November 15, 2020 – Palm Tree Shootout
Florida State (2-0) vs Tennessee (3-0)
TEAM: FSU|TEN
OVR: 88|82
OFF: 87|84
DEF: 89|81
SHT: 88|88
REB: 92|88
COA: 86|95
Bruce Pearl is now a 400 win coach, but this doesn't look to be one of his better teams. The SEC actually has 6 teams in the top 25 right now, and Tennessee isn't one of them.
Scouting
PG Dereck Nelson – SR – 77 OVR – 89 speed/83 quickness. 85 hands/88 passing. 86 defense/80 steals. A solid defender and ball handler, and that's really all Nelson is about. He isn't going to burn you with his speed, and he isn't going to kill you with his offense. 79 close/76 med/72 3. 84 off the dribble is nice though. He also has pretty poor awareness. 73 off/66 def. The defensive awareness is really low.
SG Jamal Bowers – SR – 77 OVR – 91 speed/83 quickness. 88 defense/71 steals. 81 close/78 med/83 3. Solid fundamental skills. The quickness hurts his abilities a little but he's still looking like a great on ball defender and very very good shooter. Just 7 points/game so far though and this is his first year as a starter.
SF Lawrence Borders – JR – 72 OVR – 6'9 – natural PF. Awful, awful defensive skills, 70 def/76 steals. 87 close/68 med/74 3. Not bad at all for a PF, but he's only average handling the ball even for a big man, and he's slow. Ozier is only 6'5” but has solid post skills so I'm not worried about Borders hurting us inside too much, and Ozier should have a massive edge given the poor defense and speed here.
PF Darmetreis Pierce – JR – 75 OVR – 6'11” PF – 78 orb/76 drb. 73 post off/76 post def. 88 close/87 in traffic. He's strong (75/B+) and he's a great shot blocker (85/A-). But his post play and rebounding leave a good bit to be desired. He does have 16 ppg early on so far.
C Jarrad Falkner – FR – 75 OVR – 6'10” PF – 77 orb/78 drb. 85 post off/81 post def. 73 blocks. 92 close/81 in traffic. Falkner is going to be extremely good, and he'll be a threat in the post a lot more than Pierce this game I would imagine. But he's only playing his 4
th game and has a lot to work on to become a good rebounder. Also I notice his strength is only 61 (C+ for a PF). All four of our big men, starters and backups, have 70+ str, McCants and Slater 75+, so hopefully we manhandle Falkner in the post.
Tennessee has 8 guys rated 70+, but they don't have any stars and just don't have any threats that stand out. We really ought to have a nice edge here.
Half
| Time
| FSU
| UT
| Notes
|
1
| 11:40
| 15
| 18
| Lots of offense early. Sneed scores our first 8 points and Forte adds 5 more. They have 5 from their SG Bowers and balance across the lineup to have this early lead.
|
1
| 6:40
| 25
| 32
| Two turnovers allow Tennessee to go on a 9-2 run to break a 23-23 tie. I get a timeout and get the starters back in. We're scoring well but they're scoring every time down.
|
1
| 2:10
| 28
| 41
| When it says FSU At Tennessee does that really matter on a neutral floor? Sure feels like a road game. They're shooting 62% so far, 4/7 from 3 and have 8 more shots than us. 16 assists on their 18 made Fgs. This is awful. I'm down to 3 timeouts left for the game as I call yet another one.
|
| HALF
| 30
| 41
| We shut them down in the final 2 minutes but only manage 1 more bucket. They shoot 56% in the half, we shoot 40%. Its only as close as it is because we drew 7 fouls on them and went 9-11 at the line, while they only made 1 of their 4 free throws.
Backup guard Evtimov has 9 for them, PF Pierce with 7 and SG Bowers with 7. On our end Sneed has 8, going cold after scoring our first 8 points. The rest of the starters are 2-10 from the floor. Forte and Moye have 5.
|
2
| 15:00
| 37
| 46
| Still down 9 but the momentum is ours with 6 of the last 8 points, and a blcoked shot by McCants just triggered a 6th man bonus for us.
|
2
| 12:10
| 46
| 52
| We get it down to 6 but are still allowing them to score too easily too often. They've got 13 from PF Pierce now. On our end, McCants sucked in every missed shot Tennessee had for awhile there, he's up to 10 boards. Backups are in.
|
2
| 10:30
| 48
| 60
| Dammit! They hit two straight 3's and get their 4th 6th man boost of the game. I call a timeout. I've got Barrett on Bowers, their main backcourt threat.
|
2
| 9:45
| 50
| 61
| All our starters but McCants are back in. Presumably being a finals of a tournament we've got at least one more 6th man boost coming which should help us out. McCants was active earlier in the half and is more tired than the rest. Ozier's in now but Barrett might finish out the game for defense.
|
2
| 6:45
| 53
| 67
| McCants is back in, this just feels completely hopeless. It really feels like a true road game, but its not anything like that.
|
2
| 6:30
| 53
| 67
| We just got a turnover thanks to a 3 second violation. Ozier has his man 1 on 1, burns by him... and misses a nearly uncontested layup. This is what i'm talking about here heh.
|
2
| 6:25
| 53
| 67
| Barrett is in for Ozier. We just committed foul #7. Tennessee helps us out again by missing the front end.
|
2
| 5:20
| 55
| 70
| I get my next to last timeout, as its unlikely we are getting any more 6th man boosts after all, I need the rest.
|
2
| 4:00
| 57
| 72
| Still at 15 at the 4 minute mark.
|
We never get it below 12.
Tennessee 86
Florida State 68
I'm really, really surprised at this result. A close game and even a loss, we're still young, ok I can buy that. But this was just a terrible performance without any explanation whatsoever. Their PF Pierce goes 7-8 from the field, 10-11 at the line. 24 points. Center Falkner is 6-10 for 12 points. Bowers with 16.
Forte: 7 points
Moye: 19 points (just 6-13 from the field)
Ozier: 5 points/5 boards (1-6 from the field)
Sneed: 8 points/5 boards (3-11... made his first 3, missed his next 8)
McCants: 10 points/11 boards
Slater: 7 points
McCants is the only starter on the team to shoot over 50% from the field. He was 4-7. Conference play is where its at, and we're 2-1 and off to an acceptable start, but we need to get better than this.