FSU basketball gets home-state draw in latest bracketology projection

So after a couple weeks seeing Florida State hoops projected to the northeast to start NCAA Tournament play — against northeastern teams — this week’s ESPN prediction is a significantly more geographically friendly to the Seminoles.

Joe Lunardi still has the No. 21 ’Noles as a 4-seed, but instead of heading north to Albany, he now has FSU remaining in the Sunshine State, opening play in Tampa. But be careful what you wish for: they’d start against No. 13 Belmont, a team nobody wanted to play in last year’s tourney. A couple other small-conference champs would await in round two: either 12-seed Liberty or 5-seed Dayton, another trendy team to back this year.

Bracket Matrix has also updated its aggregate seedings, and Florida State is a 4-seed there as well, making the tourney in all 30 brackets surveyed as the final team on the 4-line, between Baylor and Seton Hall.