FSU 81 UL 89 The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good
FSU was down by twenty points, 39-19, with 5:07 to play in the first half. The 'Noles could have folded and just packed it in. They did not however. The 'Noles held on strong enough to not let it get totally away from them and trailed 45-31 at the break. Doing what they have done so often this season, the Seminoles in the second half played much more aggressively with much more effort closing the margin to six, 66-60, with nearly nine minutes to play. The gap proved to be too much to overcome however as Chucky (not to be confused with Chucky ... you know who I mean ...) Hepburn took the game over and could not be stopped by the Seminole defense. Hepburn accounted for 13 of UL's final 17 points over the last 6:23 of the game.
Jamir Watkins who we don't get to mention too often. He tallied 23 points reaching another milestone. Watkins becomes the 50th Seminole to reach the 1,000 point club in less than two years. Watkins has played something like 60 games at Florida State. He has scored in double digits in 49 of them. Thanks for not going pro after last year.
Another player that does not get much mention, Malique Ewin, who is a on a roll offensively. He nearly duplicated his perfect 10 of 10 against Miami shooting 9 of 10 today vs Louisville to score 19 points. He nearly made it another double double by collecting 9 rebounds.
Plays of the game, The UL defense with some obvious miscommunication leaving Watkins all alone out at the arc. The resulting three made it 10-5, Cardinals. Justin Thomas' lob to Ewin coming off the screen roll one handed the catch and slammed it in all in the same motion, 10-7, UL. Alier Maluk with a flurry of six points on back to back layups assisted by Bostyn Holt and an offensive rebound put back, 45-30. Taylor Bol Bowen with yet another blocked shot with one second left in the half keeping the Seminoles in sight of the Cards. Dequan Davis' alley oop to a completely unguarded Ewin and the slam dunk, 52-41. Davis also left wide open on the right wing to trail by just eight, 52-44. Watkins driving into the lane, pulls up, and flips it in plus the foul, 54-47. Ewin is cut off on the right side baseline, does not force the shot, and zips a pass around a defender to Bol Bowen in the left corner, 79-71, with 2:18 remaining.
The Bad
Unfortunately the Seminoles could not get any closer as UL matched FSU over the remaining two minutes.
With the loss, FSU falls to 16-11 overall, 7-9 ACC. Coming into the game, Louisville had won 14 of their last 15 games. Make that 15 of their last 16.
Back to back threes by UL and a sloppy turnover by Davis forcing Leonard Hamilton to call a timeout just 1:20 into the game. I am certain that was not part of the game plan.
Yet another sloppy turnover as Bol Bowen could not handle the defender's pressure causing Taylor to dribble the ball out of bounds.
Whistle happy refs who called Ewin for his second foul at the 13:10 mark in the first period. Ten seconds later Chandler Jackson for his second foul. Just over thirty seconds later, Thomas was whistled putting Louisville in the bonus.
Louisville was clearly the aggressor in the first half as the Cards' offense shredded the Seminole D who looked totally confused as to who was supposed to be guarding who. Case in point, UL's James Scott on the pick and roll down the lane all by himself with not a Seminole defender in sight and the slam dunk.
8:22 into period number one saw the first FSU FG scored by someone not named Watkins or Ewin.
UL's 8-0 start that saw five FSU turnovers. The score was 19-11. In seemingly in the blink of an eye, the score became 29-13 and FSU looked like it was on the brink of a disaster.
On a breakaway, Jackson's layup was called off due to a called traveling violation. I dare you Mr. Referee to show us where that traveling occurred. I double dare you.
FTs as in the aforementioned Chucky canning 17 (out of 19) himself equaling the number the entire FSU squad attempted. As a team, UL was 30-34 (88%) to FSU's 13-17 (76%). Hamilton said postgame that they would review the film and see what that was about. Whatever that means.
The CW Network showing the graphic of Waka Mbatch fouling out with 10 points. The problem with that is Waka was a DNP.
The Ugly
Stop me if you have heard this before. Three pointers. Or the lack thereof. Remember that three pointer by Watkins I mentioned earlier? That was the only one made in the first period out of nine shots. It was the only one Watkins made out of six attempts. For the game, FSU was abysmal again from the arc shooting 4-17 (24%). With 50 points in the paint today, maybe they should have thought about not taking some of those threes.
12 ..... as in the 12 turnovers FSU had accumulated by intermission. Hamilton called most of those self inflicted. Amazingly the 'Noles gave the ball away only two more times. But UL still outscored the 'Noles in points off turnovers, 17-7.
A couple of the more "interesting" miscues was Bol Bowen committing turnover #5 by stepping OB as he was putting the ball on the floor. My personal favorite was Watkins inbounding the ball with a nice bounce pass. Unfortunately, Davis had moved a different direction and the ball was easily retrieved by UL and of course a resulting slam dunk. That forced Hamilton to call timeout #2. I am thinking that was not in the game plan either.
Up Next
A short turnaround (made shorter by a plane delay out of Louisville) as the Seminoles will host UNC on Big Monday for a 7 PM tip to be aired on the four letter network. The Tar Heels (16-11, 9-6) are on the bubble to make the NCAA. They cannot afford to lose another regular season game if they want to make it to the tournament. So now would be a perfect op for the Seminoles to hand them a loss (assuming UVa does not beat them as they are currently playing and trailing UNC 26-16). And the 'Noles have a history of knocking off UNC in Tallahassee. When we last saw the Heels, they were busy pummeling NC State, 97-73, their third win in their last four games.
