Monumental Monday night showdown: FSU vs. Louisville Round 2

In all the years the Florida State men have been playing basketball, only four times have they hosted a Top 10 matchup in their own arena.

Monday night will be No. 5.

The Seminoles (23-4, 13-3) are currently ranked No. 6 in the country. Louisville (23-5, 14-3) is now 10th in the coaches poll. The Cardinals won both of their games this past week in blowout fashion -- a 90-66 win over Syracuse and a 72-55 victory over North Carolina -- moved back in the Top 10 in one poll while staying 11th in the AP.

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Not that this game needed much more juice anyway. The Seminoles and Cardinals are both vying for the regular-season ACC championship and are also still in very good position to earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Maybe even higher if they stay hot down the stretch.

Calling this a "big" game is an understatement. And saying it's one of the biggest in the history of the Tucker Center would not be an overstatement.

Florida State vs. Louisville Round 2, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight on ESPN, will be a monumental Monday night showdown.

"These are games that you want to play in," Louisville head coach Chris Mack said. "That you want them to be meaningful. Florida State wanted it to be meaningful. And we did. And we've gotten ourselves to this point. And they're going to be a heck of a challenge for our team."

FSU junior guard M.J. Walker scored a career-high 23 points in the first meeting between the two teams -- a 78-65 victory for the Seminoles in Louisville.

He understands the significance of the game on Monday night. He understands what they're playing for and what's at stake.

But he says he's not about to treat this game any differently than he has treated the previous 27 this season.

"Obviously, we're both good teams," Walker said. "We try not to look at it as this game is any bigger than the next game. We're taking the same approach we've taken all year. Like we normally do. Obviously, Louisville is a prestigious school, but we're going to take our same approach."

The previous Top 10 matchups in Tallahassee

Feb. 16, 1989: No. 10 Louisville 78, No. 7 FSU 77 OT

Feb. 10, 1993: No. 10 FSU 111, No. 9 Wake Forest 94

Feb. 27, 1997: No. 3 North Carolina 86, No. 6 FSU 76

Jan. 10, 2017: No. 9 FSU 88, No. 7 Duke 72

Walker did admit, however, that there is a certain something to a Louisville-FSU basketball game.

"The competitiveness in the game is always at an all-time high," Walker said. "That's in any Louisville game I've played in. You have to compete the whole, entire game. And we know the importance of the game and how it's being looked at. We both have something to prove.

"Obviously we respect our opponent all the time. They're a very good team. We've got to make sure we come in locked in and get the job done."

The quick turnaround is challenging for both teams, of course. Leonard Hamilton and Mack have both said they aren't fans of playing on Saturday and then again on Monday.

This will be the third time FSU has had to do it this season.

Walker said dealing with the turnaround is more mental than anything else. The physical can take its toll, too, though.

Walker, Trent Forrest, Devin Vassell, Malik Osborne and Patrick Williams played virtually the entire last 15 minutes of the Seminoles' win at N.C. State on Saturday. Vassell played 37 minutes overall.

And while FSU typically has a depth advantage over everyone it plays, on Saturday that depth was on the bench for almost the entire second half.

Either way, Mack knows what to expect on Monday night when taking on the Seminoles.

"They're going to pressure the ball, they're going to switch everything, they're going to extend their defense all over the floor," Mack said. "Any time you play Florida State it comes down to taking care of the basketball. You can't go down there and have 17, 20 turnovers. They can make you do that.

"They hit a ton of 3's on us (in the first game). And M.J. Walker, specifically. So we've got to be a little bit more cognizant of that. We've got to close out a little bit tighter. And that presents a challenge because they have some quickness on the perimeter. But you want to beat them, that's what we've got to do."

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