MBB : Stanford 78 -- Florida State 71

MBB : Stanford 78 -- Florida State 71 - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: MBB : Stanford 78 -- Florida State 71 (/thread-25421.html)

Pages: 1 2

MBB : Stanford 78 -- Florida State 71 - skip75 - 01-25-2025

Stanford is favored by 4.5. Florida State is 13-6, 4-4 in the ACC, 1-4 on the road (only road win @ Rice). Best win was over Pitt. Worst loss was Wednesday at Cal. The Seminoles led 51-49 with 12 minutes to play, but Cal went on a run to go up 67-55 with about 5 minutes left. Cal ended up winning 77-68.

FSU Head Coach Leonard Hamilton began his career as a grad assistant way back in 1971. He became a head coach at Oklahoma State in 1986, moved on to Miami in 1990 & the NBA Washington Wizards in 2000, before getting to Florida State in 2002. His teams are characterized by aggresive man-to-man defense utilizing a roster of tall, lean, athletic players. His current roster ranks 2nd in the nation in height (Duke is #1). So far this season, the 'Noles rank: 3rd in the ACC in FG % defense (40.3); 2nd in 3-pt FG % defense (30.7); 1st in blocks per game (5.5); 2nd in steals per game (8.6); and 4th in TO margin (+2.5).

Florida State is led by Jamir Watkins & Malique Ewin. Watkins (#1, 6'7/210 RSr G) was voted onto the pre-season All-ACC 2nd team. He is in his 2nd year as a full-time starter at FSU, after spending 3 years at Virginia Commonwealth. He averages 18.5 ppg (5th in the ACC) and 4.8 rpg. He is their most prolific 3-pt shooter (33-97, 34%). Ewin (#12, 6'11/230 Jr F) spent a year at Mississippi, then played JC ball, and became the #1 ranked JC center and an NJCAA 1st team All-American. He averages 14.3 ppg (17th in the ACC) on 58.9% shooting (1st), and pulls down 8.2 rpg (5th).

Other starters vs. Cal were: Taylor Bol Bowen (#10, 6'10/205 So F) averaging 8.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg, & 1.6 blocks; Daquan Davis (#5, 6'1/176 Fr G) averaging 8.9 ppg & 2.8 assists; and Justin Thomas (#25, 6'7/184 Sr G) who is playing at his 5th school in 5 years!

Chandler Jackson has started 17 games, but did not play at all vs. Cal. AJ Swinton has played in 17 games (none as a starter), but also did not play vs. Cal. I'm not aware of the status of these players.

Other players averaging double figures in minutes played per game are: Jerry Deng (#7, 6'9/220 So F), Bostyn Holt (#3, 6'7/200 Sr g), & Alier Maluk (#21, 7'0/218 Fr F).

This is the toughest of the 3 games on the current home stand. Getting a 3rd straight win (does that qualify as a streak?) would go a long way toward solidifying Stanford's recent rise in the ACC standings and in the various rankings.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - paloalto - 01-25-2025

I haven't watched Stanford MBB yet this season. Due to the positive comments about the team on this board I'm interested in watching this game.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - bl82 - 01-25-2025

(01-25-2025, 11:16 AM)paloalto Wrote: I haven't watched Stanford MBB yet this season. Due to the positive comments about the team on this board I'm interested in watching this game.

If you want to have some fun and get some context here is the full replay of our game at North Carolina.
https://youtu.be/Ep1o3CGSKis?si=_lGAPuxJkCnSMPgK

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - needle - 01-25-2025

At the half, Stanford has been in control for pretty much the entire game and leads 33-25. The engine on offense has been superior three-point shooting (6-14 compared to FSU's 1-7).

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - JJJ - 01-25-2025

Offense hasn’t looked too “smooth” for much of it, in no small part due to FSU’s defense. But we could clean up our sloppy play in 2H to help ourselves.
(Surprised to see we only had 6 TO to their 8, but we had more rushed last second shots and missed bunnies than we’d like.)

