I decide to start Sneed over McCants today with McCants' nagging ankle injury. Sneed has been playing very well whenever he's been in in for quite some time as well. He's not quite as good a rebounder but I expect very little dropoff overall.
March 25, 2023 – NCAA Elite Eight
(1) Florida State (28-6) vs (3) Mississippi (25-7)
TEAM: FSU|MISS
OVR: 95|93
OFF: 93|93
DEF: 94|90
SHT: 94|94
REB: 96|93
COA: 88|93
We've coasted to the Elite Eight, blowing out our toughest opponent and getting a Cinderella who had gone as far as they were able to in the Sweet 16. This will be my second shot at getting to a final four, the first coming during a cardiac style run to the Elite Eight with Arkansas, playing three incredible games in a row that were all 1-2 point thrillers. Its a lot different as the favorite, as after 3 fairly boring games we've got to come out and play at our highest level just like that.
Ole Miss is a very strong team, 2
nd in the SEC behind #1 in the nation Vanderbilt. They average 86 points/game, and they have a returning 1
st team all american in SG Famutimi. He terrifies me. I'm reminded of Ga Tech's SG Shavies, I don't think we've held him under 20 the last 5 times we've played them. Famutimi averages 22, I would not be surprised to see him put up 35 here.
Scouting
PG Martynas Rost – JR – 83 OVR – 93 speed/89 quickness. 89 defense/76 steals. 83 hands/93 passing, average handling but great(A) passing. 81 close/71 med/74 3/92 off the dribble. 78 off awareness/77 def awareness. None of these guys have weak awareness. Rost is a solid compliment to these 88+ rated guys. 5.5 ppg/3.7 rpg.
SG DeMario Famutimi – SR – 91 OVR – 94 speed/88 quickness. 88 defense/88 steals. 88 close/89 med/88 3/88 off the dribble/87 in traffic. 97 hustle, decent leaper, good strength for a guard. 76 off awareness/78 def awareness. A true bonafide superstar, freshman of the year a few years ago, improved as a soph, 23.1 ppg as a junior, 22.3 ppg as a senior.
JR Timmy Batte – JR – 88 OVR – 6'7” SF – 86 speed/80 quickness. 79 defense/82 steals. A great offesnive rebounder(88). And a great post player if he needs to be, Ozier sure won't be posting him up. 85 close/92 med/74 3/6 in traffic. Batte averages 11.4 ppg.
JR Glenn Almond – JR – 88 OVR – 6'9” PF – 81 orb/84 drb. 83 post off/79 post def. 78 blocks/68 steals. 94 close/92 med/77 3/92 in traffic. 84 off awarenes/82 def, coach on the floor easy. 80 str, great hustle as well. Almond is the #2 man on the team for obvious reasons, 15.2 ppg/6.0 rpg.
C Cameron Bazin – SO – 76 OVR – 6'9” C – 83 orb/80 drb. 87 post off/76 post def. 72 blocks(C+, not great really). 90 close/82 in traffic. 87 str, very very strong. 70 off awareness/69 def awareness.
6'10” SF Shavlik Pearson is rated 88 OVR and comes off the bench. He has guard speed, PF rebounding and can score from all over. 93 close/82 in traffic, a good mid range shot. He aveages 9 ppg/6 rpg off the bench.
Backup SG Rans Jorgusen is rated 81 OVR, a freshman, with a 91 rated 3 point shot. A solid threat off the bench, he has no awareness but looks like a great spot up shooter. 6.1 ppg.
It would appear that our edge comes inside. We have a big height advantage, a solid enough rebounding advatnage. Their bigs are good enough in the post that I don't expect to walk all over them, but I do expect to have some success attacking the rim and think its not unlikely that we can get them in foul trouble, and win the rebounding battle.
They go 9 deep rated 75+. They aren't as deep or as talented top to bottom as we are, and that's where we'll hopefully be able to take advantage. Their stars are incredible though.
We have a 94-86 unity edge, pretty minimal really.
