For the first time in more than three decades, the State of Florida finishes at the top of the regular season.
With Saturday’s 80-62 victory over Boston College, No. 8 Florida State won the CCA regular season championship.
This is the first conference championship in the Seminoles regular season since 1989, when they were at the Metro conference. This is the first FSU conference championship in 28 seasons as an ACC team, making FSU the 11th team in ACC history to win it.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team,” said Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton.
“The media have invented this sentence which (the best historical teams) are blue bloods … We have invented our own sentence. We are new bloods.
“For us, it’s important because we have a notch on our belt. We have to take advantage of it, but we think we are starting. We think we can get better, we think we can continue our ascent with our own sentence already invented. We’re never going to be blue blood, maybe not about 75, 80. New blood is here. It’s us. Seminoles. “
With Louisville’s defeat in Virginia on Saturday, it’s an ACC championship for the Seminoles, who are alone at the top of the ACC standings at 16-4.
“It’s very special when you can lift your finger and say,” We’re number one, “” said Hamilton.
“I said (to the players) in September:” No one stands on a ladder and says I’m number four, I’m number five “. Only one team has the chance to stand up and say,” I am number one. “It takes special effort and attention. We can truly say that now we are number one. I am proud and happy for our players.”
The victory – which took place in front of a compact and very crowded crowd of 11,500 fans at the Tucker Civic Center – helped the Seminoles finish the regular season with a 26-5 record. They have won 16 CCA games this regular season, without winning more than 13 before this season.
He also sees FSU finish his second unbeaten season at home in the past four years. The Seminoles finish the season 16-0 at home and have won their last 23 games at home.
“Cutting the nets has been a long time,” said goalkeeper Trent Forrest.
“Where we started when I got here so far, being one of the best CCA teams, you think of the journey, you think of the process you went through to get here.”
Fortunately for the fans present and looking across the country, it was not a victory that the Seminoles had to sweat. They led by six points just over two minutes after the start of the match, double-digit nine minutes after the start of the match, from 18 at half time and never less after half time.
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The fugue victory was a real team effort that accurately described how the Seminoles accomplished the unlikely feat. Nine seminoles scored in the first half and no FSU player reached double digits before the minutes of the second half.
Before the participants entered the game in the final minutes, the 12 FSU players who entered the game scored at least two points. A total of 15 Seminoles scored at least one point.
The top three FSU scorers this season combined for just 16 points.
“They totally embraced who we are. They really, really love each other and have good relationships. They do a lot of things together, they hold each other responsible, they call each other,” said Hamilton of his team. .
“They have a saying that we are 18 years old and we win by committee. Right now, this is unusual and that is why I think they are special.”