchup of struggling P5 schools. 

Prediction: Nebraska 67 - Florida St 63