If there’s a stealth team in the ACC tournament, it might be eighth-seeded Florida State.
Once buried at the bottom of the conference standings, the Seminoles (17-14) arrive in Charlotte under the radar as one of the hottest teams in the league, having won nine of their last 11 games.
Drawing the difficult matchup with Florida State in the second round of the tournament on Wednesday night is ninth-seeded Cal (21-10).
An even tougher foe awaits the winner in the next round — a quarterfinal game against No. 1-seeded Duke, which matches its national ranking.
One of the early wins in the Seminoles’ turnaround was a 63-61 victory at home over Cal, when Chauncey Wiggins scored 18 points.
“They’re long, they’re athletic, they try to force turnovers. They do a lot of things really well,” Cal coach Mark Madsen said of Florida State on Monday.
Cal has been identified as a bubble NCAA Tournament team over the past month. At the beginning of this week, ESPN listed the Golden Bears as one of the “next four out,” following a group of “first four out.”
Cal entered Wednesday at No. 64 in the NET rankings, while Florida State was five notches lower. Translation: Both teams might have to win the ACC banner to capture a berth in the NCAA Tournament, though reaching the finals might get it done for the Golden Bears.
Cal has lost four of its last eight, including an 80-73 defeat Saturday at Wake Forest despite a career-high 31-point performance from Dai Dai Ames.
Florida State’s turnaround has been led by Robert McCray V, who paces the team in scoring (15.6 points per game) and assists (6.1 apg).
“He’s a guy that can get downhill, get into the paint,” Madsen added.
Guiding the Seminoles is first-year coach Luke Loucks, who played on the only Florida State team to win the ACC tournament in 2012.
“I truly believe we can win an ACC title if we continue to play how we’re playing right now,” Loucks said.
Last week, in discussing the stakes of the ACC tournament with his players, Loucks told them that he would not be the Seminoles’ coach at age 35 if he were not part of that championship team.
“This is the greatest opportunity if you just perform for one week of your life. You get 20, 30, 40 years of benefits out of it,” Loucks said.
