No. 5 FSU Basketball seeks complete effort at UVa after 'unsettling' finish
For about 10 minutes Saturday night -- in two separate four- or five-minute stretches -- Leonard Hamilton almost couldn't recognize his Florida State men's basketball team.
The No. 5-ranked Seminoles started the game lethargically on defense, allowing Notre Dame to race out to an early 11-point lead. Then FSU nearly collapsed down the stretch, squandering their own 14-point advantage and nearly losing at home.
Two days later, it was a beginning and ending that Hamilton could only describe as "unsettling."
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As his FSU squad prepared to leave for Charlottesville, Va., for a rematch with defending national champion Virginia (tonight, 7 p.m., ESPN), Hamilton was still trying to make sense of what he had witnessed.
"Ninety percent of the time, we played pretty good basketball," Hamilton said. "Five percent at the beginning and five percent at the end, I thought that we lost our composure."
It's not that Hamilton expects his team to play flawlessly each night out. With several of the Seminoles' top players either new to the program or stepping into much larger roles, he knows there will be rough patches in every game.
But finishing contests has been one of this team's greatest qualities. It's a primary reason why the 'Noles have been able to ascend to a top-five national ranking and win 17 of their first 19 games.
FSU brings a 17-2 record (7-1 in the ACC) into tonight's battle with Virginia (13-6, 5-4).
"For a team that has won as many games as we've won, as many close games as we've won and as many overtime games as we have won, to almost lose our composure at the end of the game was a little unsettling for us as a staff and as a team," Hamilton said. "But I'm hopeful that we will regroup and realize that that's not how we have got to this point."
With a double-digit lead going into the final minutes against Notre Dame, the Seminoles committed several costly turnovers, missed a number of shots around the basket and looked tentative in just about every aspect.
The Seminoles will definitely need to regroup in those areas tonight in Charlottesville. The game comes less than two weeks after FSU pulled out a 54-50 home victory against the Cavaliers.
Virginia not only will be looking for revenge, but Tony Bennett's team also will be desperate for its first signature victory of the season. After losing several key players from last year's national championship squad, the Cavs find themselves on the NCAA Tournament bubble with just over a month remaining in the regular season.
They have won two of their last three games since falling in Tallahassee, but Hamilton believes the Cavaliers will view this game as a "must-win."
"We have to have a mindset that we can't allow the game to be more important to Virginia than it is to Florida State," he said.
Injury updates
FSU still is unsure about the availability of freshman forward Patrick Williams, who missed the Notre Dame game with a sprained toe. ... Freshman center Balsa Koprivica experienced no soreness in his back after returning to the lineup on Saturday, so he should be good to go. ... Junior guard M.J. Walker, who missed a portion of the Notre Dame game with a severe headache, has shown no lingering effects and should be back with the starters.
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