Noles News: Men’s, women’s hoops both get much-needed wins

Recruiting

2023 defensive back Branden Strozier, out of St. Francis in Atlanta, received an offer from Florida State yesterday — Strozier is currently unranked, but holds offers from schools like Arkansas, Florida, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, UCF, Tennessee and others:

2023 four-star wide receiver William Fowles included FSU in his top 10 schools:

2023 three-star linebacker Bobby Washington included FSU in his top 6:

FSU quarterback commit Chris Parson doing his part, recruiting four-star athlete Mikal Harrison-Pilot

Football

We’re inching closer and closer to the start of spring practice:

Some various tidbits on NIL stuff — apologies for the preview image in the first tweet:

Basketball

Snapping a six-game losing streak, Florida State Seminoles basketball took down Clemson in a last-second win, orchestrated by none other than RayQuan Evans.

Head coach Leonard Hamilton shared after the game that the team had played its hearts out for Jared Lynn, a student manager battling stage 4 cancer:

More from Hamilton: “We showed that we have a lot of pride and that we were playing for something bigger than just us. Playing for our brother who is fighting a dreaded disease and also representing who we are. I challenged them tonight that at the end of the game. I wanted them to look in the mirror and say they gave it all they had. Put all those things that are important to us, other than what’s important to themselves, and to play for something bigger than themselves. I was very proud that we rose to the occasion.”

Florida State women’s basketball also got a much-needed win over Syracuse as its NCAA Tournament hopes stay alive — from Prince Akeem Joeffer:

FSU has four games left on the regular season schedule and they are all must-wins at this point. If Florida State can get all four and avoid the upset in the first game of the ACC Tournament, the Noles would be 18-12 with four or five Q1 wins. The Seminoles would have a Q1/Q2 record of about 9-10. That would probably be enough for them to sneak in the Tournament especially as the women’s tournament expands to 68 teams this year. It’s a tall order but it is possible.

Baseball

We’re just days away from the start of a new FSU baseball season — and on the latest Sunday Golds podcast, Brett Nevitt brings along the perfect guest to help break down the opening weekend rotation, head coach Mike Martin Jr.

Here’s a full breakdown of the episode:

1:30-18:15: Mike Martin Jr. interview

21:00-31:00: Pitching staff breakdown

31:20-36:20: Infield breakdown

36:30-44:00: Outfield, catchers breakdown

45:30-56:00: Schedule, ACC preview

56:00-59:30: James Madison weekend preview

1:00:00-1:03:00: Season outlook

Starting pitcher Parker Messick is one of 55 players on the Golden Spikes Award watch list, USA Baseball announced Tuesday afternoon. Messick is the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference Pitcher and Freshman of the Year after posting an 8-2 record with 126 strikeouts in 2021.

Softball

Undefeated No. 6 Florida State softball starts off a jam-packed five days today with a matchup vs. South Alabama, after which they’ll head to the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational to take on Tennessee (Feb. 17 at 4 pm), Texas (Feb. 18 at 1 pm), Michigan (Feb. 19 at 1 pm), UCF (Feb. 20 at 12:30 pm), and UCLA (Feb. 20 at 7 pm).

All Sports

No. 21/24 Florida State swimming and diving teams opened competition at the 2022 ACC Swimming and Diving Championships on Tuesday, with Men’s divers David Vargas and Jesco Helling highlighted the evening by competing in their first ACC Championship final, while the men’s 800 free relay achieved an NCAA standard.

The Florida State men’s golf team, which came into the day sitting in fourth place, successfully defended their Mobile Bay Intercollegiate title capturing the championship Tuesday.

Florida State track and field athletes Adriaan Wildschutt and Lauren Ryan each earned ACC Performer of the Week honors — Ryan ran an 8:47.88 (fourth-fastest time in NCAA history) while Wildschutt broke the FSU, ACC and South African record in the 5000m run at the David Hemery Valentine Invite with a time of 13:09.30 (second-fastest time in NCAA history).

Following his straight-set win over the nation’s 50th-ranked player, FSU men’s tennis player Loris Pourroy has been named the ACC’s co-Men’s Tennis Player of the Week.