When Leonard Hamilton met with reporters on Monday afternoon, he didn't seem all that interested in talking about Florida State finally appearing in the Associated Press Top 25 poll (the Seminoles are now ranked 17th in the country).

He said it's too early in the season to pay any attention to rankings.

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What Hamilton was very interested in talking about, however, was the opportunity to play against the University of Indiana in Bloomington, Ind., as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Tuesday (9 p.m., ESPN2).

"When you're born in Indiana, they give you a basketball while you're at the hospital," Hamilton said. "You have a basketball in your crib before you start talking. Your teething ring is a basketball. They are the most knowledgeable basketball fans that you've ever seen. And their college teams reflect that -- Notre Dame, Purdue, Butler, University of Indiana.

"So my point is that we're going into an atmosphere that's very ACC-like. So these types of games can't do anything but help us."

*ALSO SEE: Closer look at the Indiana-FSU matchup

And Hamilton's team has had a lot of these types of games already. This will be Florida State's ninth game of the season. And the fifth away from home.

Since losing at Pitt on opening night, the Seminoles have ripped off seven straight wins, including impressive victories over Tennessee and Purdue this past weekend to win the Emerald Coast Classic championship.

On Tuesday, they will face an Indiana team that is 7-0 but hasn't yet played a high-major opponent.

The Hoosiers have played all seven games at home and are currently third in the nation in scoring margin (+22) and sixth in the nation in both scoring offense (86.1 points per game) and rebounding margin (+12).

"They're well-coached," Hamilton said. "They have four guys shooting close to 40 percent from 3. They've got a freshman, (Trayce Jackson-Davis), that already has what? Four double-doubles? ... So this is a typical ACC-type game with the exception that they're probably going to have one of the best home courts in the history of college basketball.

"So we have a clear understanding of what we're up against."

Redshirt sophomore RaiQuan Gray doesn't have the same historical knowledge of Indiana basketball that Hamilton does, obviously. But he says he's been watching the Hoosiers since he was a kid.

He vividly remembers the buzzer-beater they hit to knock off No. 1 Kentucky back in 2011. And he's been looking forward to this game ever since it was announced before the season started.

Gray also is confident that the Seminoles will get their offense going soon. Florida State beat Purdue on Saturday night despite hitting just 1 of 17 attempts from 3-point range. The Seminoles struggled shooting in both games over the weekend actually, but still managed to win both.

"It definitely says that we're better than what we played," Gray said. "And we're just getting started. I feel like once our offense comes along and matches our defensive intensity that we're going to be a hard team to stop. But defense can always travel.

"Defense is definitely saving us right now, and we're going to keep relying on our defense until our offense gets going."

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