1. Is it me, or does the college basketball season – like the crabgrass shoots in my front yard – keep getting longer? Spoiler alert: not me. When Ham first took the floor for FSU the season began on November
24th. Back then, the regular season was 27 games. Now it’s 31. Starting next year, that goes to 32. The Kentucky coach wants it to be 40. If you read Matt’s insightful article about the schedule, you’ll know that the NCAA has created a stupid system which incentivizes power 4 schools to avoid good mid-majors and instead play the worst teams in the nation and the beat them by 40. Mark Pope wants nine more of those games on his schedule. No one has explained how this is better for fans. But then, in the modern sports ecosystem, fans don’t matter. Profit matters. The suits can make more with a longer season. The suits can make more with a larger post-season. Welcome to the 2025-26 iteration of college basketball. Pay attention. There will never be a quicker season.
2. Alcorn’s State shooting success dropped significantly in the 2nd half. Part of this is that they made some tough shots in the 1st, part is dead legs, and part is improved execution by FSU. How much of that formula was the defense is largely what will determine this team’s ultimate fate. We have no doubt they’ll score. We’ve seen them play three times and they’ve topped 100 twice, and would have in the other if they weren’t shooting like last year’s team. This team has shown an uncanny ability to lose guys in transition and give up wide open 3s off one pass. That’s got to get cleaned up. Luckily, it’s only the 1st week of November.
3. SID Chuck Walsh is going to need to keep the record book handy, at least the offensive portion of it. Playing at one of the fastest tempos in the sport, the records involving counting stats are in danger or getting the furniture rearranged. The first record fell in the final minute of the game when Robert McCray V (can we call him RM5?) found walk-on Jalen Crawford in the corner for his first career 3. This was McCray’s 17th assist which not only broke the record of 16 held by Otto Petty and Tony William, but would have been the 2nd highest total in all of college basketball last season (and the highest in games played by two D1 teams). The all-time ACC record is 20.
4. FSU took 30 3s. This is below where Luke Loucks wants to be. He’s stated he wants to average 32 a game. North Florida attempted 35.8 last year, which led the nation. The most attempts under Coach Hamilton was 38, and his teams shot 30 or more 22 times, or roughly once a season.
5. FSU won 108-76 in a 76 possession game. The 1.42 scored per possession is the most efficient FSU game since Jan 2021 vs NC State. The 1.00 scored per possession by Alcorn State is the most FSU has given up against a low major opponent since the super-fun Lipscomb loss two years ago.
