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Duke Basketball: Florida State looking to make a statement on Saturday

By Kevin Connelly

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - JANUARY 05: Phil Cofer #0 of the Florida State Seminoles shoots over Mamadi Diakite #25 of the Virginia Cavaliers in the first half during a game at John Paul Jones Arena on January 5, 2019 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - JANUARY 05: Phil Cofer #0 of the Florida State Seminoles shoots over Mamadi Diakite #25 of the Virginia Cavaliers in the first half during a game at John Paul Jones Arena on January 5, 2019 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images) /
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The Florida State Seminoles will host the Duke Basketball team on Saturday afternoon, looking to make a national statement against the Blue Devils.

Recently, the Florida State basketball has been constantly ranked, but have never been seriously taken as a threat to take the ACC crown or make a run to a National Championship.

However, after being throttled by the then No. 4 Virginia Cavaliers, the Seminoles will have another chance to make a statement against the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils on Saturday.

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The Seminoles come into this game with a 13-2 overall record and a 1-1 record in the ACC after coming over a victory over the Miami Hurricanes.

Along with the loss to Virginia, Florida State also lost in the Championship Game of the Advocare Invitational to the Villanova Wildcats.

Some key wins for Florida State have been against Florida, then No. 19 LSU, and then No. 19 Purdue.

If you look at the stat line of Florida State, nothing will standout at you, but Head Coach Leonard Hamilton uses his roster to its fullest.

Hamilton has ten players that averages double digit minites and one player avergaing 9.7 minutes per game, however, the Seminoles are led by Terance Mann and Mfiondu Kabengele.

Mann leads the team across the board with 11.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game to go along with a 54.5% field goal and 44.0% 3-point percentage.

The six-foot-seven-inch guard has taken a step down in his points per game average from 12.6 to 11.8.

As for the six-foot-ten-inch Kabengele, he averages 11.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game and does most of his damage from inside of the 3-point arc, shooting 48.7% from the floor and only 21.4% from 3-point range.

Despite the efforts of Mann and Kabengele, the Blue Devils cannot lose sight of Trent Forrest, M.J. Walker, and Phil Cofer.

Trent Foster is averaging 9.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.2 steals per game but much like the others on this Florida State team, much of his work is done below the arc, shooting 47.6% from the field and a putrid 15.8% from 3-point range.

M.J. Walker tries to give the Seminoles an edge from the outside, taking most of his shots from beyond the arc which correlates to the similar numbers between his field goal percentage, 38.2%, and his 3-point field goal percentage, 38.3%.

Walker is only averaging 8.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.2 steals per game.

However, arguably the best player on this Florida State team is Phil Cofer when fully healthy.

The senior forward is in his sixth game back after missing the first nine games of the season with a knee injury.

Cofer was the leading scorer from the Seminoles in the loss to Virginia with nine points, but despite Cofer still trying to get back to full strength, Duke must keep him in check he is able to explode at any time.

One last player that Duke must take account of is Christ Koumadje, and it will be hard to miss him on the floor as he stands at seven-feet-four-inches.

Despite his absurd length, Koumadje is only averaging 6.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

The No. 1 Blue Devils and the No. 13 Seminoles will tipoff from Tallahassee at 2:00 pm ET on ESPN.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham on Twitter, @Ball_Durham, and here at our website, balldurham.com, for complete coverage of the Duke Blue Devils vs. the Florida State Seminoles. 

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