For updates and chat from today's FSU-Wake Forest game, live from the Tucker Center, check out this Game Thread on the Seminole Hoops Message Board.
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GAME PREVIEW
The last time the Florida State men's basketball team endured a pause like this, it returned to the court in spectacular fashion.
The Seminoles won five games in a row, four by blowouts, on their way to the top of the ACC standings.
Then their second COVID-19 stoppage of the season came, and the No. 17 Seminoles (10-3, 6-2 in the ACC) were forced to miss more than a week of practice and had three more games postponed.
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FSU will return to the court Saturday at noon against visiting Wake Forest (Fox/Regional channels), and head coach Leonard Hamilton is eager to see how they respond.
"You become consistent through repetition," Hamilton said. "And confidence comes from everybody doing the same thing and executing. And we're not there. So, I'm concerned, 'Are we going to lose a little bit of rhythm?' I don't know. The only way we're going to find out is Saturday as we play against another team."
Wake Forest is 6-8 overall and 3-8 in the ACC. The Demon Deacons started league play with a six-game losing streak but have since won three of five, including a 69-65 win over Boston College earlier in the week.
But the reality for Hamilton and his team is pretty simple: If the Seminoles play well, they should handle the Deacs pretty easily.
There's no guarantee that will be the case, however. Not after a second two-week layoff.
"I just know on Feb. 13, everybody should be hitting on all cylinders," Hamilton said. "So, I'm concerned. I'm anxious to get back on the court. Let's see if we can recapture our momentum. ... The only way we're going to find out is on Saturday and see where we are."
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As they did during the first hiatus, the Seminoles have used this time to work on specific shortcomings.
Earlier in the week, FSU assistant coach Charlton Young had some video clips spliced together of the Seminoles' "Boom Squad" from a few years ago. The non-starters on that team took pride in coming off the bench and making an impact. And not just by scoring points, either.
They played aggressive defense -- getting deflections, steals, runouts -- and making the game as hard as possible on the starters for the other team.
That's what Hamilton, Young and the rest of the FSU staff would love to see from the 2021 FSU bench moving forward.
"The energy those guys played with kind of gives some of our (current) players a visual of what we're talking about," Hamilton said. "And some of the new guys were taken aback a little bit. Like, 'Wow, we're not quite there. We're not quite at that level of aggressiveness.' Which was eye-opening to our guys.
"So, let's worry about what we can control. Let's see how close we can come to that junkyard defense. Let's see how close we can come to executing what we have in our offensive package ... so we can just get consistent and we know where everybody is, where our cuts are hard and we're running to our checkpoints, we're sprinting to the ball screens, we're rolling hard, we're catching and snatching the ball, our eyes are like a camera, we're seeing the whole floor. We all have to get to a point where we can depend (on each other)."
As for Wake Forest, Hamilton said it's one of the best perimeter shooting teams in the conference. The Demon Deacons have made 35.1 percent of their 3-point shots this season, but they have five players who have attempted at least 50 shots from long range. And all five have made at least 17.
"For us coming off a pause, we have to come with that junkyard dog defense," Hamilton said. "And we've got to come with the aggressive offensive system that we've put in and try to get some confidence back to playing the way we think we need to play down the stretch in order for us to be successful."
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