A quarter of the way through its conference schedule, the No. 10 Florida State men’s hoops team (14-2, 4-1) has risen to second place in the ACC— and now the Seminoles are projected to get the conference’s second best NCAA Tournament seed as well. The latest projection from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the ’Noles as a 3-seed for the first time this season (Duke is a 1-seed).
What’s more, Lunardi has FSU opening play in the South’s Tampa venue, against 14-seed Little Rock. He also has a possible rematch of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge forecast in the second round, with the Seminoles possibly seeing Indiana, if the 11-seed Hoosiers could upset 6-seed Arkansas. IU handed Florida State its last loss.
The aggregate over on Bracket Matrix concurs, as the ’Noles (who are included in the tourney in all 70 brackets surveyed) and Ohio State are presently tied for the final 3-seed, below fellow 3s West Virginia, Oregon, and Maryland.
Team Rankings also has FSU as a 3-seed, but projects the Seminoles’ most likely seed as a 2. That service currently gives the ’Noles better than a 10% chance to make the Final Four (10.3%).