FSU men’s basketball wins second round match in Warchant What could have been NCAA tournament

TAMPA – Two years ago, the Florida State men’s basketball team shocked No. 1 seed Xavier to qualify for the Sweet 16 at the NCAA tournament.

Last year, the Seminoles took care of Ja Morant and Murray State in blowout mode to get there.

Saturday in Tampa, in front of a crowd of Florida State fans that included some of the most famous athletes in school history, the Seminoles dominated the LSU Tigers, 83-58, to advance to their third Sweet 16 consecutive.

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The No. 2 seeded FSU men (31-5) are now heading to Houston to face No. 3 seeded Maryland on Thursday evening.

“Obviously, you’re not cutting any net for winning two games in an NCAA tournament,” said FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton. “But I thought it was one of the best games we have played all year. It seemed like we played with a lot of wit, focus and effort. And I think it all has to do with see with the great respect we had for LSU. “

“LSU? More like LS-poo,” said sophomore forward Wyatt Wilkes, who left the bench to hit four 3 points in the first half. “As soon as I reached my top 3, I knew it was going to be a long day for them. It’s a SEC school, and it’s not football. So I had a pretty good idea that we let’s go ahead. In fact, at half time, I told the Green Viper team to hydrate and do a lot of stretching. Because I knew they would play a lot in the second half. . “

The Seminoles took a 12-2 lead early. M.J. Walker hit 3 s in a row, and Trent Forrest and Devin Vassell combined for two alley-oop dunks in transition.

The Tigers never really recovered.

LSU only pulled 31% in the first half and 35% in total. The Tigers also flipped it more than 19 times, which resulted in many dunks at the other end. Patrick Williams had four by himself. And Malik Osborne launched a tomahawk dunk at the start of the second half which was punctuated by perhaps the longest celebration cry in the history of the NCAA tournament.

It was more like a barbarian lace, in fact.

At one point, even his own teammates told him to calm down.

“I had to tell him to relax,” said forward RaiQuan Gray with a smile. “I took a free kick two possessions later and he was still screaming about this dunk. How long did it last? Three minutes?”

Give or take.

“I’m an emotional guy,” said Osborne laughing. “And I’ve never had the opportunity to play in an NCAA tournament before. So I soak up. I was excited. This team turns me on. I know we can win it all. I know it We have to take one game at a time, obviously.

“But when we play like we did today, we can beat anyone. It doesn’t matter. Baylor, Dayton, Kansas, LSU. If we click like that, we can beat anyone who.”

Florida State was leading 44-23 at half time, and LSU never got very close.

Vassell scored 12 of his 19 points, a team record, in the first half. Gray had nine points and nine rebounds; Williams and Wilkes were both 14; Walker finished with 13 points and a sprained ankle; and Forrest had 10 points, six rebounds, six assists and six interceptions while the Seminoles increased the lead to 33 points in the second period.

In fact, for the last eight minutes of the game, LSU head coach Will Wade was on his cell phone.

“I was calling the NCAA to see if we could go ahead and accept our playoff ban now,” said Wade, who has been the subject of NCAA and FBI investigations in recent months. “FSU wouldn’t literally let us manage our attack. It was embarrassing for us. But it’s a great team that Leonard has. They can win it all. When they play like that, they can beat anyone in the country . ”

“They have so many guys who can hurt you. We all know Forrest and Walker and Vassell and Williams, but then Wilkes comes out and burns us. Osborne yelled at us every game. They got two 7 feet. Where Leonard finds- is it these guys? It’s amazing how well they played today. “

Much to the delight of the thousands of Florida State fans in attendance.

Jameis Winston, who wore a Jacob Coker Alabama jersey for some reason, was two rows behind the Florida state bench. Deion Sanders, wearing a Deion Sanders jersey, was in the same row as former FSU basketball players Dave Cowens, George McCloud and Tim Pickett.

“It’s great to get this kind of support,” said Forrest, who now plays in the third Sweet 16 of his career. “Seeing Jameis and Deion was great. But it was just great to see so many fans from the state of Florida in general. We must have had 10,000 fans here today.

“This is a huge advantage. And we are very grateful for it.”

That’s one of the perks of being a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, of course. You can play near you.

This is no longer the case.

The State of Florida will now travel to Houston to play Maryland, who defeated reigning national champion Virginia, 30-25, Saturday in the weakest NCAA tournament game since 1941 (the Terrapins kept the Cavaliers at only four points in the second half). ).

The Seminoles are again two wins from the school’s first Final Four since 1972.

“This has already been a special season,” said Vassell. “We just want to keep riding on this magic for as long as possible.”

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* Reminder: be sure to read these fictitious NCAA tournament summaries while taking social distances.

It was the best regular season in school history, and was punctuated by an ACC championship and a No. 4 national ranking before the playoffs.

This is what made the aftermath so frustrating and heartbreaking.

With the cancellation of the NCAA 2020 tournament, players, coaches and fans of Florida State will never know how far the Seminoles could have gone.

Would we have cut more fillets? Another trophy would have been hoisted? Would Trent Forrest and the boys have had more heroism in them?

Well, it’s about time we found out … with the Warchant 2020 tournament What could have been the NCAA?

Here is the recap of FSU’s first round victory over Belmont.

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