How high can they go? No. 9 'Noles start stretch run tonight at Miami

The Florida State men's basketball team can't help its cause for a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament tonight in Miami.

But a stunning loss could certainly hurt it.

Right now, FSU (13-3 and 9-2 in the ACC) sits in first place in the conference and is one of the hottest teams in America. The Seminoles have won eight of their last nine games to climb to No. 11 in the AP Top 25 and No. 9 in the coaches' poll.

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The Hurricanes, meanwhile, are one of the coldest teams in the country -- and definitely one of the most injured. They had just five healthy bodies to finish up their 87-60 loss at home to Georgia Tech on Saturday, after leading scorer Isaiah Wong missed the second half with an ankle injury.

"Miami has had some injuries, but in terms of their system, they’re going to be the same team they’ve been all year in terms of how they are playing and what we can expect from them,” FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. “We have to come as close as we can to be the best version of who we are. That’s our game plan.”

Miami head coach Jim Larranaga said he thought Wong could be ready to play the Seminoles tonight, but even if he is, the Hurricanes will be extremely shorthanded. Larranaga announced on Monday that Chris Lykes and Harlond Beverly, the team's two point guards, are both likely done for the rest of the season.

So, with that in mind, Florida State has a decided advantage heading into tonight's game (8:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network).

Of course lately, Florida State has had a decided advantage against just about everyone it has played. Which is why the Seminoles have continued to soar up the rankings and seed lines in mock brackets.

ESPN's Joe Lunardi currently has Florida State as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which will be played entirely in Indianapolis. That's up from a No. 5 seed a week ago, before the Seminoles blew out Virginia and beat Pitt on the road.

CBS Sports' Jerry Palm also has the Seminoles as a No. 3 seed.

On the website bracketmatrix.com, Florida State is considered "in" on all 120 mock brackets listed. The average seed for those 120 brackets is 3.29, which is the 12th-highest seeding of the teams listed. Oklahoma, which lost to Kansas State on Tuesday night, is currently 11th at 3.13.

In the NET rankings, which stands for NCAA Evaluation Tool (and which replaced the RPI a few years ago as the main metric being used by the NCAA Selection Committee), Florida State is currently 12th in the country. Virginia is 9th. Loyola-Chicago is 11th.

The last four games for the Seminoles are at Miami (162nd in the NET rankings), at North Carolina (33rd), Boston College (164th) and at Notre Dame (66th).

A win over the Tar Heels might push the 'Noles closer to the 2 line, especially because it would be on the road. But wins over the other three won't likely factor much at all. (Losses, of course, could send the Seminoles tumbling down a rung or two.)

Because the ACC is perceived to be enduring a down year -- the league has just three nationally ranked teams right now, and one of those, Virginia Tech, just lost at home to Georgia Tech on Tuesday night -- the Seminoles can probably only rise as high as a 2 seed.

"They can't get to a 1, I don't think," said NCAA.com writer Andy Katz. "Because the ACC is just not strong this year. It's maybe the weakest it's been in a long time. So, I have a hard time seeing Florida State climb all the way to the 1 line.

"I think the 2 is their height, and I think they can be the [highest-seeded] 2."

The only real chance for the Seminoles to be in the conversation for a No. 1 seed is to win the final four games of the regular season -- which, by the way, would also mark a second consecutive ACC regular-season title -- and then win the ACC Tournament as well (with another win over Virginia likely needed in that scenario).

Not that Leonard Hamilton is even close to thinking that far ahead.

The Florida State head coach knows his team has already done enough to get invited to the NCAA Tournament again, and he knows it's in the running for another regular-season crown. But he's not about to start worrying about that with two weeks left to go.

Which is why, when he was asked on Monday about that upcoming game against the Tar Heels on Saturday, he shot that question down real quick.

"I respect Miami too much to do that," Hamilton said. "Get back to me Thursday, and we can talk about Carolina."

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