No. 16 FSU basketball vs. Pitt: Game thread, channel, stream, preview

Another week, another schedule change for Florida State Seminoles basketball.

This time, a home game vs. Virginia Tech has metamorphosized into an away game vs. the Pitt Panthers (9-8, 5-7 ACC) who have struggled in the back end of the season, going 1-4 in the month of February so far.

The player to watch on the Panthers’ end will be sophomore Justin Champagnie, who is in the running for ACC Player of the year.

From our SB Nation sister site Cardiac Hill:

Champagnie is the ACC’s leader in both scoring and rebounding, as he is averaging 18.7 points and 11.5 boards per game. The Pitt star has also racked up 10 double-doubles in 15 games, and the only player from a major-conference team with more is Illinois center Kofi Cockburn, who has 15 in 20 games. And given the fact that Cockburn is a hulking 7’0” and 285 pounds while Champagnie stands at 6’6”, 200 pounds, the feat is all the more impressive.

Champagnie has been touted as a potential ACC Player of the Year by Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams this season, and other opposing coaches, like Kevin Keatts and Jim Boeheim, have spoken highly of his performances. In addition, Champagnie was the only ACC player to earn midseason All-America honors from ESPN, and he was one of two to be placed on the Wooden Award watch list.

Florida State (12-3, 8-2 ACC) is coming off a blowout win vs. the No. 7 Virginia Cavaliers, a result surprising not just because of the sheer amount of points that the Seminoles managed to put on a Virginia team known for committing atrocities to the eye and brain of both opponent and viewer. While FSU has seemingly found its groove in the second half of the year, the cracks in the armor were on display against Wake Forest — and the Seminoles haven’t let that lesson slip by.

“We have to find a way to come out and play with this level of focus every night,” head coach Leonard Hamilton said earlier this week. “We have a five-game stretch where I thought we did that. We had a couple game stretch where I thought we took a step back. Now our challenge is to see how close we can come to maintaining this and beyond. I still think we are capable of playing better than we played tonight. This team has potential that we haven’t tapped into.”

Michael Rogner and Matt Minnick broke down the Virginia win and previewed today’s game in the latest edition of the Tomahawk Nation basketball podcast:

The Virginia beat down, on the other hand, showed that Florida State likely has the highest ceiling of any ACC basketball team. FSU’s offense abused the vaunted pack line defense, and the ‘Noles defense played solidly as well.

After talking those two games, we take a quick foray into the “And-1” feature, and Matt rapid fires some questions to Michael. Then it’s on to the Pitt preview. The Seminoles have struggled at the Zoo, and are those struggles going to continue?

Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. today, with the game set to be broadcast on ACC Network Extra — meaning ACC Regional Sports Networks.

Here’s a list of channels:

AT&T Sportsnet Las Vegas Website

AT&T Sportsnet Pittsburgh Website

AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mtn Website

FOX Sports Arizona (FS Arizona) Website

FOX Sports Detroit Website

FOX Sports Midwest Plus (FS Midwest+) Website

FOX Sports North Plus (FS North+) Website

FOX Sports South (FS South) Website

FOX Sports Southwest (FS Southwest) Website

FOX Sports Sun Website

FOX Sports West (FS West) Website

FOX Sports Wisconsin Plus (FS Wisconsin+) Website

Marquee Sports Network (Marquee) Website

Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) Website

New England Sports Network (NESN) Website

ROOT Sports Northwest Website

SportsTime Ohio Website

YES Network (YES) Website