Coming off an 85-75 upset of then-17th ranked Wake Forest, Virginia will look to stay undefeated at University Hall when Florida State comes to town tonight at 7.
The Cavaliers (11-6, 2-3 ACC) should be well rested, having six days off since beating the Demon Deacons last Thursday. That win snapped a three-game skid, with all three losses coming away from the cozy confines of U-Hall.
Junior guard Todd Billet led Virginia against Wake with 23 points, and sophomore forward Devin Smith added 17 points. The bigger story, however, was the effort on defense late in the game, enabling the Cavaliers to slow the Deacons to only 34 points and 34.5 percent shooting in the second half.
"I'm very proud of our team," Virginia Coach Pete Gillen said after the win. "We were desperate for a victory at home after losing three in a row. I thought our defense was good."
The rest is a welcome relief for a Virginia team that played four games in eight days.
"It will be a nice break to rest up," Billet said. "Some of the guys are banged up."
Though the Seminoles (10-7, 1-5) sit at the bottom of the ACC, the Cavaliers' offense will have to be in sync tonight. Florida State plays a stingy man-to-man defense, a trademark of first-year coach Leonard Hamilton.
The Seminoles rank second in the ACC in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to a paltry 38 percent. The pesky defense forces more than ten steals per game and allows only 65.3 points per game, good for a close third in the ACC. Florida State's weakness decidedly is its offense, ranking last in the ACC.
The Cavaliers are quite the opposite, ranking last in scoring defense but putting up over 76 points per game.
Virginia will look to use a marked size advantage inside to exploit the Seminoles who rank last in the conference in rebounding.
Against Wake, Gillen used a big lineup with 6-foot-8 sophomore Jason Clark playing small forward, 6-foot-8 senior Travis Watson playing power forward and 6-foot-10 junior center Nick Vander Laan manning the middle.
Clark and Vander Laan "bring a lot of defensive energy and rebounding," Billet said. "Rebounding was one of our emphases [against Wake] and that really helped us out."
Watson, who leads the ACC in rebounding with an even 10 boards per outing, will need to assert himself inside to take advantage of potential mismatches.
The Seminoles are coming off a 71-60 defeat at Wake Forest. Their sole ACC win came at home against Clemson on Jan. 21, and they, like Virginia, have not won a conference game on the road. The Seminoles also dropped a home game to N.C. State.
Florida State is led by junior guard Tim Pickett, a junior college transfer averaging 18 points per game. Most recently, however, Pickett recorded a 27-point outing against Wake Forest. The 6-foot-4 guard leads the ACC in both steals -- averaging nearly 3.5 thefts per game -- and three-pointers, with 55. Pickett, despite his size, also leads the Seminoles in rebounds.
The game tonight will not be televised and is Virginia's last home game in the first half of the ACC schedule.
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