In recent years, Florida State was one of the most dominant teams in the country at home under coach Luke Loucks’ predecessor Leonard Hamilton, even winning 25 consecutive conference games on its home court from 2019-2021.
The Seminoles (2-0) are hoping to channel some of that home-court magic on Tuesday night when they take on No. 1 Florida (2-0) in Tallahassee, Fla.
As Loucks eases into his second season as the head coach of his alma mater, he is trying to make the Seminoles a tough trip for any team once again.
“I’m gonna do just about everything I can to help our boys feel like they’re at a great home environment where it’s tough for opponents to come in and play us,” Loucks said recently. “We have to handle business at home.”
The Gators have beaten the Seminoles five consecutive times and lead the all-time series 48-28.
Florida enters this year’s matchup favored to extend that streak as it brings one of the country’s deepest frontcourts and an improved group of shooters to its longtime rival’s homecourt.
The trio of Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Thomas Haugh are double-double — sometimes even triple-double — threats.
Condon nearly secured what would have been the fifth triple-double in program history in Florida’s 88-57 win over Jacksonville last Thursday when he finished with 12 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
“He was zipping the ball around the floor. He had some really, really fantastic assists, both to 3-point shooters and the cutters, and was finishing, making his free throws,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said after the game.
Chinyelu wasn’t far off from recording a double-double as he finished with 21 points and eight rebounds. Haugh is the Gators’ leading scorer so far this season with 16.5 points
per game.
Florida made 11 three-pointers for the second consecutive game and shot better at the foul line (19 of 27, 70.4%) than it did in its opener against Miami (57.1%).
“A big thing that we talked about going into (the Jacksonville) game was that this was all about us playing toward the standard and not worrying about individual success,” Golden said.
“So, it’d be a little counterintuitive in that moment to leave (Condon) in there to get an individual statistic when we were playing for the team and for the standard. Could’ve, maybe should’ve. But I think he’ll have other opportunities this year where he might be getting close to triple-doubles.”
Florida State’s 7-foot freshman center Marcis Ponder has recorded a double-double in each of the Seminoles’ first two games. But Cincinnati transfer Shon Abaev has shown off some versatility that could prove promising in the long-term for the Seminoles.
Abaev, who was known more as a scorer at his previous stop, dropped 20 points in Florida State’s 91-68 home win last Friday against Troy. But the Seminoles have been trying to utilize Abaev’s skills as a distributor and he’s shown glimpses while leading the team with six assists in each of its first two games.
“Shon was primarily making the decision, and that’s what really settled us down,” Loucks said. “He just continued to pick apart the defense, he hit the baseline cutter two or three times. He made the simple play two or three times, and then the defense started spreading out because of his passing, he attacked the hoop with some real aggression that we need from him.”