1/20/2020 basketball Edit

Florida State basketball cracks the top five for first time since 1972

Gene Williams • TheOsceola

Publisher

Williams is the founder and administrator of Warchant.com. He has covered all of FSU's sports with an emphasis on football and football recruiting since the mid-90's.

The FSU men's basketball team has been on a roll lately. The Seminoles are on a nine game winning streak following Saturday's 83-79 overtime win at Miami. Since the opening day loss at Pittsburgh, FSU has won 16 of 17 and are currently in a first place tie with Louisville in the ACC standings.

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Florida State is 6-1 in the ACC Standings tied with Louisville for first place. (USA Today Sports Images)

The winning streak has propelled the 'Noles in the national rankings. After starting out the season unranked, Leondard Hamilton's team cracked the top 25 in the Coaches' Poll in week four and the AP Poll in week five. Since then it's been steady climb up the rankings and on Monday FSU finds itself in rarefied air ranked at No. 5 in the AP Poll. The Seminoles are just ahead of fellow ACC members Louisville (#6) and Duke (#8). Surprisingly, no other ACC teams are currently ranked in the top 25.

MORE: Clark: How high can the FSU basketball program go?

A top five ranked Florida State basketball team is an extremely rare occurrence. In fact, it's only happened once and that took place all the way back during the 1972-73 season. Of course, that Hugh Durham coached team, which was coming off a national championship loss to UCLA, climbed all the way to No. 2 in the AP Poll.

AP Top 10 for January 20

1. Baylor
2. Gonzaga
3. Kansas
4. San Diego State
5. Florida State
6. Louisville
7. Dayton
8. Duke
9. Villanova
10. Seton Hall

Florida State checks in at No. 6 in the Coaches' Poll one spot behind Louisville. The 'Noles have a better record and defeated the Cardinals by 10 in Louisville on Jan. 8.

More important than the rise up rankings is that FSU is putting itself in good position for a favorable seed in the NCAA Tournament. In the latest Bracketology, done on Jan. 17, ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects that FSU will be a No. 3 seed in Tampa. Even better, NBC Sports has the 'Noles as a No. 2 seed in Tampa.

Next up for Florida State is a home matchup this Saturday versus Notre Dame (11-6, 2-4 ACC). The game will tip off at 8 p.m. ET and will be televised by the ACC Network.

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