Update: Florida State is up to No. 5 in the AP Poll, the school’s highest ranking since December of 1972. You’ll recall that was the year that the Seminoles came closest to winning the national title, losing to UCLA in the championship game in LA earlier.
In the Coaches Poll, voters heavily rewarded Louisville for its win at Duke, jumping the Cards over the ’Noles for the No. 5 spot, while FSU comes in at No. 6. Remember, Florida State smoked UL in Louisville in the teams’ only meeting this year.
As a writer, redundancy kinda bugs me. But here’s the right type of repetition for Florida State basketball fans: the No. 9 Seminoles are about to move up again in the national polls.
The ’Noles came into last week as the country’s No. 9 team, but thanks to another 2-0 week and some serious carnage in the top 10, FSU will be ranked higher when the national polls are released later today after beating Virginia and Miami since writers last voted.
Let’s recap the wonderful carnage that went down and will benefit Florida State this week. The teams ranked 3-5 went 0-6, with only two of those losses coming to ranked foes.
No. 3 Duke lost at Clemson and at home against No. 11 Louisville. No. 4 Auburn, which had been criminally overranked, got dusted at both Alabama and Florida (hey, that Gator win is actually a nice bump for FSU’s strength of schedule). And No. 5 Butler lost at home vs. No. 18 Seton Hall and at DePaul.
The ’Noles will pass all of those teams. But wait— there’s more! No.8 Oregon split its road games in Washington, taking an L vs. Wazzou. So Florida State will pass the Ducks as well. No. 5 then, right? That depends.
We need to see how much credit voters give UL for its win at Cameron Indoor against the Blue Devils. Will they jump the Cardinals over an FSU team that already smoked them in the Derby City? That will determine whether the Seminoles are ranked fifth or sixth when the new polls are released. We’ll update this piece when those polls drop, so be sure to check back here later today.
Checking in with KenPom, the ’Noles came into the week at No. 14 but are now No. 16. After a sloppy week of play, FSU’s offense fell from 28th to 34th, and the defense dipped from 17th to 19th. The NCAA’s NET rankings, on the other hand, saw Florida State rise from 15th a week ago to 13th.