Preview and Game Thread: Florida State Seminoles vs. Mercer Bears, 4:30pm EST
by TrueCubbie on Nov 21, 2009 1:00 PM EST
in FSU Basketball
325 comments
Florida St. Seminoles at Mercer Bears, Nov 21, 2009 4:30 PM EST
So far, the Florida State Seminole's offense has not suffered any ill affects of Toney Douglas's departure. The Seminoles have scored 80+ points in the first two games of the 2009-2010 season. They only scored 80+ points 5 times last year: (Coastal Carolina, California, Western Kentucky, Miami, Duke) Thus far, the Seminoles have the third best offensive efficiency in the ACC. However that is only with a handful of games under each team's belt, so use that stat with a grain of salt.
Tonight, the Seminoles travel to Macon, Georgia, to take on their third Atlantic Sun conference opponent in a row-- the Mercer Bears. The Bears are 3-1 with their only loss coming in a close battle with Providence. They have the best offensive efficiency in the Atlantic Sun and should provide an interesting match up for the Seminoles.
vs.
Game Time: 4:30 pm EST
Television: Fox Sports South/SUN/NESN
The Seminoles are off to an outstanding start, particularly given the concerns regarding Toney Douglas's departure to the NBA. They are averaging 83.5 points per game and only allowing 49.5. That equate to 1.2 points per possession for the Seminoles and only 0.75 points per possession for their opponents. And despite all the talk of running the floor, they Seminoles are not playing at a significantly different pace than any other year thus far.
Tonight, the Seminoles take on the Mercer Bears, who are statistically better than the other two Atlantic Sun teams that FSU has faced this year. The Bears' level of competition, however, has not compared to that of Stetson of Jacksonville. Last year, the Bears went 17-15 overall and 11-9 in conference play, finishing 5th in the Atlantic Sun and losing in the quarter finals of their conference tournament. They had surprising wins against Auburn and Alabama last year. In addition to those two big wins, Mercer played one of the toughest out of conference schedules in college basketball. The schedule included Georgia Tech, UCLA, Oklahoma State and Dayton.
Here are the likely starters for Mercer:
F #25 Brian Mills Jr. 6'7 Douglasville, Ga. (Chapel Hill HS)
F #33 Daniel Emerson Sr. 6'8 St. Mary's, Ga. (Camden County HS)
G #00 James Florence Sr. 6'1 Marietta, Ga. (Wheeler HS)
G #1 EJ Kusnyer Sr. 6'5 Pittsburgh, Pa. (Collin County CC)
G #12 Jeff Smith Jr. 6'2 Huntsville, Al. (S. R. Butler HS)
This is an experienced team that is used to playing a high level of competition. The Bears return 82 percent of their scoring from last year. Florence, Emerson and Kusnyer all averaged double digit points last year. Florence also has the highest points per game average of any returning college player in the country starting this year. Emerson averaged a double double last year. The concern for the Bears is that they cannot match up size wise with the Seminoles. The tallest player on their team is Daniel Emerson. The Bears will not be able to keep up with the Seminoles rotation of big men. Kusyner is reported to be a good outside shooter and likes to sit and wait for the ball to come to him as teams focus on Florence. He will have a tough time against Singleton.
Florence is their offense. He took an astonishingly high percentage of their shots last year. He attempted 547 shots last year. The next highest player on the team had 307. This should be another good match up for our guards. The fact that the Seminoles have faced such good guard play in the early season will only be of significant benefit down the road. Plus, the Seminoles have shut down those guards easily.
Mercer's success has likely resulted from their lack of turnovers. Their competition is not known for their defensive abilities, so do not take much stock in that. The Seminoles have stolen the ball on 12% of their opponents possessions and have a block % of 27%. This has resulted in limited shots and poor eFG% by their opponents. Don't expect it to be any different tonight.
Where Mercer has had trouble is on the glass and generating turnovers. Look for another huge night on the boards for Alabi and company. The Seminoles are rebounding almost 50% of their potential offensive rebounds, which is remarkable, while allowing opponents to only rebound 22%.
The Seminoles will continue with the line up of: Alabi, Reid, Singleton, Dulkys and Kitchen. This provides a nice rotation with Gibson, Snaer and Loucks coming off the bench.
In case anyone is wondering, Terrance Shannon will be returning to play shortly. He is not taking a medical red shirt and we should not be overly concerned that he has been in street clothes for the last two games. The only concern is that he isn't getting early season minutes. Don't worry. He will be a great addition when he returns.
Keys to the Game:
1. Continue to dominate. Beat the teams you should. Close teams out. Play complete games. It looks a lot better to win big than to sneak by. 2 point wins over Jacksonville and Stetson last year don't look as good as an average margin of victory of 34 points so far this year. Make a statement and continue to build confidence.
2. Control the glass. Stetson doesn't cough the ball up often. Don't give them extra opportunities.The differential in terms of rebounds has been huge. This is a significant improvement over last year.
