The Florida State Seminoles enter the ACC Big Ten Challenge on a four-game win streak and will look to continue their strong play as they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers at the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee on Tuesday night.
Although the Seminoles aren't ranked yet this year, the team has looked like one of the strongest in the ACC, scoring over 80 points per game and shooting over 51 percent, ranking 10th in the nation.
The Seminoles won their first-ever ACC tournament title last season under coach Leonard Hamilton and return star Michael Snaer, who is leading the team in scoring and rebounding with 16 points and 6.4 rebounds. He also was named the MVP at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic earlier this season.
Snaer is the only senior on the team and has provided leadership to younger players like freshman Aaron Thomas and junior Ian Miller.
"(The Golden Gophers) have a little more experience returning," Hamilton told the school's official website. "They're extremely deep -- they play 11 people in the first 10 minutes of the game. They have some veteran guards and athletic forwards. This is a good basketball team."
Florida State is 4-1 after defeating North Florida 75-67 on Wednesday will look to make it five in a row against Minnesota on Tuesday. Snaer had a solid game for the Seminoles, scoring 21 points and grabbing eight rebounds in the win while shooting 50 percent from the field.
Junior forward Okaro White has been solid for the Seminoles all season, averaging 14 points and 5.6 rebounds, including 16 and nine in the win against North Florida.
"They're a really good team," White said. "Their coach (Tubby Smith) said this is probably the best team he's coached at Minnesota. ... they're looking to beat us also, so we need to come into this game prepared."
Florida State is ranked 25th in the nation in scoring, but have had issues in the frontcourt, ranking only 192nd in rebounding. The Seminoles started the season with an upset loss to South Alabama 76-71, but have since won all four games by at least a six-point margin.
Last season Florida State was 25-10 and finished third place in the ACC with a 12-4 record. The team won its first ACC tournament championship and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament where they were defeated 62-56 against Cincinnati.
Minnesota is the toughest challenge Florida State has faced this season and the Golden Gophers will be playing with some momentum after making it into the AP Top 25 for the first time this season.
The team played very well at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas last week, finishing in fifth place while winning two of three games, including a 66-63 defeat of Stanford on Saturday.
Minnesota lost to Duke 89-71 in their opening game, but rebounded to beat then-No. 19 Memphis 84-75 on Friday night. Guard Andre Hollins scored a career-high 41 points in the win and also added two assists and one steal while shooting 75 percent from the field.
Hollins had a tougher game against Stanford, scoring eight points while going 1-for-8 from the field, but he was clutch when it counted, hitting three free throws with less than one second remaining in the game to seal the victory.
"It was real tough today because I couldn't stop thinking about yesterday," said Hollins. "I knew it would be a physical game and it was. I knew it from the first shot I took when I got hit hard and they kept it up so I became a distributor for our big guys and that was fine."
The sophomore was named the named the Big Ten player of the week on Monday and has been averaging 14 points this season along with four assists.
The Gophers are only allowing 59.9 points per game and have been relying heavily on senior forward Rodney Williams, Jr., who is leading the team with 14 points per game. Williams is also averaging 6.1 rebounds and has scored in the double digits in all five games this year.
Minnesota will have a size advantage over Florida State on Tuesday with senior forward Trevor Mbakwe, who has looked fully healthy after dealing with an ACL injury last season that limited him to seven games.
Mbakwe has the most total rebounds on the team and is scoring 8.4 points and averaging 6.7 rebounds per game off of the bench. His best game of the season came against Stanford when he put up a double-double, scoring 19 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.
Last season Minnesota went 23-15 and finished tied for ninth in the Big Ten with a 6-12 record. The team was invited to the NIT Tournament at Madison Square Garden where the Gophers lost to Stanford in the championship game 75-51.
According to the Associated Press, "Florida State has won two in a row versus Minnesota -- both in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge -- to improve to 4-3 in this series. In the last meeting, the host Seminoles won 75-61 on Nov. 27, 2007."
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