Florida State dominated the first half of its game against Clemson over the weekend before the Tigers clawed their way back in the final 20 minutes to cut the deficit to three. Clemson couldn’t quite get over the hump to pull off the home win, but the game gave insights into both teams going forward.

1. Devin Booker could be first-team All-ACC. Here, “could” implies that it is possible based on his abilities — not that it is likely to happen. Erick Green will probably steal the spot on first team thanks to his incredibly high usage and gaudy scoring numbers, but Booker looked tremendous against the Seminoles’ long, inexperienced front line. He has got a wide array of post moves, good range (though not as good as his brother’s), and the strength of an ox.
   

   Devin Booker is underutilized by Clemson (Credit: IPTAY Media)

   Why head coach Brad Brownell couldn’t find a way to get Booker the ball more often is beyond me. Part of the blame falls on Booker, who disappears for large stretches of the game, but much of the responsibility goes to the Clemson guards and Milton Jennings, who tried to do way too much. If the Tigers are going to finish decently this season, they have to get Booker’s usage up significantly. The ball has to run through him. He was every bit as impressive as Mason Plumlee was on Saturday by finishing with 19 points and 11 boards on 8-of-11 shooting.

2. Florida State’s front line will be very, very good — in a year or two. Specifically, I expect freshman Boris Bojanovsky to be an excellent player for Leonard Hamilton. He has incredible touch for a 7’3″ guy and a very nice-looking shot. Assuming he can bulk up some, he could become a premier post player in the ACC as soon as next season. Freshman Michael Ojo is also an interesting player. At 7’1″ and 290 pounds, there’s not an ounce of fat on him, but he doesn’t have the body control needed to play at ACC speed yet. Still his physical gifts warrant taking a chance on him — at the very least, he should be good for strong interior defense once he understands where to be.
3. Littlejohn Coliseum is a terrific place to see a game. The arena seats just over 10,000 people and gets very loud. Even with students still on holiday vacation, the atmosphere was very good for the second half. For a school with very little historical basketball success, there’s a Cameron Indoor-esque homecourt advantage waiting if Brad Brownell can get the Tigers near contention, but he and his team have some work to do before they get there.

mpatton (576 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2013 at 1:54 pm by mpatton and is filed under acc, microsites. Tagged: boris bojanovsky, brad brownell, clemson, devin booker, florida state, leonard hamilton, littlejohn coliseum, Michael Ojo, milton jennings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.