3. Continue to develop Snaer. Hamilton has done a nice job transitioning Snaer to the main event. He has played excellent minutes off the bench and will only continue to get better.
4. Limit turnovers. This will be said over and over and over again. Turnovers with a young team only lead to trouble. Anything more than 15 turnovers would be a disappointment.
Move to 3-0 before taking on the Florida Gators. Build confidence. Make improvements each game. Florida State should win this game. Mercer will likely be a better team than most expect. But, once again they don't have the size or depth to match up. This is, however, Mercer's homecoming game so look for this team to be very hyped up to play the Seminoles. They are an experienced team and cannot be over looked.
Officials: TBD
Prediction: Seminoles 84 Bears 54
Go NOLES!!!
Cheers,
TC
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Halftime
I wish our offense would stop trying to turn the ball over. We also need to understand situational blocking/running. On third and 2 from your own 12, you should block the guy so you guarantee the first down. On third and ten, you should duck low and leap for the first down rather than try for the home run.
Over all a good half – even by the defense who look like they’re here to play for Mickey today.
What’s the consensus on the Uni’s?
Yeah well...
I’ll comment on this game too – as soon as I find it on TV or on the interweb…
Haven't found one yet, but since the game hasn't started it's likely it hasn't started yet.
www.Tomahawknation.com
No TV link?
Is there no online video? I was hoping to see this one.
by seminoleballer on Nov 21, 2009 4:46 PM EST up reply actions
Sun Sports
I am in Saint Pete Florida and it is being aired on sun sports which i believe is brighthouse networks
Audio feed found
by samnite on Nov 21, 2009 4:44 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Here comes the second team...
Loucks Snaer and DeMercy in
I'm going to go look for tv feed -
But there’s too much College football on right now…
I'm listening to the feed you posted.
But other people might read the thread later so a slightly late play by play isn’t necessarily a bad thing…
17-7 with 12 to go in the first half
Seminole ball – Radio timeout…
Mercer has taken 10 non-3's
and missed them all
I know it seems quiet
but it’s been 17-7 forever…
33-15 with about 3.5 to go
FSU 6-9 from 3 (67%)
1-4 from FT line (25%)
13-22 from the field
Scoring balanced
Singleton 8
Demercy, Dulkys 6
Reid, Kitchen 4
Our height at the 3-5 is really a problem for these shorter teams
I like giving other teams problems.
I'm loving Snaer
I was worried he was a little over-hyped…
Sorry for the sporadic comments here, working and I don't have the radio link working or tv or any box score that is updating.
But I like what I see from the score…
www.Tomahawknation.com
I've got it working in Firefox (3.5)
Do you like chrome – I haven’t played with it yet…
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=200911210350
What I’m using between actually watching.
HT Stats
FSU 40 Mercer 18
Field From 3 FT
FSU 14-24 58.3% 6-10 60% 6-12 50%
Mercer 5-37 13.5% 5-19 26% 3-9 33%
spacing didn't work out on that last comment
DeMercy, Singleton 8
Dulkys, Kitchen 8
Reid, Snaer 4
Gibson, Alabi 2
Free throw shooting
We must get better….that seems to be our achilles heel
Mercer has out-rebounded us though
16 offensive rebounds for them
I wish I would have found
this site years ago….I used to use Twitter for updates on games I couldn’t watch…:(
Spread the word...always welcome new visitors. Little known secret on the web...
www.Tomahawknation.com
Well we're glad you guys found us and have enjoyed what you have read so far.
www.Tomahawknation.com
Oops
Loucks hasn’t scored. He’s got another half left
I thought it was a nine man rotation :)
Since we got 40 at the half
will we get the 40+ to get to 80+ in the 2nd half?
Picks?
I say yes.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
Dulkys was ridiculous in hgh school. We will be so much more dangerous if he can continue to shoot well.
www.Tomahawknation.com
I'm impressed by the 200+ comments so far in this thread
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
i.e. shows interest in the Basketball program is growing to me
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
Credit to our fans who love FSU basketball. Nice to see so many folks interested.
www.Tomahawknation.com
I was on the bus last year
Love this site for FSU sports…
Alabama is currently 2-1. Lost to Cornell in season opener. Limit turnovers. And their defense is awful.
www.Tomahawknation.com
im banking on an fsu michigan final down in orlando
by Seminole4Life on Nov 21, 2009 6:07 PM EST up reply actions
It would be good to get two wins over Big Ten teams in OOC play. Wouldn't mind beating Marquette or Xavier as they are big names as well.
www.Tomahawknation.com
After Syracuse beat UNC the other day
after losing in the pre-season to a non-D-1A squad, I’m not putting too much into these early season games.
I’m not going to rush to judge any teams (good or bad) this early. I’ll wait until at least mid-December or even late Dec. before I start to start to make true evals as by then we’ll have about 10-12 games under the belt for most teams.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
at the 12.5 minute mark
FSU 58-40
FSU 58 58 56
Mercer 15 24 57
Oh definitely
I’d like to see 80+ to sub 40
So the question was..
