3 Takeaways as FSU Basketball Dominates Cal ACC Tournament, Faces Duke Next

Florida State started ACC Tournament action on Wednesday night in Charlotte as one of the hottest teams in the league and one of the best teams away from home in the country. But anything can happen in March, and momentum only means so much. They'd be going against a Cal team on the bubble, as they needed a win to get a leg up.

Cal had the early momentum, getting out to a 9-2 lead behind four baskets from four different players. Robert McCray V helped stabilize the offense with a few buckets, but Cal still led 13-7 after two free throws from Dai Dai Ames a little over 6 minutes into the game.

Florida State had had enough of that and responded with a monster 23-3 run fueled by three shots from deep by Kobe MaGee and some tough shots inside from Alex Steen. That gave the Seminoles a 30-16 lead with about 6:30 remaining in the half.

As much as the offense was flowing, it was the defense setting the tone. They went back to their matchup zone, and Cal had no answer for it. Turnovers led to easy layups, forced shots were corralled on rebounds, and there were no open looks.

Cal finally found some rhythm with back-to-back stepback threes from Dai Dai Ames, and the officials tried to keep Cal in it with some cheap fouls. Cal never got the lead closer than 7 in the first half, and the Seminoles went into halftime with a 46-32 lead.

Cal came out of halftime with a newfound offensive focus, as they seemed to figure out FSU's defense a little bit. They did not figure out FSU's offense, as Chauncey Wiggins, Lajae Jones, and Martin Somerville each hit threes, and FSU extended the lead to 18 at the under-16 timeout. But FSU led big in this game in January; they needed to keep the pressure up.

They did just that. Thomas Bassong laid in an offensive rebound that pushed the lead to 20, Lajae Jones hammered home a dunk, and then went coast-to-coast for a layup, and the lead was a game-high 21, forcing a timeout from Cal with 14:19 to go.

That lead was 22 after a three-pointer from Robert McCray V, his third of the game, and that was after a couple of technical fouls: one of Chauncey Wiggins for slightly flexing, and one on Cal's Mark Madsen for begging for a travel.

Cal tried to make a little run, getting it down to 17 and then forcing a turnover. Robert McCray V very quickly putting an end to that, forcing a turnover of his own and flushing home a windmill dunk, then hitting a stepback three in someone's mouth to push the lead right back to 22, and they were still up by 20 at the under-eight timeout.

Shah Muhammad came in to give Florida State some big minutes before the final media timeout, but they'd go on to a dominant 95-89 win over Cal, despite some late-game shenanigans, possibly ending the Golden Bears' hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid. This team is playing some amazing basketball at the perfect time. The final score was not indicative of how this game went.

Florida State will play Duke in the quarterfinals at 7 pm EST tomorrow. Here are three takeaways from this win.

1. Robert McCray V is Good Enough to Lift This Team

Robert McCray V had one of the best 30-second sequences you'll ever see with his forced turnover, windmill dunk, then stepback three. When he's rolling at this kind of level, while still spraying out to open shooters, this is not the team you want to play right now. He ended this game with a wild 30 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds.

2. Florida State is Hot at the Right Time

Florida State is one of the best teams in the ACC right now. They've now won 11 of the last 14 games, which includes road wins at Miami, Virginia Tech, and Clemson, home wins over SMU and Cal, and now a dominant neutral-site game over Cal. Duke will be a different beast tomorrow, but all that matters is playing at your best in March. Florida State is playing at its best, even if they still need to be better about closing games.

3. Florida State-Duke Could Be Juicy

Duke only had four conference games all year with a single-digit differential. They've mostly steamrolled through the league. However, one of those was a 91-87 win in Tallahassee when FSU wasn't playing its best. Florida State is not scared of Duke and Cam Boozer, and the Blue Devils will be missing two starters- Patrick Ngongba and Caleb Foster. That could make for an interesting quarterfinals matchup.

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