VCU vs. Florida State scouting report

Quinn Casteel
Staff Writer
Commonwealth Times’ Sports Twitter

Strengths: The Seminoles finished third in the ACC due in large part to their solid half-court defense. Entering Friday’s contest against VCU, Florida St. allowed just 61 PPG, holding opponents to an abysmal 36 percent field goal rate. Head coach Leonard Hamilton’s roster is chocked full of long, athletic players who take a great deal of pride in getting after it on the defensive side.

That outstanding team defense has been on full display throughout the postseason. In their ACC Tournament loss to Virginia Tech, the Seminoles allowed just 52 points on 31 percent shooting. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, they held Texas A&M to 50 points, the Aggies’ lowest total of the season.

Perhaps even more impressive was their stifling effort in the second round against Notre Dame, arguably the best offensive team in the country. Tim Abromaitis and Ben Hansbrough did their usual damage with 21 and 18 respectively, but the rest of the Irish players were virtually irrelevant as Florida St. cruised to a 71-57 upset.

Weaknesses: With so much emphasis on defense, the Seminoles are prone to seeing their offense suffer as a result. In the aforementioned matchup with Virginia Tech, they gave up 52 but still lost the game because of their own poor offensive execution. To date, Florida St. has averaged 69 PPG, but the consistency has not been there.

In the NCAA Tournament, having a dominant offensive talent can carry a team through close games. Unfortunately for Florida St., they don’t have someone that can do that for them on a consistent basis. At 13 PPG, Chris Singleton is the team’s leading scorer; but the defensive-minded forward has a tendency to implode as a shooter for long stretches.

Notable players: Singleton may not be among the nation’s elite scorers, but he does a lot of other things well that make him Florida St.’s best player. At six-foot nine with an even longer wingspan, he has the size and the savvy to shut down a top offensive threat like a Bradford Burgess or Jamie Skeen. Singleton was second in the ACC with 2.1 steals per game, and eighth in the conference with 1.6 blocks per game. He is also the team’s leading rebounder at 6.7 per game.

Derwin Kitchen, at 10 PPG is the only other Seminole to average double figures this season. Kitchen is a physical player with the ability to put up big numbers in every area of the stat sheet. He is the team’s second most efficient shooter with a field goal percentage just under 50 percent, and he rebounds extremely well for a 6’ 4” guard. He also leads the team in assists and is just behind his teammate at third in the ACC in steals.

Keys to the game: Singleton’s health is still a major concern for Florida St. He played just 10 minutes against Notre Dame and did not record a point. Bernard James filled the void with 14 points in his place, but the Seminoles can’t count on him to duplicate that.

VCU is stacked with talented offensive players who love to get out and run. Georgetown and Purdue tried to get away with only using a six or seven man rotation against them and failed miserably. The Rams’ deep rotation ran them until they were gassed and the games got ugly in the second half.

If Florida St. is to take down VCU, they will have to find the same balance of offensive execution and defensive energy that they had against Notre Dame. If they try to get into a three point contest with VCU’s sharpshooters, the game could get ugly fast. If they turn it into a grind-it-out struggle, the Rams’ depth could make them pay just as they did against in the second half against Georgetown.

A balanced attack will be crucial for Florida St.