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Warchant TV: Closer look at FSU's basketball schedule, outlook for '20-'21

The Florida State men's basketball team is aiming to win the ACC Championship for a second straight season.

And now, finally, the Seminoles know who and when they will be playing as they chase that goal with the unveiling of the ACC's 2020-'21 basketball schedules on Tuesday morning.

Florida State will play 20 conference games during the regular-season and 25 games overall.

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The five non-conference games start with the season opener against Gardner-Webb on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The Seminoles will then play North Florida on Dec. 2, host Indiana in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge on Dec. 9, host Florida on Dec. 12 and then finish up the non-conference slate against UCF on Dec. 19.

Gardner-Webb finished 16-16 a season ago but won eight of its final 10.

North Florida, which lost to FSU 98-81 last December, was 21-12 a year ago.

Indiana was 20-12 a season ago and beat the Seminoles on its own home court in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge.

Florida was 19-12 last year with one of those 12 losses being to FSU. Again. For the sixth straight season.

And finally, UCF was 16-14 a season ago and 7-11 in the AAC.

As for the ACC games, Florida State will play every team at least once. Just like always.

There are five teams the Seminoles will play twice: Georgia Tech, who they open up the ACC schedule with on Dec. 15, North Carolina, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Miami.

In the preseason poll released by the AP on Monday, there were four ACC teams ranked in the top 25. Florida State is 21st. North Carolina is 16th. Duke is ninth and Virginia is fourth.

The Seminoles play both the Blue Devils and the Cavaliers just once this season, and both of those games will be at the Tucker Center in Tallahassee, which FSU has announced will be limited to 20 to 25 percent capacity this season.

Going by last year's final RPI numbers, FSU will have 12 games against Top 100 teams in the regular season and 22 against the Top 150.

North Carolina, which was 14-19 a year ago, is expected to be much better than the No. 111 spot it finished the season at in 2020.

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