Michigan Basketball: Who are the Florida State Seminoles?
Bench
Florida State’s sixth man could be their most dangerous player, and that is freshman phenom, Scottie Barnes. Barnes is listed at 6’9″ and plays predominantly point guard for the Seminoles. While he isn’t much of an outside shooter at just 29.7% on the season from three, he drives the ball well and his length makes him tough to stop at the rim. He leads his team in both assists and steals per game at 4.1 and 1.5 respectively.
Next off the bench is junior forward Malik Osborne who averages nearly six points and over four rebounds per night. Like Barnes, he is also 6’9″, however, he is a slightly better shooter at 33% this season on 45 attempts. Osborne had 11 points off the bench in Florida State’s victory over Colorado.
At 6’6″ Sardaar Calhoun is one of the bigger shooting guards that the Wolverines will have seen all season. Calhoun’s length allows him to shoot over defenders from deep where he has claimed a success rate of 40% this season. While he is a good shooter, he only averages less than one three made per game on over two attempts, and he has only scored in double figures four times this season.
Backing up the center position for the Seminoles is senior Tanor Ngom who stands at 7’2″. He only plays 6.5 minutes per night but averages 0.6 blocks. That tells me that he has shot-blocking talent and not just size. Ngom is predictably not much of a scoring threat but is actually very skilled at the free-throw line where he has posted an 89.5% conversion rate this season.
Rounding out the bench for Florida State are two guards, Wyatt Wilkes and Nathanael Jack. Wilkes stands at a long 6’8″ whereas Jack is only 6’5″. Both players’ roles are to be floor spacers from deep as both shoot about 38% from three but have a combined 13 free throw attempts throughout this season.
Wilkes and Jack will be names to watch off the bench for a spot-up three here and there as Scottie Barnes and FSU’s other long wings aim to probe the interior of the Michigan basketball defense.
Style
Florida State plays at a similar pace to LSU. Unlike LSU, the Seminoles tend to be quite careless with the basketball as they turn it over on 20.4% of their possessions, according to Kenpom.
The Seminoles are an excellent offensive rebounding team but struggle to limit offensive rebounds on the other end.
They are a talented offensive team, as they shoot 38.2% from three which ranks 15th nationally, and nearly 53% overall from the field, coming in at 59th nationally.
Defensively, Florida State has a top ten 2-point defense, and a block rate of 14.6% which sits at 11th nationally. With the sheer length of the Seminoles, these statistics should not be surprising. As I said before, this will be possibly the longest and most athletic team the Wolverines will face all season.