Per a release from the Canarias Basketball Academy:

The 7-foot-3, (93) native of the Slovak Republic, Boris Bojanovsky has committed to play for Head coach Leonard Hamilton at Florida State University of the ACC. The 3 year CBA and Oakley College partnership graduate is delighted with the opportunity to be an integral piece of the reigning 2012 ACC Tournament Champions saying:

This was always the goal for me when I came to CBA three years ago. My dream has come true, to know Ill be playing in the ACC under a great coach and at a power house program, I can only thank Rob Orellana and his coaching staff for pushing me everyday to make this dream become a reality.

Playing in last summers U18 European Championship, Boris averaged 22 points and 13.3 rebounds. In his time at CBA, Boris has collected many All tournament nominations, Championship MVPs and leading scoring titles, the last coming at the 2011 Rinus de Jong Invitational (Netherlands). He possess great length and has an outstanding skill set for for a 7-foot-3 center and when you combine this with a high array of post-up moves and a deadly mid range shot, its no wonder why Boris was in such demand by so many high-major colleges. In fact during his time at CBA; Bojanovsky drew a recruiting interest and had received offers from NC State, Virginia Tech, Miami, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, as well as several other SEC and Pac-12 schools. CBA Director, Rob Orellana said:

In his time here Boris has become a part of my family and he is a true credit himself and to CBA; this is a great move for him as he is a high level and highly skilled center who will be challenged night in night out in the ACC. I really believe that he will flourish under the guidance of head coach Leonard Hamilton. All of us at CBA and Oakley College partnership wish Boris the all the best as he moves on to the next stage of his development.

Orellana also worked with FSU football player Menelik Watson before Watson switched to boxing and then football.

Tomahawk FSU basketball analyst Michael Rogner will have more on Bojanovsky soon.

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Everyone was a fan of FSU's move to a 3-guard lineup. The increased offense made for a much more aesthetic game. But did the offense outweigh the loss of defense?

In this video I cover the offense vs defense trade-off, as well as what to look for when determining whether coach Hamilton and staff will stick with the 3-guard lineup, or go back to a traditional line for next season.

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GAME 3 FINAL (10 INNINGS): Noles Sweep the Dirty Canes 8-7

The Seminoles survived a 7 running inning and stalling attempts by Jim Morris to sweep Miami for the first time since 2002. Sherman Johnson hit a walk off single off of stud reliever EJ Enincosa. Lots of strong relief appearances but FSU will see be searching for a Sunday starter. Florida State moved to a remarkable 10-0 in one run games and continue to play strong.

GAME 2 FINAL: Noles Shutdown Canes...Again 6-1

Another great team pitching performance from freshman today and some awful defense by Miami made this game seem easy. The Canes made 4 more errors today and the Noles took full advantage of it. Nice to see Mike Compton bounce back after some poor starts and another excellent outing from Luke Weaver

GAME 1 FINAL: Noles Demolish Canes 11-2

Justin Gonzalez had 2 homeruns, one was an absolute bomb. Sherman Johnson increased his extra base hits on the year by 42% with three doubles. Sacrifice bunter extraordinaire, James Ramsey was on base four times. Brandon Leibrandt had a laborious first few innings but made it through five solid. Relief appearances by Scantling and Holtman shut down Miami. Great win by the Noles.

The Florida State Seminoles enter the final leg of the season the number one ranked team in the nation according to Baseball America, the most respected of all polls in my opinion. They are 30-7 overall and a phenomenal 16-2 in the ACC with a five game lead in the Atlantic Division over NC State. The Seminoles have not dropped a weekend series all year and three of the seven losses have come at the hands of one of the most talented teams in the history of college baseball. Given the change in coaching, poor recruiting and graduation from last year it's fair to say this team has far exceeded anyone's expectations. How the Noles have achieved success and whether it can be duplicated for the rest of the season is what will be discussed throughout the article but first a recap of last week.

