FSU basketball’s new spot in the AP, Coaches Polls, with KenPom, NET Rankings updates

Update: The Seminoles have dropped from No. 16 to No. 18 in the new AP Poll, as Kansas State and Maryland each rose seven spots to come in just ahead of the ’Noles. Kansas was dropped by three spots. Florida State holds at No. 17 in the Coaches Poll— just three votes behind the Jayhawks. FSU is also down from No. 24 to No. 26 in the latest NET Rankings, while still 17th per KenPom.

For the first time in a while, it wasn’t an undefeated week for Florida State basketball, but that may not hurt the Seminoles too much — if at all — in the new polls released today. There’s certainly no shame in winning eight straight ACC games, climbing to the AP’s No. 16 rank in the country, and then losing on the road against the nation’s 8th-ranked squad. A lot of ranked teams did much worse than that, in fact.

All five of the teams right behind the ’Noles lost at least one game in the last week. No. 17 Villanova, No. 18 Louisville, and No. 19 Iowa State each went 0-2. No. 20 Virginia Tech’s loss to No. 3 Virginia is respectable, but it came at home, and the Hokies’ road win, vs. Notre Dame, is not as impressive as Florida State’s victory at Clemson. And No. 21 Iowa dropped a home game to the lower-ranked No. 24 Maryland Terrapins while only beating Indiana. None of those teams deserves a bump over the Seminoles.

The ranked teams filling out the bottom of the AP Poll did better: squads ranked 22-25 (Wisconsin, Kansas State, Maryland, and Buffalo, respectively) all posted 2-0 weeks, but the lone triumph over a ranked team was the aforementioned UMD defeat of the Hawkeyes. So do these teams deserve some love? Sure, especially at the expense of the Wildcats, Cardinals, and Cyclones. But should they skyrocket up the rankings just for taking care of business? Probably not.

Could FSU climb? It’s quite possible. Ahead of the ’Noles, No. 14 Texas Tech deserves to ascend after embarrassing No. 12 Kansas and dropping the Jayhawks’ road record to 2-7. If it feels like I’m always writing about Kansas losing on the road, it’s because I’m always writing about Kansas losing on the road, because Kansas is always losing on the road. After a 29-point implosion in Lubbock, the Jayhawks deserve to plummet. But their dismantling came at the hands of a team just behind them, so who knows if that will actually happen.

No. 6 Nevada, which plays nobody, lost to unranked San Diego State before surviving Fresno State, and the Wolfpack should see a punitive drop as well. UNC is gonna get a nice bump after housing both Duke and FSU last week— and that should help the Seminoles, as the weight of their loss to the Heels will likely be lessened by North Carolina’s rise.

Florida State fell to No. 24 in the NET Rankings, which were last updated on Saturday after the Seminoles’ loss to UNC. The ’Noles are No. 17 in the KenPom rankings through Sunday’s games.

Be sure to check back later, as this piece will be updated as the polls are released.