The Florida State basketball team has had a week to dwell on its first loss of the season.
After coming up just short of a sizable upset in a 78-76 loss at No. 10 Florida last Tuesday, the Seminoles (2-1) finally return to action Tuesday night against UT Martin in Tallahassee, Fla.
First-year head coach Luke Loucks, accustomed to his former life as an NBA assistant, admitted after the defeat that he’s still getting used to the less-compact college basketball schedule.
“I hate it,” Loucks said of the layoff. “I’m coming from the NBA, where you play four games a week. You play a tough game like this, guess what? In 24 or 48 hours, you’re lining up again to get ready to go.”
While no coach is going to outright celebrate moral victories, there were plenty of positives to build on from such a competitive loss to the defending national champions.
On a night where the Seminoles shot 26.5% from outside the arc and just 33.8% from the floor, they were in the game until the final possession.
Florida State forced 18 turnovers and averages 18.7 forced turnovers per game.
After Robert McCray V broke the program record with 17 assists in the season opener, he scored 29 points against the Gators — including Florida State’s final 16 points over the final 6:11 of game time.
“We’re just scratching the surface right now of how good this team can be,” Loucks said.
The Skyhawks (3-0) last played Wednesday, coming away with a 78-67 win at Bradley. That was UT Martin’s second road win of the season after a season-opening 86-81 win at UNLV.
Andrija Bukumirovic averages a team-high 20.0 points per game while sharing second nationally in 3-point accuracy (69.2%).
Forward Matas Deniusas tallied a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds vs. Bradley to earn his second straight OVC Freshman of the Week honor.
“I’m just so proud of our guys,” UT Martin head coach Jeremy Shulman said after the Bradley win. ” … They’ve just bought into our system and each other. They’re just a joy to coach every day and we can’t wait to get back to work.”
