GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Even though Friday night’s ACC Tournament semifinal against North Carolina was Florida State’s first postseason basketball game in almost two years, it had an eerily familiar feel.
Up double-digits at the half, FSU was unable to match the Tar Heels’ shot making and energy to start the second period. And within nine minutes, they not only had surrendered the lead, they were down by 5.
Another game against the Tar Heels, in North Carolina. Another big lead that turned all too quickly into a deficit.
As Warchant.com’s most popular ACC Tournament special contributor, I started thinking about any positives FSU could take away from a game that saw them lose another big lead, resulting in another important loss.
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Maybe we could focus on any good plays by guys who are seeing important minutes in big postseason games for the first time in their careers. Remember, since all the tournament games were canceled last year, the leaders of this team were either sophomores or freshmen on the team that made the Sweet 16 in 2019. And, they were playing with people named Trent Forrest, Terance Mann, and Devin Vassell.
So, while FSU does have some fourth-year players like RaiQuan Gray and M.J. Walker, they really aren’t used to being the go-to guys in a win-or-go-home environment.
With that in mind, I was thinking maybe they could learn from this experience and play better in their NCAA Tournament games next week. Yeah, that could work.
What FSU had in mind was a little better.
Down five points with 10 minutes to go and a socially distanced crowd of mostly Tar Heel blue cheering against them, the Seminoles responded with a run of their own and ultimately advanced to only the fourth ACC championship game in program history.
Maybe more importantly, almost every key player had their first “March moment,” which should give FSU fans, and themselves, confidence for the rest of the season.
One thing you notice when you watch games in person at court level is how big the players are relative to each other. Right at tip, I noticed that, for as big and imposing as UNC’s Armando Bacot is, Balsa Kopravica is actually bigger. And boy, did he play like it.
Balsa finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds, living up to the nickname “Keto-Joker,” which FSU radio analyst Adrian Crawford bestowed on him. (It’s a reference to how Balsa’s game is similar to Denver Nuggets All-Star Nikola Jokic, whose nickname is "Joker" but is about 50 pounds heavier and a few inches shorter.)
More than anyone else, Kopravica led the comeback, both with big finishes on offense and big boy defense without fouling (much to the disbelief of UNC fans and coaches) around the rim down the stretch.
Really, that’s where the game turned. In the last 10 minutes, UNC scored only 13 points. FSU scored 21.
Game. Blouses.
One thing that has been underappreciated about Leonard Hamilton’s teams recently is how good they’ve gotten on offense, thanks in large part to the dramatic shift in philosophy that Hamilton and his staff embraced and implemented.
But last night was a throwback. After Kerwin Walton made a runner in the lane to cut FSU’s lead to one with just over four minutes to go, FSU’s old-school Junkyard Defense showed up. And UNC’s offense went away.
The Tar Heels wouldn’t score another field goal until there were two seconds remaining, with their only points in the interim being the three free throws RJ Davis made after being fouled by Sardaar Calhoun.
FSU extended its defense to damn near Winston-Salem down the stretch, making it hard for UNC to do anything in its half-court set and forcing bad shots while the clock was winding down. And the players who have been big for the Seminoles all season showed up when the spotlight shone the brightest.
Anthony Polite, have a moment.
Yes, he missed a free throw on the front end of a one-and-one that could have tied the game with 2:45 remaining. That hurt. But then he came down and hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with two minutes remaining.
Polite’s fellow former AAU teammate and redshirt junior RaiQuan Gray struggled for much of the night, trying to finish inside over North Carolina’s towering bigs. But, with FSU up one with 30 seconds to go, he hit arguably the biggest free throws of his career to put FSU up three.
And here’s the thing. Before and after his first free throw, he was talking to UNC’s players about it, letting them know he was going to make them. Like a Third Team All-ACC selection should.
So FSU beat North Carolina for the second time this season. That’s big. But even bigger, I think, are the plays FSU’s players made down the stretch of a big game, in a moderately hostile environment, that they were losing.
Everybody did something. Walker was able to get into the lane. Calhoun hit a massive 3-pointer. Scottie Barnes made Tar Heel fans clutch their pearls with what he did to Walker Kessler. Even RayQuan Evans played very good defense down the stretch, keeping UNC’s ballhandlers from being able to penetrate or run their offense.
Now, go do it again.
Tonight, FSU has a chance to win an ACC Tournament title (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), if the Seminoles can get past Josh Pastner and the Fighting Face Shields.
It's a third battle with ACC Player of the Year Moses Wright and that Jose Alvarado character, whose facial expressions and enthusiastic celebrations have him rapidly climbing the ladder of the FSU fanbase's least-liked opponents. And, FSU actually will have the rest disadvantage tonight, since Tech got the automatic berth into the ACC championship game after Virginia’s positive COVID test.
So tonight won’t be easy. Georgia Tech already beat FSU by double-digits once this year, after all.
But like last night, if FSU win’s the second ACC Tournament championship in program history, it won’t really be because of Georgia Tech. It will be because those ingredients Leonard Hamilton talked about at the beginning of the year, guys like Balsa and Gray and Barnes and Calhoun, that needed to be in the oven for a while longer to make the cake he was hoping for, were given the chance to live up to their potential. And they were able to rise to the occasion.
Tallahassee resident and longtime FSU basketball fan Eric Eggers is shining in his own March moment as Warchant's special correspondent for the ACC Tournament.
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