The Noles traveled north to face the worst team in the conference and came home with a series win losing only the Sunday game. Friday afternoon saw freshman Brandon Leibrandt have another solid start, his third in a row and it appears that he has become a pretty reliable Friday guy considering he has tremendous shoes to fill in departed first rounder Sean Gilmartin. The Seminoles' bullpen surrendered a lead in the eighth inning but the offense picked them up scoring two runs in the top of the ninth to secure the 6-5 win. Saturday saw another early departure for Mike Compton, he lasted only two plus innings throwing 42 pitches to eleven batters. This should be a concern for the Noles as he has not made it through the third in his last two starts. Compton was relieved by Hunter Scantling who went four plus innings and kept the Eagles bats contained. Doubles by Boyd, Brizuela and two by Johnson was more than enough as the Noles won 6-3.

The Sunday game was not a pretty sight as Florida State lost 17-6 but in no way should the game have gotten this out of hand. Peter Miller had another poor outing by a FSU starter as he lasted only two-thirds of an inning. Mack Waugh came on in relief and was not much better allowing seven hits in 2.2 innings and the Noles trailed 6-4 at the end of the fourth. Down 9-5 entering the 8^th innings Mike Martin went with Brian Busch who has been pretty bad all year and surprisingly to no one he pitched poorly again allowing three hits and a walk to the six batters he faced. Now with a six run deficit Martin turned to Gage Smith who had pitched the previous two days and let him get pounded for six straight hits before getting pulled. I have yet to find a fan, writer or analyst come up with an explanation as to what the line of reasoning was here. Martin who notoriously has a quick hook lets a certain player get hammered when he probably shouldn't have been pitching in the first place. Martin has been criticized plenty on this site but so far this year has not given us much to complain about but when he does something like this it leaves us all scratching our heads. All we can do is pray this type of decision doesn't happen in a game of critical importance.

All in all though it has been an amazing season and the Noles have performed better than anyone in their right mind thought they would. The way things have played out though the Seminoles have the toughest stretch of games in four of the next five weeks as they hope to maintain their success, win a regular season conference title and a secure a national seed.

After the jump we will look at what the Seminoles have done this season offensively and on the mound, what to expect the rest of the season and how they matchup against the Miami Hurricanes...

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I know I need to do these more often, but other things come up. Let's get to it.

FSU Football & Related

Big blow: USF’s Grissom goes down with fractured fibula | CollegeFootballTalk
The last thing any team needs at this time of the year is a significant injury incurred during one of its spring practices sessions. Unfortunately, USF could find itself in that very situation, especially with the possible season-ending loss of Grissom, and now the news of another defensive line player out for the season.

Another blow: USF backup DE Anthony Hill has torn ACL and out for year and more here.

If the name Anthony Hill rings a bell to recruitniks, he was the player who originally signed an NLI with FSU but did not enroll prior to the fall semester of 2008. One of the many questionable offers and recruiting blunders made during the final years of the the prior administration.

How did he come to USF: Anthony's trip to USF was an interesting one. Hill originally signed with FSU, but was told he would have to greyshirt due to scholarship constraints. After what Hill said was a lack of communication between the FSU staff and Anthony, both agreed to part ways in September 2008. Former coach Jim Leavitt quickly offered Anthony a scholarship and he enrolled in January 2009.

Tiger Tracks | The Post and Courier | Charleston SC, News, Sports, Entertainment

Post Spring Game Sunday Thoughts - Shakin The Southland

Inside Florida State Seminoles' spring game - ESPN
What happens when you let two sportswriters off press row and onto a sideline? Florida State found out Saturday, when Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach were granted full access to the Noles' spring game -- from picking the teams to calling a few plays.

Miami Spring Football Wrap-up - The 7th Floor
If I could multiply the enthusiasm by .5 I think this article would be spot on.

2008-2012 Recruiting Cycle: Clemson/ACC Coastal Comparison - Shakin The Southland

Florida Football Recruiting: Gators Can See 2013 Finish Line - SBNation.com - Alligator Army

Position Battle: Running Backs - Gobbler Country
Sizing up the running back battle at Virginia Tech. Who will replace David Wilson?

This is the Pistol | The Key Play

Postgame Impressions of the 2012 Orange & White - Shakin The Southland

Louisville Spring Football Game: A Handful Of Observations - Big East Coast Bias
Louisville wrapped up spring practice with the annual Red and White game before a crowd of about 15,000. Here are some observations from yesterday's game. I post this here because Louisville probably has the best shot to play FSU in the Orange Bowl.

