March 11, 2010

Tim Linafelt

Warchant.com's ACC Tournament Blog from Greensboro

A crucial stretch for several Atlantic Coast Conference basketball teams begins today.

Some squads enter today's first round of the ACC Tournament hoping to play their way off of the bubble and into the NCAA Tournament. Others are wishing for a magical run to the Conference championship, the only way they'll secure a place in next week's NCAA field.

The Florida State Seminoles, for today at least, will be watching.

After finishing third in the ACC standings - their second consecutive top four conference finish - the Seminoles are taking today to practice, to watch other teams, and, yes, to take it easy just a little bit.

"It's good to be able to get past the first round and not have to go out and play," said junior guard Derwin Kitchen. "You always need the rest. The more rest you get, the better chance you have. So for us not to be playing the first day and the other teams playing, that's big."

If anyone would know, it's FSU. The Seminoles, playing as a No. 4 seed, bypassed the first round of last year's tournament, and then reeled off consecutive victories over Georgia Tech and eventual National Champion North Carolina before falling to Duke in FSU's first ever ACC Championship Game appearance.

"The less days to play, you have to play less games to win a championship," senior Ryan Reid said.

Several Seminoles admitted that they watched Wake Forest knock off Clemson Sunday, which secured FSU's place in the standings. Had the Tigers won, Florida State would've finished fifth and been forced to play today.

"I watched that game, oh yeah," freshman Michael Snaer said. "I wanted Wake Forest to win that bad."

The Demon Deacons did, and the Seminoles on Wednesday evening looked like a team both loose and confident.

FSU's players were playful both on the court during practice and in the locker room, and if the Seminoles were feeling any tension heading into the postseason, they weren't showing it .

"You don't have to go out there and wear your legs out in the first game. Then you can come out the next game fresh, ready for the next team that's already played a game," said Snaer, who will get his first taste of postseason basketball tomorrow. "So you've got the upper edge. They have to focus more on their energy, because they've used a lot already."

For head coach Leonard Hamilton, earning a top four seed and a first-round bye signifies something far more meaningful than just a day off for his team. Hamilton admitted that as FSU's program builds and moves upward, this is the type of thing that shows the Seminoles are headed in the right direction.

"From our standpoint now, when you accomplish enough where you can be one of the top four teams, more than likely you have a good enough resume that you're going to the NCAA tournament. So that kind of is a positive in itself," Hamilton said. "For us, from a position where we're coming from and where we're trying to go, it represents progress."

The Seminoles will face either Clemson or N.C. State tomorrow at 9:30 p.m.

Talk about it on the Tribal Council or the Hoops Message Board.