TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (seminoles.com) -- Florida State will embark on its toughest ACC basketball schedule as it travels to play at Clemson on Jan. 2 before playing host to North Carolina on Jan. 4 at the Donald L. Tucker Center as the ACC released the conference portion of the schedules for all 15 conference teams. The Seminoles will play host to the Tar Heels, Virginia (Jan. 17), Pitt (Jan. 23) and Clemson (Jan. 30) during the month of January, NC State (Feb. 1), Miami (Feb. 14), Georgia Tech (Feb. 17) and Notre Dame (Feb. 27) in February and will close out their home schedule against Syracuse (March 5) before heading to the 63rd Annual ACC Tournament at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. (March 9-13).
Florida State will play six of its nine home conference games on either a Saturday or a Sunday – giving Seminole fans across the state ample opportunities to travel to Tallahassee for some of the best basketball the conference has to offer. The Seminoles play host to the last three ACC Champions on a weekend day with Virginia (2014 ACC Champion on a Sunday), Miami (2013 ACC Champion on a Sunday) and Notre Dame (2015 ACC Champion on a Saturday) along with conference powers Pitt (on a Saturday), Clemson (on a Saturday) and Syracuse (on a Saturday) all making weekend visits to Florida State.
The Seminoles will play host to North Carolina (on a Monday), NC State (on a Monday) and Georgia Tech (on a Wednesday) in weekday games.
“I believe our ACC home schedule will bring as many and probably more strong teams to the Tucker Center than ever before,” said head coach Leonard Hamilton. “Our fans are going to continue to see that the ACC is without a doubt the best college basketball conference in the country with this season’s home schedule. This season is going to be non-stop great basketball action.”
Florida State’s road schedule looks to be just as tough as its schedule at home. The Seminoles are scheduled to travel to Clemson (Jan. 2) to open its ACC schedule, play back to back road games at Miami (Jan. 9) and at NC State (Jan. 13), play at Louisville for the first time as members of the ACC (Jan. 20), play at Boston College (Jan. 26), at Wake Forest (Feb. 6), at Syracuse (Feb. 11), at Virginia Tech (Feb. 20) and at Duke (Feb. 25) before closing out the season with its final two league games at home.
The Seminoles play back-to-back home games twice and consecutive road games three times during the season. They play four home games and five road games in the first half of the season with five home games and four road games coming in the second half of the season. Florida State plays seven ACC games against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament a year ago (four at home and three on the road) and three more (Miami and Pitt) that played in the NIT in 2015.
“Our schedule will certainly help our team improve quickly – it has to,” said Hamilton. “We play four of our first six games of the conference season against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last season with three of those games on the road in very tough places to play. There are no breaks, no nights off, no breathers. We need our fans to be our sixth man at home and we need to be tough mentally on the road. That’s life in the ACC.”
The Seminoles will be one of the most nationally televised teams in the ACC with at least 11 of their 18 ACC games on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. The Seminoles open their ACC home schedule on ESPN against North Carolina as part of ESPN’s Big Monday package. From there a total of four games could be added to ESPN’s air with games at Syracuse and at Duke and games at home against Notre Dame and Syracuse slated for either ESPN or ESPN2 at this time.
Florida State will play one of the tougher conference schedules as released by the ACC with games at Duke (the Blue Devils won the National Championship and finished second in the ACC standings in 2016), at Louisville (the Cardinals advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and finished fourth in the ACC standings), at NC State (the Wolfpack advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and finished sixth in the 2015 ACC standings) and at Miami (the Hurricanes advanced to the finals of the 2015 NIT). The Seminoles’ home ACC schedule includes Virginia (the Cavaliers were a No. 2 seed in the 2015 NCAA Tournament and won the regular season ACC championship), Notre Dame (the Fighting Irish advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and won their first ACC Championship), North Carolina (the Tar Heels advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament) and Syracuse (who won the national championship in 2003 and who advanced to the NCAA Final Four as recently as 2013).
Under 14th-year head coach Leonard Hamilton, the Seminoles are the third winningest program in the ACC behind only Duke and North Carolina. Florida State won its first ACC Championship in 2012. The ACC is home to three of the top five (North Carolina, Duke and Syracuse), four of the top nine and 11 of the top 25 winningest college basketball programs in history of college basketball.
Florida State is the only team in the ACC that returns each of its five starters from a season ago as it heads into the 2015-16 season. The Seminoles return their top six scorers including the ACC’s leading returning scorer in sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mayes (14.9 ppg). The Seminoles also return their leading rebounder (Montay Brandon, 5.5 rpg), their leading shot blocker (Boris Bojanovsky, 1.3 bpg) and their leader in assists (Rathan-Mayes, 4.3 apg). Florida State also welcomes in the most heralded recruiting class in school history with McDonald’s All-American Dwayne Bacon (1,119 total points in 2014-15), Malik Beasley (22.2 ppg as a senior in high school), Terance Mann (23.1 ppg as a senior in high school, Chris Koumadje (played on the National Champion Montverde Academy team) and Benji Bell (who led NW Florida State to the junior college national championship).
Tickets are now on sale for the 2015-16 season. We are asking Tallahassee to ‘FAN UP’ and make the Tucker Center a true home court advantage. Various ticket packs are available ranging from seasons, to ACC packs. Tickets can be ordered on-line at Seminoles.com or by calling (888) FSU-NOLE (378-6653).