Agarwal started hot, then been very quiet. Raynaud in danger of missing a double double.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - needle - 01-25-2025

Stanford leads 52-44 with 12:27 left in the second half. The lead has never shrunk below what it was at the half, but I fear the likelihood of FSU going on a run as Stanford continues to rely on hot three-point shooting. FSU is scrappy and not going away, and I don't know if Stanford can stay hot from outside.

(01-25-2025, 06:35 PM)needle Wrote: Stanford leads 52-44 with 12:27 left in the second half. The lead has never shrunk below what it was at the half, but I fear the likelihood of FSU going on a run as Stanford continues to rely on hot three-point shooting. FSU is scrappy and not going away, and I don't know if Stanford can stay hot from outside.

At the under eight-minute media timeout, Stanford leads by nine, and FSU has only been able to get the lead down to seven (very briefly) this half. Yet I remain unconvinced that Stanford is going to close this one out easy-peasy, as the team has struggled to find any offensive rhythm outside of impressive three-point shooting (10-21). FSU has shown signs of getting hot. We shall see...

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - martyup - 01-25-2025

Gritty win by the mighty Sequoias. FSU was playing very aggressive defense and the refs let them get away with a lot of contact, especially against our guards. We look pretty good at this point.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - SkiBum80 - 01-25-2025

After this big win tonight,
And given how well Coach has the team playing,
If I were in the stadium I would bend down & kiss the ground upon which Coach walks.
Of course I would wear a mask because there’s still a lotta season left & I’m not a total idiot.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - needle - 01-25-2025

Whew! Stanford 78, FSU 71.

FSU did everything they could to drag Stanford into an overly physical game, but Stanford maintained its sharpshooting throughout, going 11-24 from three (46%). After trailing by 8 at half, FSU never cut the deficit to below 7.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - Sam Leopold - 01-25-2025

This was a coming-out party for Oziyah Sellers, and BFG-05 delivered a sidekick performance with 13 points.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - Card10Fan - 01-25-2025

Thank goodness for big games from Sellers and Gealer. Without such great perimeter shooting, I don’t know that we would have won. This is a good win. FSU had a higher NET ranking than us so it helps in being a Quad 2 and ACC win. If we can take care of Syracuse next, I’ll say this has been the best stretch of basketball we could have hoped for.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - JJJ - 01-25-2025

Bought my tix to NC State 2/8 and am bringing 6 friends who don’t normally come to games. Hope others are voting with their feet!
(P.S. I don’t live on the mainland.)

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - old spanish trail - 01-25-2025

I probably missed this earlier, but just realized Okpara's sister is a grad student on the tennis team, having transferred after graduating from Dartmouth with a major in neuroscience. I think she played at #3 in today's match.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - FarmTeam - 01-25-2025

This was the first game I attended this year. Which at some level is sad given I was a season ticket holder for the last 4 years but I gave them up out of disgust with Muir and Haase (mostly Muir for retaining Haase). Voting with my feet as it were. Muir should have been fired long ago and still should be, but I digress. Sure, I loved the hiring of Kyle Smith but I was too pissed off to re-up my season tix at that point.

And if I'm being honest, not only was this my first in-person game, but literally the first time I've watched them at all. Hadn't even seen them on TV for more than a minute or two.

So within about 3 minutes of the tip, I fell in love with Sellers' game. I can't remember the last Stanford player who so ferociously attacked the basket. Honestly, I can't think of one in our entire history. He's reckless at times but I love it. To me, he's a very poor man's Anthony Edwards. We needed that aggressiveness and athleticism against this FSU team.

Despite only having 8 points, Raynaud was also impressive to me (of course that's expected so no big surprise there). The poor guy works his ass off in the low post and his teammates don't know how to make — or don't see the opportunity for — the entry pass. I've heard over and over that, in the 3-point era, no one at any level of basketball knows anymore how to make the entry pass into the post, and it’s definitely true at Stanford. Still, Maxime was a force with his rebounding and defensive presence.