With FSU losing TDouglas, where will the scoring come from?
Answer: Everywhere
Very very balanced.
Followup Q
who takes the shot late in the shot clock? Has that been established, or even asked yet?
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
Haven't seen it yet
But whoever has the ball
Better defenses will start to ask other questions…
I think it has rarely been needed. If it was going to be someone....Dulkys, Gibson (seriously) and Snaer will eventually.
www.Tomahawknation.com
OT: ND loses to UConn ...
in FOOTBALL 30-27 in Double OT (FG by ND in 2OT, UConn got a TD)
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
LOL at ND sideline reporter's Q to Randy Edsel (sp)
“You were yelling: ‘Finally, Finally, Finally’”
The first thing that came to my mind was the 90s CeCe Peniston dance song “Finally, it happened to me …”
:)
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
I hope they consider Charlie Strong
but all the talk is they want a HC with HCing experience and not a top co-ordinator like Strong or Kirby Smart.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
Who takes the shot with the clock running down
Alabi with the J :)
Alabi being heavily scouted
so is Singleton…
Alabi, DeMercy and Dulkys
all in double digits…
In a weird way I'm glad
get a bad FT performance out of the way against a team we are comfortably beating.
Also, gives the coaches something to emphasize in practice the next few days so they can say: “Yeah, we won by _, but we could have won by more and played even better.” We all know how coaches love to have something that they can say the team can improve on for the next game etc.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
How tight has Ham been keeping the rotation?
Are we seeing a pattern starting to emerge? (discounting any foul problems of course)
Have we seen Gibson and Alabi playing a lot? A little? Not at all?
Have we been going small at all? i.e. going with 3 guards or even some time with Singleton at the 4 for a quicker type team, but still with decent size (i.e. seeing DeMercy and Singleton out there together at all).
Not being able to see the game and reading about how well we appear to be playing has peaked my interest in hearing about the “little things” that can’t always be seen in a boxscore.
Thanks in advance for any answers/responses/info.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
A lot of rotation
We have gone small a few times
i'd be weary of inferring too much from these mismatch type games
granted, beating the crap out of bad teams is what good teams do. But i’m not sure if we’ll be seeing ~16 minutes from 9-10 guys per game.
Hard to say about the rotation we have...
Still early in the season. Playing some tiny teams and we’re playing a ton of games in a relatively short ammount of time.
So guys need to get in shape. But there is limited practice time and there is a long way to go.
www.Tomahawknation.com
Hit the 80+ !!!
good job Noles!
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
As long as it comes in the flow of the game
and/or O, I’ll be happy. i.e. I don’t want to see them just putting up shots and or trying to do things that aren’t within the gameplan/flow of the game just to try to get to a bill.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
thx
I think we get in the 90s, but fall short of 100.
I also think that it’s realistic to hold Mercer to <50 now. I’m guessing we slow things down a bit on O and play a little less run and gun (that it appears we have been stressing so far this season).
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
I'll be surprised if the get over 90
happy – but surprised. They’ve gone a little showtime (and called off the dogs a little bit)
Lots of bad misses
leading to long rebounds…
How many D Rebs do we have
i.e. what’s the % of O Rebs they have and % of D Rebs we have.
But yes, 25 is a lot.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
Exactly. We have been killing on the offensive boards the past couple of weeks.
www.Tomahawknation.com
not bad, only off by 9 points overall
gotto give our boys more credit.
:)
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
Hold them D
want that <50.
Let’s hope that they do also.
While it is in a blowout win, if we can hold them here, it shows that we can get the D stops late in the game when we need them.
Just looking for a reason that the players can accept at this point.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
Thanks to
samnite, Seminole4Life, CelticPride, TrueCubbie and everyone else for providing the updates throughout the game for those of us who were unable to watch the game live.
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." Vince Lombardi
by RishiM on Nov 21, 2009 6:42 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
100% agree. Really appreciate all the commentary today.
Next up: The Gators on November 24th.
www.Tomahawknation.com
Definitely looking forward to Florida on Tuesday night
Don’t know so much about the football game though…
I think we will win by a good margin...
hopefully it doesn’t come down to a buzzer shot like it did last year..Florida has been playing mediocre in the first halfs this year but have been pulling away in the second…don’t think they will be able to do that with the all talent FSU has on Defense and Offense…them freethrows though could kiLL us.
I was there
Lots of hustle and heart from the team. Kitchens really struggled with pressure from their guards. Alabi was a force underneath on defense. Our bigs need to grab the ball better on rebounds, they tip it up alot or go soft for it with one hand and don’t fully pull the ball in. The defense, for the most part, was outstanding and all over the court. Singleton was a beast on both ends of the court. Dulkys 3-point stroke is so sweet. Very impressed overall. Biggest thing I saw: free throw shooting.
Thanks
The only disappointment so far this year has been the free throw shooting, but I assume the coaches will get it corrected at some point. I noticed the one hand thing when I saw them play earlier in the year they need to make sure they secure the ball.
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