FSU Recruiting

Laremy Tunsil Names A Top Four... Or Five - From Our Editors - SBNation.com
Laremy Tunsil listed both a top four and a top five last night. The combined lists contained six different teams. It is still very early in the recruiting process for Tunsil, and he likely isn't ready to put out a serious list.

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The ESPNU150 debuted today, and the Seminoles placed three commitments in the ESPNU150: offensive tackle Austin Golson, receiver Tony Stevens and defensive tackle Maquedius Bain. That's not as impressive a ration as the past few years, but this is impressive:

All seven of the recruits rated by ESPN were four stars. That's excellent. Ro'Derrick Hoskins, a linebacker out of Orlando has yet to be given a grade by ESPN.

The first roll out of rankings are always quite interesting, and you should expect immediate adjustments after receiving some feedback. I'll offer some of mine now.

Tony Stevens has an argument for being the top receiver in Florida. He is unquestionably better than Richard Benjamin. I also like him more than Ahmad Fulwood and Jordan Cunningham. Why is Stevens below those three? I'll venture to guess name recognition. Benjamin, Fulwood and Cunningham have each been known since their freshman or sophomore seasons. That shouldn't play into it, but it does.

On the other hand, Maquedius Bain is too high. He has a ton of potential at 6'3 (or 6'5", depending on who is measuring) and ~300 pounds. But he has only played one year of football and is too much of a project to be rated the fifth best defensive tackle nationally.

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Meant to post these up earlier from the release:

OT Cam Erving: On his overall performance in the spring game

"I feel like I played pretty well. It’s still a process, but I just took my time and I slowed things down today. I listened to my coaches and I feel like I did pretty well."

On playing against All-American Brandon Jenkins

"It’s been real intense. Brandon is a great player, he has established himself; going against him every day just gets me better all the time. It gives me needed reps to go against the people we are going to be playing against during the season. It’s been real intense and very competitive but he is always helpful at the end of the day."

How does it feel to play football again?

"It’s overwhelming to get back out here and playing football again. It was fun, very fun. It was good; we tried not to focus on the uniforms too much. We really enjoyed it and thank Coach Fisher for it. It was good, it was fun. There was a good bit of trash talking on the field but by the end of the day everybody was giving each other their props."

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I don't have a link to back this up or a way to sort the national stats, but I was told that Nick O'Leary caught more balls (12) than all but one true freshman tight end in 2011. If the spring game is any indication, those numbers should increase quite a bit in 2012.

It's no secret that quarterback EJ Manuel has struggled reading and throwing to the middle of the field during his time in Tallahassee. Part of that is Manuel's fault, but part of it has been a lack of reliable receiving options over the middle. Beau Reliford had the size, but wasn't particularly quick in and out of his cuts. And he really struggled to understand extremely simple assignments. Several times during his career (Maryland '09, Oklahoma '11, etc.) a Reliford missed assignment on a very simple thing that a QB should be able to believe will be executed correctly led to an interception. No quarterback could fully trust Reliford with his track record.

Additionally, though Manuel had a loaded receiving corps in 2011, he did not have Willie Haulstead. In 2010, Haulstead was a pretty good option over the middle.

I get the sense that fans are somehow disappointed in O'Leary, a consensus four-star recruit in the class of 2011. I don't understand that line of thinking. O'Leary did battle a shoulder (area) injury last season and was learning the offense. He looked good Saturday and had a good spring from all indications.

O'Leary can be a very valuable piece for the Seminoles in 2012 without being an All-American by simply playing the role of security blanket for EJ Manuel. Highlight plays are great, but if O'Leary can just consistently be in the right spot in the 5-10 yard range in the middle of the field, he'll be Manuel's favorite player and a major headache for opposing linebackers as he extends drives on 3rd-&-4, etc. If he can do that and catch 2-4 balls a game, he could end up as a 35-catch, 400-yard tight end. And with many of those catches going for first downs, that is quite a valuable contribution indeed.

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Inside some photos and notes for the Garnet and Gold Game. Click on the photos for a larger view.

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Sweeping judgments should not be made about a player based on his performance in a spring game (scrimmage). Particularly not when that player has 24 games under his belt upon which an evaluation can be based.

But it's fine to discuss how a player did in the game and compare it to the past data points on that player. As long as like things are being compared. And with the case of Florida State QB EJ Manuel, I'm not sure that's being done everywhere. Nor is perspective being kept that this was just one of Florida State's three spring scrimmages.

