FSU basketball sets single-season program losses record at Virginia Tech
The Florida State men's basketball team made some unfortunate program history in its regular-season finale at Virginia Tech Saturday.
The Seminoles' 82-60 loss at VT's Cassell Coliseum was their 22nd of the season. That breaks the record previously held by the 2000-01 FSU team for the most losses in program history.
It's an unfortunate mark for this year's FSU squad, but it's been all but assuredly coming for a number of weeks now. And it was done far more by FSU's dreadful out-of-conference record (2-9) than ACC play, where FSU finished 7-13 and in 12th place in the ACC standings after Saturday's loss to the Hokies.
The Seminoles seemed poised to remain competitive on the road against VT early in the second half. After falling behind 14-0 and trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half, that deficit was reduced to as little as four in the opening minutes of the second half.
However, VT responded with a 16-2 run after FSU made a run of its own and the Hokies coasted from there, handing the Seminoles another lopsided loss in conference play.
After FSU had just four turnovers in the first half, it turned the ball over nine times in the second half. VT turned those 13 turnovers into 19 points off turnovers.
Caleb Mills led the Seminoles with 14 points, 11 of which came in the second half.
FSU and VT began the day tied at 11th in the ACC standings. With the loss, FSU will be the No. 12 seed in next week's ACC Tournament and this will be the first time FSU has played on the opening day of the conference tournament since 2016.
The Seminoles' first game in Greensboro, N.C. will be on Tuesday at 2 p.m. against No. 13 seed Georgia Tech (14-17, 6-14 in ACC).
Hokies rain threes again
The last time FSU and VT faced off before Saturday may still be unfortunately engrained in the minds of the FSU fan base.
The Hokies came into the Tucker Civic Center and made 18 of their 25 three-pointers (72%), coming away with an 85-72 road win that was a sort of beginning of the end for last year's FSU team.
VT wasn't nearly as efficient from three this time against the Seminoles. However, the team was nearly as effective, hitting 16 threes and shooting 47.1% from outside the arc. That's the most threes FSU has allowed in a game this season, a telling statement considering the Seminoles' well-known three-point defense struggles throughout this season.
Just like last year in Tallahassee, it was VT guards Sean Pedulla and Hunter Cattoor who led that three-point barrage. They hit six and four threes, respectively, after combining for 15 three-pointers in last year's matchup.
FSU attempted to counter VT's three-point showing with one of its own, but the Seminoles were far less effective from outside the arc, hitting just 8 of their 24 threes (33.3%).