Yesterday's win against Georgia Tech was not pretty. It wasn't entertaining to watch. But they came away with a must win game. GT was fresh off an upset of Wake Forrest and they were determined to bust the 'Noles Bubble. They did everything they could to keep the ball out of Toney Douglas' hands. They frustrated him early and he was just 1 of 6 from behind the three point line. With his shots not falling like they usually do, Toney made sure to get to the free throw line at the end of the game and managed to get his usual 21 points. He also had a career high six steals furthering the talk that he should be in the mix for defensive player of the year. Derwin Kitchen added 13 points to help take the load off toney. 11 of those points were scored in the second half. The role of second scorer has rotated continuously throughout the season, but if FSU is truly going to compete for the ACC then Derwin is going to have to be able to help take the load off of Toney every night.
While GT may have been 1-6 in ACC play and will not be looked as an impressive win by the tournament comitee, it certainly would have been seen as a cripiling loss. Usually this is the type of game that FSU drops. They then have to spend the rest of their conference schedule trying to pull off an upset to make up for the loss. The pressure continually mounts against FSU as they fail to pull off the upset needed to be tourney worthy. This season however FSU has been able to avoid those types of loses which will enable them to play more freely against the bigger conference foes.
Now FSU has to turn around and prepare to face a stiff press from the 10th ranked Clemson Tigers. Clemson will be flying high after embarrassing Duke earlier this week 74-47. FSU has had their trouble holding onto the ball this season but in the second half against GT they only turned the ball over twice. That is the type of ball control they will need if they are going to be successfully in Little John Arena Saturday night.
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