So let me be clear. Criticisms and evaluations here of Manuel's spring game are of his ability to read defenses and use the information to make accurate, timely throws from the pocket. Nothing more. Because pocket passing is what was on display. Manuel is a good quarterback, but he's an average pocket passer. The difference, of course, is mobility: both Manuel's running and the threat of him running. The distinction is important particularly when comparing his spring game to his past real games.

Manuel threw more than 50 passes in the spring game, almost all from the pocket. That's not going to happen in a real game. Ever. It's quite clear that FSU was focused on its passing game from the pocket on Sunday. Jimbo did not seem displeased after, probably because he knows Manuel will be on the move much more during the regular season.

Additionally, reader 'Meehl" chimes in with this:

It's also important to point out that the defense not was scheming to stop EJ's run.
Not only was EJ not running his offense (no designed runs, rarely handing offs to RBs), but it looked like the defense ALSO wasn't playing the kind of defense that teams will have to use against EJ's offense (committing a LB to watching EJ). Unless I'm wrong, the defense was playing a lot of pass coverage and we really saw was that EJ is going to struggle in 3rd and long situations against teams in zone pass coverage who have elite defensive lineman.

So why not have him on the move during the spring game? The other position coaches likely wanted to evaluate how their players pass protected in a normal situation, and not on a rollout where half of the offensive line and potentially the running back have a blocking assignment that is of little consequence.

Additionally, quarterbacks are blown dead when touched by a single hand in the spring game. It's standard policy and it makes sense to avoid injury. Running the quarterback in this situation does not present a realistic look for the defense, nor the offense. How often is EJ Manuel brought down on a run by a single hand? The defender could very well be given credit for a tackle in that situation, think he has done a good job, when in actuality he would be in no position to make a tackle had it been a real game. That's not a good look for the defense, nor the offense.

And it's really not a good look for the fans, some ~40,000 of which (inflated, as the real attendance was likely ~35,000 at peak in the second quarter) showed up to support Florida State. They did not come to see quarterback runs blown dead after thee or four yards due to the one-hand touch rule.

Use Manuel's 24-game career to judge him as a player. His spring game performance should only be used to judge his pocket passing. Because that's all he did.

Florida State had a successful spring game: great weather, great fans (roughly 40,000), nice festivities and activities, tons of playing time for everyone and no major injuries. Here are some observations, but before you read these, remember to not take too much from a spring game. It is a scrimmage like any other, the only difference is you get to watch it. Oh, and this defense looks even better than it did last year. Also, these are my initial thoughts. I will watch again soon.

Quarterback EJ Manuel did not run or scramble much at all, which is normally a major part of his game. Coach Fisher made Manuel focus on his throwing. Manuel did have some nice throws, but also struggled reading the middle of the field and had some accuracy issues. The game did nothing to increase my confidence that he will ever fully "get it." But he did look better at times.

Clint Trickett showed a good command of the offense. He's also still quite small. Jacob Coker had several very nice throws, and some ducks as well.

James Wilder Jr. had a nice game at running back, particularly catching the football. Mario Pender was disciplined and ran well in-between the tackles. Lonnie Pryor is noticeably quicker, as he's been all spring.

No receivers stood out, though Kenny Shaw had a nice game. Kelvin Benjamin didn't do anything special, despite the enormous hype. But it is good news that he looked just as good as any other receiver in a loaded corps.

At tight end, Nick O'Leary had several nice catches and was not noticeably out of position. That's very important. O'Leary just needs to be consistently in the right spot and on the same page as his quarterback. That's something Beau Reliford never managed to do.

The offensive line appeared improved over last year. New offensive tackle Cameron Erving looked good considering his competition, as did Daniel Glauser and Josue Matias. There are certainly parts for a much better starting five.

Not everything on the offensive line was great, however. Bobby Hart was atrocious and perhaps this embarrassment was exactly what he needs to get him to focus on becoming a better player and not thinking he is untouchable just because he started as a freshman. If Menelik Watson is decent come fall, Hart should red-shirt. Trey Pettis looks embarrassingly out of shape and was dominated. If he doesn't soon commit to doing what it takes to play at the BCS level, expect him to be somewhere else. Awful.

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