It’s do or die time for the Cardinals.
ACC Tournament Second Round
No. 8 Florida State Seminoles (20-10, 9-9) vs. No. 9 Louisville Cardinals (19-12, 9-9)
Game Time: Noon
Location: Barclays Center: Brooklyn, NY
Television: ACC Network (WAVE-3 in Louisville)/ESPN
Announcers: ACC Network: Tim Brando (play-by-play) and Mike Gminski (analyst); ESPN: Sean McDonough (play-by-play), Dan Dakich (analyst), Maria Taylor (reporter)
About Florida State:
Nationally ranked for six weeks this season, Florida State has won three of its last five, including an 85-76 victory at Boston College on March 3 in its last game. In that contest, FSU shot 50 percent from the field. Defeating the Eagles helped the ‘Noles earn the No. 8 seed for this week’s ACC tournament.
The Seminoles are led by honorable mention All-ACC honoree Terrance Mann. Mann enters the ACC tournament as the Seminoles’ leader in both scoring (career-high 13.3 ppg) and rebounding (career-high 5.7 rpg) and is one of only three ACC players to lead his team in both categories heading into postseason play. Mann is ranked 22nd in the ACC in scoring and rebounding and is one of nine players in the ACC ranked in the top 25 of the league statistics in both scoring and rebounding.
Just behind Mann in scoring for FSU are both Phil Cofer (13.2 ppg) and Braian Angola (13.0 ppg). The Seminoles have also received a high spike in play in recent weeks from sophomore guard Trent Forrest. Forrest played one of his best games of the season in Florida State’s win at Louisville, contributing 10 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Notable:
—Louisville is 5-1 all-time against No. 8 seeds in conference tournaments.
—Louisville is 12-10 in conference tournament games in which it is the worse-seeded team, but 4-0 in such games since 2011.
—Florida State scored 80 or more points 17 times during the regular season and enters Wednesday’s game ranked third in the ACC in scoring offensive at 82.0 points per game. The ‘Noles scored at least 100 points in three different games, including ACC victories over Syracuse (101-90) and No. 24 Miami (103-94).
—Louisville is third in the nation in blocked shots at 6.2 blocks per game. Individually, Anas Mahmoud ranks eighth in the nation in blocks per game with 3.0.
—Louisville is 4-1 vs. Florida State in conference tournament games. Four of the previous five meetings came in the league championship game.
—The two teams have not met in a conference tournament since Florida State defeated Louisville 76-69 in the 1991 Metro Conference tournament championship game. In that game, the Cardinals squandered a 20-point lead.
—Louisville has won 10 of its last 12 conference tournament games and has won four of the last eight conference tournaments it has competed in.
—Louisville is 0-2 in the ACC tournament.
—Florida State has won at least one game in each of the last six ACC tournaments, and won the tournament in 2012.
—Louisville is one of just four schools which have won 20 or more games in each of the last 15 seasons (also Kansas, Duke and Gonzaga), needing one victory to extend that streak.
—Over its last three games, Florida State has blocked 22 shots and is averaging 7.3 blocked shots per game. Freshman big man Ike Obiagu has 18 of those 22 blocked shots.
—Florida State has not won back-to-back games against Louisville since the 1977-78 season.
Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Louisville 80, Florida State 79