The Good
FSU was down by twenty points, 39-19, with 5:07 to play in the first half. The 'Noles could have folded and just packed it in. They did not however. The 'Noles held on strong enough to not let it get totally away from them and trailed 45-31 at the break. Doing what they have done so often this season, the Seminoles in the second half played much more aggressively with much more effort closing the margin to six, 66-60, with nearly nine minutes to play. The gap proved to be too much to overcome however as Chucky (not to be confused with Chucky ... you know who I mean ...) Hepburn took the game over and could not be stopped by the Seminole defense. Hepburn accounted for 13 of UL's final 17 points over the last 6:23 of the game.
Jamir Watkins who we don't get to mention too often. He tallied 23 points reaching another milestone. Watkins becomes the 50th Seminole to reach the 1,000 point club in less than two years. Watkins has played something like 60 games at Florida State. He has scored in double digits in 49 of them. Thanks for not going pro after last year.
Another player that does not get much mention, Malique Ewin, who is a on a roll offensively. He nearly duplicated his perfect 10 of 10 against Miami shooting 9 of 10 today vs Louisville to score 19 points. He nearly made it another double double by collecting 9 rebounds.
Plays of the game, The UL defense with some obvious miscommunication leaving Watkins all alone out at the arc. The resulting three made it 10-5, Cardinals. Justin Thomas' lob to Ewin coming off the screen roll one handed the catch and slammed it in all in the same motion, 10-7, UL. Alier Maluk with a flurry of six points on back to back layups assisted by Bostyn Holt and an offensive rebound put back, 45-30. Taylor Bol Bowen with yet another blocked shot with one second left in the half keeping the Seminoles in sight of the Cards. Dequan Davis' alley oop to a completely unguarded Ewin and the slam dunk, 52-41. Davis also left wide open on the right wing to trail by just eight, 52-44. Watkins driving into the lane, pulls up, and flips it in plus the foul, 54-47. Ewin is cut off on the right side baseline, does not force the shot, and zips a pass around a defender to Bol Bowen in the left corner, 79-71, with 2:18 remaining.
The Bad
Unfortunately the Seminoles could not get any closer as UL matched FSU over the remaining two minutes.
With the loss, FSU falls to 16-11 overall, 7-9 ACC. Coming into the game, Louisville had won 14 of their last 15 games. Make that 15 of their last 16.
Back to back threes by UL and a sloppy turnover by Davis forcing Leonard Hamilton to call a timeout just 1:20 into the game. I am certain that was not part of the game plan.
Yet another sloppy turnover as Bol Bowen could not handle the defender's pressure causing Taylor to dribble the ball out of bounds.
Whistle happy refs who called Ewin for his second foul at the 13:10 mark in the first period. Ten seconds later Chandler Jackson for his second foul. Just over thirty seconds later, Thomas was whistled putting Louisville in the bonus.
Louisville was clearly the aggressor in the first half as the Cards' offense shredded the Seminole D who looked totally confused as to who was supposed to be guarding who. Case in point, UL's James Scott on the pick and roll down the lane all by himself with not a Seminole defender in sight and the slam dunk.
8:22 into period number one saw the first FSU FG scored by someone not named Watkins or Ewin.
UL's 8-0 start that saw five FSU turnovers. The score was 19-11. In seemingly in the blink of an eye, the score became 29-13 and FSU looked like it was on the brink of a disaster.
On a breakaway, Jackson's layup was called off due to a called traveling violation. I dare you Mr. Referee to show us where that traveling occurred. I double dare you.
FTs as in the aforementioned Chucky canning 17 (out of 19) himself equaling the number the entire FSU squad attempted. As a team, UL was 30-34 (88%) to FSU's 13-17 (76%). Hamilton said postgame that they would review the film and see what that was about. Whatever that means.
The CW Network showing the graphic of Waka Mbatch fouling out with 10 points. The problem with that is Waka was a DNP.
The Ugly
Stop me if you have heard this before. Three pointers. Or the lack thereof. Remember that three pointer by Watkins I mentioned earlier? That was the only one made in the first period out of nine shots. It was the only one Watkins made out of six attempts. For the game, FSU was abysmal again from the arc shooting 4-17 (24%). With 50 points in the paint today, maybe they should have thought about not taking some of those threes.
12 ..... as in the 12 turnovers FSU had accumulated by intermission. Hamilton called most of those self inflicted. Amazingly the 'Noles gave the ball away only two more times. But UL still outscored the 'Noles in points off turnovers, 17-7.
A couple of the more "interesting" miscues was Bol Bowen committing turnover #5 by stepping OB as he was putting the ball on the floor. My personal favorite was Watkins inbounding the ball with a nice bounce pass. Unfortunately, Davis had moved a different direction and the ball was easily retrieved by UL and of course a resulting slam dunk. That forced Hamilton to call timeout #2. I am thinking that was not in the game plan either.
Up Next
A short turnaround (made shorter by a plane delay out of Louisville) as the Seminoles will host UNC on Big Monday for a 7 PM tip to be aired on the four letter network. The Tar Heels (16-11, 9-6) are on the bubble to make the NCAA. They cannot afford to lose another regular season game if they want to make it to the tournament. So now would be a perfect op for the Seminoles to hand them a loss (assuming UVa does not beat them as they are currently playing and trailing UNC 26-16). And the 'Noles have a history of knocking off UNC in Tallahassee. When we last saw the Heels, they were busy pummeling NC State, 97-73, their third win in their last four games.
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