Half
| Time
| FSU
| MISS
| Notes
|
1
| 16:15
| 7
| 4
| We get on the board first with a Sneed 3 point play and all our early points come inside. Sneed has 5, Sanders 2.
|
1
| 13:41
| 17
| 7
| They hit a 3 to make it 9-7, then Forte hits two straight 3's for us and Barrett draws a foul and scores 2 at the line, we're playing outstanding early. Timeout Ole Miss.
|
1
| 1154
| 17
| 7
| Backups are in.
|
1
| 9:35
| 17
| 13
| They hit threes on back to back possessions, and I go cold. An offensive rebound on a later possession gives them a 6th man boost, though they miss the putback and we rebound. I call a timeout to kill the 6th man.
|
1
| 5:45
| 27
| 23
| The starters have been queued up for awhile now but I am not using timeouts if I don't need to. They scored 12 straight on 3's to get from 7 to 19 points but we stayed ahead the whole time. They've cut it to 1 twice, at 22-21, Day hit a 3 then Alloway got a layup on the break to make it 27-21, and they just scored again to make it a 4 point game. Anyway, backups are still in but theyre scoring now so its all good.
|
1
| 4:50
| 29
| 23
| Starters are finally back in as Alloway commits a reach in.
|
| HALF
| 40
| 31
| We score the last 4 points of the half and take a solid 9 point lead into the locker room. Really everything is going well. We're shooting 60%, they are at 50%. We are getting points from all over, no one is ice cold or anything, our offense is just working, and while they're dangerous, they're not as consistent as we are right now.
SF Batte is 3-3 from 3, 9 points. SG Famutimi is 2-2 from 3 and has 8 points. A number of others have 2-4 points. They're 5-10 from 3.
Sanders is really strong, 4-5 on the half for 8 points. He attacked the rim well and was hitting his post shots when he could back his man down. Sneed has 5 points, so we're solid in the paint. Forte and Barrett have 6 each, Forte has 2 3's, Barrett all driving to the rack.
We have a 13-10 edge on the boards, turnovers are even.
|
2
| 18:04
| 49
| 31
| Holy crap!! Famutimi misses his first two 3's of the half. Forte hits one, then Barrett burns his man in the half court, we go up 45-31. On the next trip they throw the ball away trying to feed the post, and Barrett gets a dunk in transition. The next trip they fall over trying to bring the ball upcourt, Forte grabs it and goes in for a dunk, we have a big 6th man boost going and all of a sudden are up 18!!!!
|
2
| 17:07
| 52
| 34
| We build the lead up to 21 before they finally hit a 3 to get on the board in the second half.
|
2
| 15:34
| 57
| 36
| Mississippi finally realizes how dire their situation has become and calls a timeout. Forte just hit another open 3 and Sneed is in double figures down low.
|
2
| 11:55
| 65
| 47
| Sneed scores 8 straight(55->63) and then Barrett gets a bucket and we actually take a 25 point lead, they're on an 8-0 run now. Batte is trying to keep them in the game by himself. He's 5-6 from 3 and just picked up a 3 point play, he's got 20 total. I get a timeout and get the backups in.
|
2
| 10:45
| 68
| 47
| Day hits a 3, they get a TO.
|
2
| 9:05
| 74
| 47
| Day has our last 9 points in a row, he's got 14 total and is showing the type of explosiveness I am going to hope he can give us next season as a starter, he's streaky but when he is hot from 3 with his insanely high 3 point ratings holy crap he's good. We are up 27!!! timeout Miss.
|
2
| 5:00
| 74
| 54
| They score 7 straight but with 5 minutes left we still lead by 20. The backups are staying in unless Ole Miss can make a run.
|
2
| 4:05
| 77
| 56
| Day hits another 3 and we lead by 21 with just over 4 left. I'm not saying anything yet, no jinxing!
|
2
| 2:00
| 77
| 60
| Still up 17, I'll go ahead and say it. FINAL FOUR HERE WE COME!!!!!
|
WOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo
(1) Florida State 79
(3) Mississippi 64
Otis Sneed is the player of the game, I guess the decision to start him over McCants was a good one. Greg shows us the pontiac game changing performance and its a dunk by Forte, its the steal in the backcourt and dunk early in the second half when we got off to such a great start.
Batte is there star today. He goes 5-6 from 3, 8-13 from the floor and scores 22. Famutimi scores 13, but Barrett does a great job limiting his ability to drive and create easy looks for himself. PF Almond 8, PG Rost 7, C Bazin 6, backup SF Pearson 6 and a backup guard scored 2 for them.
They shoot 9-18 from 3 but its nowhere near enough.
Forte: 14 points (4-6 from 3)
Barrett: 12 points
Ozier: 3 points/3 boards/3 steals
Sanders: 8 points/4 boards
Sneed: 16 points/7 boards
Day: 17 points (4-9 from 3)
Alloway: 4 points
McClurkin 3 points/5 boards (go go PG Rebounding)
Millar: 2 points/5 boards
McCants: 0 points/1 board
We win the rebound battle 27-24, and we keep up with their great 3 point shooting, going 9-20 from 3. We just shoot better and they cannot stop us, while we were able to limit their all american to about 10 points under his average.
FLORIDA STATE IS GOING TO THE FINAL FOUR