As the college season continues to ramp up the Florida Gators (1-1) will set their sights towards an increase in the win column when they take on the Florida State Seminoles in a rivalry game that, well, not only hasn’t felt like all that much of a rivalry recently–but only seems to get a bit stranger with every single year.
Now, for many years this was a spicy rivalry, one of those games on the schedule every year where it doesn’t matter if one team is great and the other is struggling, it just finds a way to be a battle that comes down to the final possession. Recently, that just hasn’t been the case. It started with Florida State’s best years coming during a time when the Gators were down, and it allowed the Seminoles to rattle off 7 straight wins from 2015 to 2021, something that started taking the heat out of the rivalry. During this time, coach Leonard Hamilton had the Seminoles operating at near the top of the sport where they were competing with Duke, North Carolina, and Louisville at the top of the ACC and often coming out ahead. Not only were they consistently putting together better rosters than Florida, but their length and athleticism and the pressure style they could play with it gave the Gators fits. Then, things completely swung. Florida State started slowly struggling to get talent, and when NIL was introduced the Seminoles were far behind the Gators, and the rivalry completely flipped. After FSU took 7 straight wins, Florida started firing back winning the next 4, which brings us to this year. Not only have the Gators won 4 straight, but they won each game comfortably with the closest margin of victory being 9 points. Perhaps this rivalry will one day rise to prominence again, but the way that both teams’ ups and downs over the last decade and change completely mirrored each other has meant that there hasn’t really been a battle of strength on strength, and it has made for a streaky rivalry that hasn’t had the same juice it once did.
After a few rough years that saw the Seminoles underachieve, long time head coach Leonard Hamilton chose to retire, opening up a chance for Florida State to completely reset and usher in a new era. They chose to hire former Seminole player Luke Loucks who spent a number of years in the NBA as an assistant coach, someone who they thought could inject some new energy into the building. This will be Loucks’ first opportunity as a head coach and his first year in college so he is a bit of an unknown, but the expectation is that he will bring a much more free-flowing style than what Leonard Hamilton was displaying. As of publishing this article the Seminoles are 1-0 with a convincing 108-76 win over Alcorn State, though before the Florida game they will also have taken on Alabama State. Both of these opponents are sub-280 in KenPom, so the matchup with Florida will be their first look at a high-major opponent and Loucks’ first chance at really making some noise.
While it can be difficult to take anything away from a game against a low-major opponent, Florida State did play a much more potent offensive style than what we’re used to seeing from the Seminoles, and it’s something that Florida fans will have to get used to–this is not the Leonard Hamilton Florida State teams. While the Seminoles still boast great size and length up and down the roster, they aren’t quite the same level of in your face athlete, but the tradeoff is that they boast a lot more offensive upside and skill. One player who impressed in Florida State’s opening matchup was 6’4” point guard Robert McCray who finished with 12 points and, wait for it–17 assists. That is not a typo–he truly had 17 assists, a number that Florida State would have been lucky to get as a team over the last few years. If the name Robert McCray sounds familiar to you it’s because he spent last year at Jacksonville and played against the Gators and gave them all kinds of problems finishing with 20 points (and, somewhat humorously given his start at Florida State–0 assists) and he could present challenges to Florida’s backcourt. Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland seemed to struggle a bit with physicality against Arizona and McCray brings a ton of that downhill toughness where he can bully his way into the paint and make a play.
Bringing more size to the perimeter group is 6’7” St. Bonaventure transfer LaJae Jones, who was excellent against Alcorn State, and 6’5” Kobe Magee, a Drexel transfer who hit 44% of his threes last year and started this season going 3-6 from deep, so he’s the kind of guy who is bringing the shooting and floor spacing that the Seminoles have missed in recent years.
With Florida boasting so much depth in the frontcourt you know that opponents will have to have bodies down low to compete and Florida State has a couple capable ones in Chauncey Wiggins and Alex Steen. Wiggins is a veteran ACC center who spent the last few years at Clemson where he was a capable starter at 6’10” and 225 pounds, and he went to Florida State for more of an offensive role than the defensive one he was used in with the Tigers. That brought strong returns against Alcorn State where he led the Seminoles in scoring with 22 points, and that will make him a focus against the Gators. Steen is a rare division-2 to high-major transfer, but he played at powerhouse Florida Southern who could compete with many mid-major D1 teams, and he showed just how ready he is for the higher level against Alcorn State where he started and finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds.
Going into Florida State’s first high-major game in the Luke Loucks era the Seminoles are still a bit unknown, but their roster has good size and experience up and down, and while they might not be loaded with offensive talent they have capable players, and they certainly have pieces that could give the Gators trouble. Size advantage on the perimeter definitely favors Florida State, and the Gators will have to use their skill and speed in order to be successful. And, of course, Florida will be looking to improve on their 22% from three through two games.
Florida and Florida State will tip off Tuesday, November 11th at 7 PM ET, and it will be televised on SEC Network.