2010-2011 ACC Preview

#4: Florida State

Games against 2010 NCAA Tournament teams: 9
Best non-conference game: Nov. 30 vs. Ohio State

Projected Starting Five:
C - Xavier Gibson (Junior)
F - Chris Singleton (Junior)
G - Derwin Kitchen (Senior)
G - Deividas Dulkys (Junior)
G - Michael Snaer (Sophomore)

Leonard Hamilton seems to have turned the corner in his time with Florida State. The Seminoles could always be counted on to go around 8-8 in the conference and just miss out on the NCAA Tournament. But they have put together two strong years in a row, making the NCAAs both years. And they are in good position to make that three in a row.

Florida State did lose their best player from last year, big man Soloman Alabi. That will definitely be a significant loss. But they do return an emerging talent at center in Xavier Gibson. I think a big key for them will be the play of Chris Singleton. In previous years, Singleton has been content to play outside of the lane, often chucking up 3s that had no chance of going in. I would hope that with Alabi gone, that will force him to play more of a true power forward position and use his athleticism to his advantage.

The Seminoles have some nice pieces in the backcourt, led by sophomore Michael Snaer. He was a pretty highly touted freshman who ended up scoring 8.8 points per game. Look for that total to go up this year. Derwin Kitchen is a solid player but needs to pick up the slack on offense. Last year he shot just 30% from 3 point range, a drop of 7% from the year before. Overall, Florida State has the talent to compete day in and day out in the ACC. They like to play defense and grind you down into a halfcourt game. That will likely drive some of the inexperienced teams in the ACC nuts.

Taking a look at the schedule, Florida State should be 5-0 going into a crucial two game stretch with Florida and Ohio State coming to Tallahassee. They will spend their Christmas break playing in the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii, where they could play good teams like Butler or Baylor. This should be another good year in Tallahassee.