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Teams: Syracuse Orange (8-8, 2-3) vs. Florida State Seminoles (9-5, 3-2)
Day & Time: Saturday, January 15, 3 pm ET
Location: Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Line: Will be updated morning of game from DraftKings (odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details).
TV/Streaming: ESPN, WatchESPN
Radio: Cuse.com, TK 99/105, WAER 88.3
Florida State Blog: Tomahawk Nation
Rivalry: 8-5, Syracuse
Current Streak: 1, Syracuse
First Meeting: The two teams met for the first time on January 29, 1914. Syracuse won 36-29, with Lew Castle leading all scorers with 20 points.
Last Meeting: A switch to the 1-1-3 zone at halftime helped to stifle the Florida State offense. The defensive momentum also kickstarted the Syracuse offense, with the Orange shooting 50% in the second half. That led to a 63-60 victory for Syracuse.
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Head Coaches: Syracuse - Jim Boeheim (46th year, 1,091-417) | Florida State - Leonard Hamilton (Leonard Hamilton (20th year, 409–233)
Coach Bio: Hamilton played college basketball at Gaston CC and UT Martin. He immediately went into coaching at Austin Peay before moving to Kentucky. Hamilton was with the Wildcats when they won the 1978 NCAA tournament and stayed as an assistant with Kentucky for 13 years. His first head coaching job came with Oklahoma State for four years before joining Miami for 10 years. His last season with the Hurricanes saw Miami finish tied for first in the Big East and a Sweet 16 appearance.
His success with Miami brought a move to the NBA, as Hamilton went to the Washington Wizards in 2000. Unfortunately, the Wizards only won 19 games that season and Hamilton was fired. Hamilton returned to coaching with Florida State in 2002 where he has stayed since. The Seminoles won the 2012 ACC tournament and made the NCAA tournament eight times, with an Elite Eight appearance in 2018.
Last Year: Florida State finished second in the ACC with an 11-4 record and was ranked as high as No. 11 in the polls. The Seminoles lost to Georgia Tech in the ACC semifinals but still did enough to get a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. Florida State made the Sweet 16 but lost to No. 1 seed Michigan.
Last Game: Florida State won a back-and-forth game against Miami with the Seminoles dominating on the boards 37-25. 17 second-chance points for Florida State led to a 65-64 win.
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“Fear Me, I’ve Killed Hundreds of Timelords”: Caleb Mills is still leading the Seminoles with 12.6 points per game. The dangerous thing about Mills is that he’s also a facilitator with 39 assists on the season, one behind the team leader Anthony Polite.
If Syracuse Wins: Never doubt a Boeheim when he’s put in a compromising position.
If Syracuse Loses: Blame Cassillo for leaving. Direct correlation.
Fun Fact: When Syracuse won against Florida State in December, the Orange broke the Seminoles’ ACC home winning streak which was over 20 games at the time.