In the preview I noted several reasons why its dumb to schedule horrible teams like Stetson, and then the ball tipped and FSU spent the first half demonstrating a reason I didn't even list. The players didn't care about the game, and the coaches couldn't force them. Treating each possession like an All-Star game the Seminoles raced up and down the court, threw half court passes, didn't play defense, and tried their best to make highlight moves. 42 possessions later, the Noles had scored 42 points and surrendered 34 to the worst offense they will face this year. It was their least productive half of the season. The Seminoles slowed things down in the 2nd half - and ground out possessions much to their favor. The 2nd half only had 27 possessions, and the Seminoles managed 37 points. Still, they didn't rotate on defense and gave up way too many easy buckets.
Bernard James had his 2nd consecutive double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Okaro White scored 18 points (on only 11 shots) and Deividas Dulkys was a perfect 6-6 from the field on his way to 16 points. The point guard duo of Luke Loucks and Jeff Peterson combined for 10 assists and 1 turnover, though to be fair, they made several bad passes that led to turnovers, only the turnovers were credited to the recipient.
Those turnovers once again plagued the Noles, who gave it up on 24.7% of their possessions (right about the season average). If this pace keeps up FSU will likely finish among the bottom 10 teams in the country (out of 344) in turnover rate.
For the night the Noles scored 1.14 points per possession, which was just below the conservative goal of 1.15. Without the turnovers, this would have been an exceptional offensive performance. The defense was terrible. Stetson's first two opponents (who are two of the worst teams in college basketball) limited the Hatters to 0.88 points per possession. The Seminoles gave up 0.96, and that's a red flag. Championship caliber defenses don't allow bad teams to have their best offensive showing of the season.
The Noles next take the court against South Alabama on Sunday. South Alabama is another team the Seminoles should rout. If they fail to do so, then I seriously question the coaching staff's ability to motivate this team.