I'm going with "In Kyle We Trust" as my new mantra and, shoot, I guess I'm going to have to get those season tickets again! :-)

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - TonyLima - 01-25-2025

Re Reynaud (sorry) FL State has one 7’ player and five 6’10” or taller. Coach Smith came in with a great game plan and the players executed.

And agree 100% with “In Kyle we trust.”

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - Sam Leopold - 01-25-2025

(01-25-2025, 09:20 PM)TonyLima Wrote: Re Reynaud (sorry) FL State has one 7’ player and five 6’10” or taller. Coach Smith came in with a great game plan and the players executed.

And agree 100% with “In Kyle we trust.”

We have to give the FSU game plan some credit too. Use their superior height to gunk up the middle and take Raynaud away. It might well have worked. But that gave openings to Sellers, Blakes, and Gealer, and they all cashed in, particularly Sellers.

Elsewhere around the ACC, that ghastly Miami team took Cal to overtime, and North Carolina needed the same to escape BC at home. Tar Heels have a vicious upcoming schedule so a bit of luster might yet come off last Saturday's epic road win.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - Goose - 01-25-2025

(01-25-2025, 10:02 PM)Sam Leopold Wrote:
(01-25-2025, 09:20 PM)TonyLima Wrote: Re Reynaud (sorry) FL State has one 7’ player and five 6’10” or taller. Coach Smith came in with a great game plan and the players executed.

And agree 100% with “In Kyle we trust.”

We have to give the FSU game plan some credit too. Use their superior height to gunk up the middle and take Raynaud away. It might well have worked. But that gave openings to Sellers, Blakes, and Gealer, and they all cashed in, particularly Sellers.

IMO the "book" on Stanford has been and still is "Make someone besides Raynaud beat us". That was a reasonable bet earlier in the year but is becoming less so now. Still, it must be said we probably will not shoot as well from 3 every night as we did tonight. Continued development of dribble drives is going to be necessary. We also got some uncontested layups when the defense overloaded on Raynaud. FSU's big tall lineup couldn't stay with our smaller players. There are teams that are better balanced and can.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - martyup - 01-25-2025

Did anyone else think the hand checking by FSU was egregious? The refs didn't seemed bothered by it though.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - skip75 - 01-25-2025

(01-25-2025, 10:48 PM)martyup Wrote: Did anyone else think the hand checking by FSU was egregious? The refs didn't seemed bothered by it though.

100%! Hard to believe that Stanford was whistled for more fouls than the 'Noles (23-19). They got so used to getting away with it, that they got 2 technical fouls for whining when they actually got called for it - both were mini-turning points in Stanford's favor. And it helped that both came against their best players - Watkins & Ewins. In Ewin's case, it led to him sitting on the bench for more than 12 minutes. (Actually, I guess Watkins' T was for some sort of unnecessary high contact on Maxime. In any case, FSU did pay a price for their aggression with the 2 Ts.)

On the bright side, Stanford won against a really aggresive & physical team and should be ready to take on any level of physical that they might face for the remainder of this season.

RE: MBB : vs. Florida State, 4:00, ACCNetwork - GK3 - 01-26-2025

(01-25-2025, 11:46 PM)skip75 Wrote:
(01-25-2025, 10:48 PM)martyup Wrote: Did anyone else think the hand checking by FSU was egregious? The refs didn't seemed bothered by it though.
100%! Hard to believe that Stanford was whistled for more fouls than the 'Noles (23-19). They got so used to getting away with it, that they got 2 technical fouls for whining when they actually got called for it - both were mini-turning points in Stanford's favor. And it helped that both came against their best players - Watkins & Ewins. In Ewin's case, it led to him sitting on the bench for more than 12 minutes. (Actually, I guess Watkins' T was for some sort of unnecessary high contact on Maxime. In any case, FSU did pay a price for their aggression with the 2 Ts.)

On the bright side, Stanford won against a really aggresive & physical team and should be ready to take on any level of physical that they might face for the remainder of this season.

I thought FSU put together a good game plan and executed it well except they left our best 3 pt shooter more open than not and that didn't work out so well. I do not want to have to play them again as I think their personnel and system is one that will always give us problems.