The Florida State men’s basketball team is alone in first place in the ACC standings. The Seminoles are ranked No. 6 in the country. And they're coming off one of the most memorable wins in the history of the program.
Now, after the dust has mostly settled from the comeback victory over No. 10 Louisville on Monday night, the Seminoles have to turn their attention to the rest of the schedule, starting with Saturday's game at Clemson.
"When you're in this moment," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said on Thursday. "The best way to maximize it is to be realistic and stay grounded. And try not to get caught up in all the hysteria. That can very easily happen."
Malik Osborne met with the media before Thursday's practice.
The redshirt sophomore forward still had a wide smile talking about the game on Monday night, Trent Forrest's emphatic dunk over Jordan Nwora, and all the attention he and his teammates have received since.
Osborne has been asked multiple times about his visible and excited reaction on the bench, captured by some of the photos of Forrest's dunk at impact.
"I kept getting messages about that," he said. "Over and over and over again. I even watched the video and saw myself. I just knew that I was so caught up in the moment. ... It was such a big moment."
It was indeed.
But it wasn't the end of the season. There are still plenty of big moments out there for the Seminoles to go experience if they continue to play like this.
And if they're able to flush the Louisville win and turn all of their attention to a Clemson team that has beaten both Duke and Louisville at home this season.
"After the game, everybody wanted to talk to us, to congratulate us," Osborne said. "The team did a really good job of just being smart, being safe, taking it all in. And then the next day, the mindset changed to, 'All right. Now it's the next game.'"
If the Seminoles can knock off the Tigers on Saturday afternoon in Littlejohn Coliseum, that would push them even closer to their first ever ACC regular-season title.
They have a one-game lead over Duke, which plays at Virginia on Saturday.
Florida State then plays at Notre Dame on Wednesday night before closing out the regular season with a home game against Boston College the following Saturday.
"The most important thing is to just stay focused on what has gotten us to this point," Hamilton said. "Don't get too far ahead of ourselves. Don't allow ourselves to get caught up in the numbers game, the 'what-if' game. We can't do that. That's problematic."
He said he thinks his team can draw on the experiences from losses at Indiana and Duke earlier this season. Hamilton doesn't think the Seminoles were quite ready for the environment they faced in Bloomington, and then weren't especially sharp when they battled the Blue Devils earlier this month.
Now they go into Clemson, which is still theoretically trying to build an NCAA Tournament resume, as one of the marquee teams in the United States. And the Tigers would love nothing more than to knock off the No. 1 team in the ACC to add to the big home wins they've already had in 2020.
"Being in the No. 1 position in the ACC is a spot that we have not been to," Hamilton said. "So now what we haven't dealt with is the mindset you receive when you go on the road and you're in that position. And so much of the progress we need to make from here on out is how we handle it mentally and emotionally."
He then added: "I think we're grounded now. I think we've learned our lesson. I think we've been through enough battles now with this team."
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