Couch Potato

Are you ready to do nothing but sit on your couch and watch basketball?, well I am. (like that's what I haven't been doing since Thursday, somewhere my girlfriend just punched a stranger after reading the beginning of this post). And for the first time in ten years Florida State is involved in the Big Dance.

Despite losing to Duke in the ACC championship game, FSU (25-9) is a five seed and will take on 12 seed Wisconsin (19-12) at around 10 in Boise, Idaho Friday night. Good news is that FSU has not lost consecutive games this season, you can blame me if I jinx them and mess up your bracket. Last time FSU played in Boise it defeated Montana and Georgetown to reach the sweet 16 in 1992.

While Toney Douglas and FSU are happy to be in the tournament I can't help but think how much it would suck to go to Boise. So i did some research on what to expect from the potato state's capitol.

The weather isn't too bad it's supposed to be 62 with a low 43. It is the home to Jake 'The Snake' Plummer former NFL QB. Unfortunately though, the basketball court is not Blue like the the school's football field. I think that it should be mandated that court is completely blue or maybe they could use a blue basketball or something to resemble the Smurf Turf.

Don't get too caught up in the hoop mania, Seminole fan's first true love is back in action tomorrow for the first day of spring practice. Hopefully the coaches put out plenty of trash cans so the boys can run the spring break out of themselves.

Knockout Punch

Finally! FSU snapped a ten game losing streak to UNC today in the Georgia Dome with a 73-70 win over the top ranked Tar Heels. For the first time in school history FSU will advance to the ACC Championship game, they will take on Duke tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Last time these two teams met UNC was bailed out by a late Derwin Kitchen turnover and a Ty Lawson miracle shot. This time though Lawson was out with an injury and Kitchen was clutch down the stretch making two free throws to put FSU up three with 15.7 seconds left. 

One day after hitting the game winner against Georgia Tech Kitchen put on quite the encore performance scoring 11 points with nine rebounds, six assists, and three steals.

In the same building that his brother plays for the Dirty Birds, Toney Douglas continued to scorch the ACC this time scoring 27 points. 

Despite the loss UNC will still more than likely be a number one seed, but with a win tomorrow FSU could improve to a four seed and be playing in Miami instead of Boise in the first round of the NCAA tournament (who would have thought that FSU fans would be arguing for a higher seed, not just to get in when the season began?).

By knocking off North Carolina on the conference's biggest stage Leonard Hamilton and the 'Noles made a statement about the program, one that they would like Duke to hear as well tomorrow afternoon.

Vacation

No updates until Friday probably, I will be cruising to the Bahamas this week. I'll leave you with this video of what I'll be doing to enjoy while I'm gone.

Judgement Day

The NCAA finally came out with their results from the investigation on FSU. Essentially through all the legal jargon the document stated that, FSU is placed on four years probation and must vacate any wins in any sport that those players participated in, no matter what their role was, in the outcome of the game, if they played the game no longer counts.

Which could result in a total of 14 wins being taken away from Bobby Bowden which would make it almost impossible for him to catch Paterno.

It also will more than likely result in the loss of the 2007 National Track and Field Championship.

FSU will also see reduced scholarships in ten different sports as follows.

Football: Limit to 83 scholarships in 08-09, 82 in 09-10, and 84 in 2010-11. For the 08-09 self-imposed two grant reductions from the maximum allowed and will self-impose three reductions fro 09-10. The committee imposed and additional reduction of one grant in 2010-11.

Mens Basketball: Limit to 12 total grants in 08-09 and 12 in either 09-10 or 2010-11 (FSU's choice which year to impose). The maximum allowed under NCAA is 13.

Women's Basketball: Limit to 13 grants in 08-09 and 12 in either 09-10 or 2010-11. The maximum allowed is 13.

Baseball: Limit to 11.33 grants in 08-09. Maximum is 11.7.

Men's Swimming: Limit to 9.1 grants in 08-09. Maximum is 9.9

Women's Swimming: Limit to 12.8 grants in 08-09. The committee imposed an additional limitation to 12 grants to be imposed in either the 09-10 or 2010-11. Max is 14.

Men's Track and Field: Limit to 12.1 scholarships in 08-09 maximum is 12.6

Women's Track and Field: Limit to 17.32 grants in 08-09, Max is 18.

Softball: Limit to 11 in 08-09 and 11.95 in 09-10. Max is 12

Men's Golf: Limit to 4.36 grant in 08-09. Max is 4.5

Reductions from 08-09 were part of self imposed penalties after FSU put themselves on two years probation. Grant =scholarships.

FSU has responded and said they will seek clarification on vacating wins and could appeal due to the fact that they didn't knowingly use ineligible players so thing long saga may not be over after all.

FSU baseball Struggling

For the first time since 2005 FSU has lost three straight non-conference games. Last night for the first time ever the Seminoles lost to UNF. That coming the night after dropping two straight on the road to JU and Auburn.

Other than freshman Sean Gilmartin, FSU starting pitching has been very unimpressive. Austin Wood lasted only two innings last night. Brian Busch continued to impress only giving up two hits and one run in five plus innings while throwing 93 pitches.

FSU will have to figure it out quickly as conference play begins this weekend against Boston College.

FSU Women's basketball begins their quest for an ACC title tomorrow night against the winner of tonight's Boston College-Miami game.

Instead of whining about officiating after the Duke loss the Men have decided to take the positives from that game and turn them into confidence boosters. FSU is currently ranked 17th in the RPI. Right now ESPN has them projected as a 6 seed in the Midwest region playing their first game in Miami agasint Steph Curry and Davidson. Playing their first tournament game in ten years in Miami would be a huge boost to the fan base that is still getting used to the idea that FSU can compete in the ACC.

Mientkiewicz 'Nole of This Week

It's not usually a good thing when a major league veteran like Mientkiewicz is only tendered a minor league deal this late in their career but I thought with so much negativity surrounding the sport I thought it appropriate to highlight a guy never linked to the steroid scandal most have been. Mientkiewicz has agreed to a minor league deal with the Dodgers. It may be tough for him to make the roster that has a lot of infielders already, but Torre said he loves Mientkiwicz's versatility.

Snow and Bo O'Dell Ruin the Rest of the Auburn Series

After winning the first two games of the series played in Tallahassee the Seminoles dropped their first game of the season last night 10-9 in Auburn.

Bo O'Dell was forced into action after starting pitcher John Gast suffered a sprained ankle. O'Dell pitched two and a third innings and gave up seven runs (Five earned) on six hits to earn the loss.

Today's game was cancelled due to three to four inches of snow on the ground.

Congrats to the Lady Noles on their first ever regular season ACC title.

Here are some more links about yesterday's win over Clemson that weren't posted when I did my blog.  You can tell that the SEC sucks at basketball because Gene Frentte and Mike Bianchi were both in attendance yesterday and they both usually stick to covering UF, as does the Times-Union in general though.

Bianchi

Frenette