DURHAM, N.C. -- I'm not going for shock value when I write this. I promise I'm not.

But other than the victory at Louisville in early January, I don't think I've been more impressed with the Florida State men's basketball team than I was here Monday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

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Yes. The shooting was abysmal. Yes, the start to the game couldn't have gone much worse if the Seminoles had decided to just start the "green" team -- FSU's popular scout team -- instead of the starters.

And yes, it was a loss that essentially puts Florida State two games behind Duke in the loss column in the race for seeding in the ACC Tournament.

But stay with me here.

Because there was a whole lot to like from Monday night.

There was the defense. It was out of this world for the final 35 minutes of the game. There was Trent Forrest. All he did was set a Cameron Indoor record for steals in a game with eight, while also establishing team-highs with 18 points and nine rebounds.

Forrest honestly was just a few plays away from recording a triple-double, despite matching up against a future first-round pick in Duke's Tre Jones. Forrest was absolutely awesome.

But maybe more important than anything else was the competitive spirit the Seminoles showed.

Typically, when a team shoots as poorly as FSU did in this place -- 3 of 18 from 3-point range and 12 of 20 from the free-throw line -- it's a 25-point loss. Or 30. Or 40.

"Up until this point, we've been a great shooting team, period," Forrest said. "We've just got to get back in the gym and get some more shots up. Other than that, we'll be fine. ...

"We can learn from this. I feel like the experience for the new guys is going to help them going forward. And when we get to more situations like this, they won't be surprised."

And most times when a team starts like FSU did, getting down 11-2 right out of the gate, the game can get completely out of hand. Players can get rattled. And tight. And then suddenly the rout is on.

Not this team, though.

First off, Forrest wouldn't let them. He was the best player on the floor for the majority of the game and willed the Seminoles back into it.

"He is a pro guard," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He can defend, get by you. He's a veteran. He and Tre (Jones) were going back and forth, and that was wearing Tre out."

And as poorly as the Seminoles shot the ball, their defense kept them right in the game. They had a whopping 16 steals. When was last time an opponent took the ball away from Duke that many times in Cameron Indoor Stadium? Was Jay Bilas a freshman?

Florida State also recorded seven blocked shots. Future NBA lottery pick Vernon Carey Jr. had just three made baskets. The Seminoles played incredibly well on that end, which was a great sight to see after a not-so-stellar performance on Saturday against Miami.

And that effort, again, goes back to the competitive spirit of this team.

A mindset that, you have to imagine, is going to pay off the rest of the season and into March. Because when you get to the postseason, there are going to be games when you don't shoot well. There are going to be games when you don't get all the calls (like that last offensive rebound for Duke). But when you're able to fight like that, to scratch like that, to claw like that, you still have a chance to win anyway.

Florida State isn't going to play in a tougher environment the rest of this season. If you couldn't tell on television, this place was going bananas in the second half every time Duke made a shot. But FSU always made a play to keep it close. Or tie the game. Or even a few times, take the lead.

We've seen plenty of teams -- not just FSU, either -- come into this arena and just melt when the shots start bouncing off the rim or the Blue Devils start burying 3-pointers.

A 10-point game can turn into a 30-point blowout really quickly when this building starts bouncing. We've all seen it.

Leonard Hamilton has seen it up close more than once.

Not this FSU team, though.

This Seminole squad started horribly, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn for most of the night, missed two critical front ends of one-and-ones in the second half, had a breakaway layup turn into an offensive foul, had an alley-oop slip out of the hands of Devin Vassell, had two Malik Osborne 3-pointers go all the way around the rim and spin out, and yet .. and yet ... and yet ... they were in a one-possession game against Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium in the final 30 seconds.

And if not for the Blue Devils' Matthew Hurt possibly getting away with two fouls on an offensive rebound, the 'Noles would have had a shot to tie the game at the end.

This wasn't a case where FSU played its "A game" and came up short. Not by a long shot.

Vassell and Patrick Williams likely won't combine to go 7-for-23 from the floor again. The Seminoles aren't going to have too many more games where they shoot 60 percent from the three-throw line and 17 percent from 3-point range.

It took all of that for one of the best teams in the country to eek out a five-point win at home, in one of the toughest venues in America to play in.

I think that speaks volumes about what this Florida State team can be and how far it can potentially go in the postseason.

Because as long as it continues to guard like it did on Monday night, to play with that energy and fire and passion and any other cliche you want to throw out there, this team is going to be a really tough out the rest of the way.

"The effort was there," said Osborne, who had 14 points and five rebounds. "There's no question about it. We fought to the end. It came to a one-possession game with us not even shooting well. I'm proud of our team.

"Next game we're just going to click offensively and then go from there."

Said Forrest: "And once we get into the postseason, every crowd is basically going to be like this. ... We have so much room to grow. And I think the younger guys, and even myself, are going to learn so much from this game."

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.

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