Clark: 'Noles crash ACC's party with upset of No. 1 seed Virginia
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- So, it turns out there were four teams playing here Friday night.
There was the magnitude of Zion. The home-state Heels. The No. 1 seed in the tournament, Virginia.
And who was that fourth team again?
That was the overall sentiment in Charlotte heading into Friday night's festivities. With Duke, North Carolina and Virginia, the 2019 ACC semifinals were the first in NCAA history to feature three Top 5 teams.
And, oh yeah, the fourth was a squad from Tallahassee. Pretty good team. Won some games. But certainly not in the class of the other three, right?
Or ... maybe, just maybe, there were actually four elite-level teams in Charlotte on Friday night.
And the team that didn't have a single All-ACC selection is now in the championship game after an emphatic 69-59 upset win over the No. 2 Cavaliers at the Spectrum Center.
Sorry to ruin your party, ACC fans, but the Florida State Seminoles are really, really good, too.
"Obviously, we see the television," said sophomore forward Mfiondu Kabengele. "We see everything. We recognize that we're not the blue bloods. But it's our job to fight for what's ours. We have to earn everything we get. And I felt like today, and in the whole ACC Tournament, we've done that."
In reality, they've been doing it for a while now.
Two years ago, the Seminoles won 26 games and finished in a tie for second place in the ACC during the regular season. Last year, the Seminoles advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and were a couple of possessions away from a Final Four.
And then this year, all they've done is tie the school record for wins with 27. They've won 14 of 15 and just got done knocking off a team that was 29-2 heading into the semifinals.
Yeah. Make no mistake. There were four great teams in Charlotte.
One just came in with a whole lot less attention.
"This is a really, really, really talented league," said senior guard David Nichols, who scored 10 of his team-high 14 points in the second half. "When there's three of the top five teams in the semifinals and then we're the 12th-ranked team in the country, and we're an afterthought, it really shows you how deep and how competitive this conference really is."
They're not an afterthought anymore.
Not that they should have been, anyway, after winning 12 of their final 13 games in the regular season. But beating the Cavaliers and advancing to the ACC championship game for the third time in program history is something that can't be ignored.
Not anymore.
This team is too good to be ignored. Just ask Virginia.
"Florida State played well," said the ACC's Coach of the Year, Tony Bennett. "They defended well. They were sound, and tonight they were the tougher team. Or more physical. ...
"That's a well-coached, good team. Nichols was so good tonight. Even at times when we did guard him, he just made shots in our face. And their length is noticeable."
It wasn't easy, of course. Nothing is ever easy against Virginia, which dominated the Seminoles in Charlottesville, Va., in the first meeting back in early January.
But the Seminoles shot 56 percent from the field in this game -- it was the second highest percentage the Cavaliers have allowed all season -- and they constantly hounded Virginia on the other end.
Leading scorer Kyle Guy had 11 points at halftime. Kyle Guy finished with 11 points.
Meanwhile, Florida State -- as it typically does -- got scoring from everyone.
On Thursday, it was Terance Mann and Devin Vassell who were the heroes for the Seminoles. On Friday, those two combined for exactly one basket -- by Mann on a breakaway dunk at the end.
But Nichols stepped up. So did Kabengele. And Christ Koumadje. And Trent Forrest.
M.J. Walker made some big shots. So did Phil Cofer.
It's the same old story.
Florida State wins games by committee. And while the rest of the ACC media and television partners might not have noticed, the Seminoles have won a whole lot of them this season.
They're probably, at worst, going to be a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament now. Which might just mean a first weekend in Jacksonville.
So no matter what happens on Saturday night, the Seminoles have already made a huge impact in Charlotte this weekend.
But win one more game, and they can hoist their second ACC Championship in program history.
Wouldn't that be a great way to crash this blue-blood party?
"When you're in a conference with the quality teams that are in the ACC, and you're a team that's trying to find a way to get into that hierarchy, it's challenging," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "And so sometimes you get overlooked and you don't get sometimes the proper respect. But that's one thing about respect, you have to go earn it.
"And hopefully this gives us an opportunity to earn a little bit more respect and maybe people will look, have a little better feeling about us in the future."
Maybe. Maybe not.
Either way, Florida State will be in Charlotte on Saturday night playing for an ACC Championship.
That's going to happen. Whether anybody else around here likes it or not.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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