Early Exam: FSU men open season tonight with ACC game at Pitt
It's a different way to begin a season. But it's the reality for virtually every team in the ACC.
Florida State, coming off of back-to-back NCAA Sweet 16 appearances, opens up its 2019-2020 campaign tonight with a conference game at Pitt (8 p.m., ESPNU).
Because the conference went to a 20-game schedule this year -- and not so coincidentally started up a new television network -- every ACC team but Duke (which opened on Tuesday night vs. Kansas) will start its season with a league game.
For the inexperienced Florida State Seminoles, who have to replace six of their top eight scorers from last year's team, that means a tough test right out of the gate.
"You really don't know where you are [as a team]," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "You play a couple of exhibition games ... but it is hard to determine where you are. That's why you normally try to play some less-important games early, to try to get a feel for your team.
"Right now, we're just jumping right from the frying pan into the fire."
Not only do the Seminoles open with a road conference game, but then their next contest is at Florida on Sunday.
Not exactly an easy way to start a season. Especially, as Hamilton points out, when you have so many inexperienced players.
Trent Forrest and M.J. Walker are the only two starters returning from last year's squad. They have plenty of big-game experience, of course.
But every other rotation player on the roster is either in his first or second year, including redshirt sophomore Raiquan Gray and true sophomore Devin Vassell, who could be one of the breakout players in the ACC this season.
"We've always been harping on this game," Vassell said. "It's not just a regular-season game, it's a conference game. It's a huge game for us. We come into this game, and we feel like we've got to prove a point."
First and foremost: Prove you can win at Pitt.
The Seminoles' last two trips up there have been ugly results, including last season in which they lost 75-62 to a team that wound up with a 3-15 conference record.
Vassell was asked what he remembered about that game.
"I just remember us fouling a lot," he said. "They got a lot of free throws. It was like 46 free throws. ... I just know coming into this game we can't be fouling like that, we've got to keep them off the free-throw line."
Pitt did indeed shoot 46 free throws that night, making 38. The Panthers' two leading scorers, Trey McGowens (18 of 19) and Xavier Johnson (10 of 10), were a combined 28 of 29 from the free-throw line in the victory.
That game was played in January. This one is early November. So Hamilton knows that whatever happens tonight -- good or bad -- won't necessarily be indicative of what his team looks like come March.
Because of the inexperience on the roster, he said, defense is still very much a work in progress. He also pointed out that kids fresh out of high school or junior college still don't truly understand how hard you have to play and how intense the games are at this level.
So there are going to be some growing pains. Like there always are in the beginning of the season. It's just that this season starts with an actual conference game, on the road. So that makes the challenge even more difficult.
On Tuesday, Hamilton was asked what he would be able to take away from a game like this.
"It's so early," he said. "You've just got to take whatever it is. No doubt we're still a developing team. As is every team team in the country ... but especially teams that don't have a bunch of veterans returning."
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