FSU Basketball set for ACC-SEC Challenge against Georgia Bulldogs

Florida State is back at home after a blowout loss to Texas A&M on Friday. They're in the middle of a brutal non-conference stretch, with three straight games against teams that made the NCAA Tournament last year.

Tuesday's game is against Georgia in the ACC/SEC Challenge. If that sounds familiar, that's because these teams met two years ago in Tallahassee for the debut of the ACC/SEC Challenge. For those that don't remember that game, FSU was ahead almost the entire game, then took a 61-44 lead with 7 minutes remaining, and then they fell apart down the stretch. Justin Hill made a jumper in the final seconds to give Georgia the win 68-66.

Safe to say, FSU will want to avoid a similar result here, and they'll want to bounce back after Friday's lackluster showing.

This game will be at 9 p.m. EST on the ACC Network from the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Florida.

Nov 29, 2025; Athens, Georgia, USA; Georgia Bulldogs head coach Mike White shown on the sidelines during the game against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at Stegeman Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

Georgia Bulldogs Breakdown (7-1 Overall)

Georgia is in year four under former Florida coach Mike White, and he did lead them to them to the NCAA Tournament last year, but they only returned 25.7% of their scoring from last year.

The main returner is Blue Cain, who is averaging 15.3 PPG. They want him to be an elite shooter, and he does shoot more threes than twos, but he's only a career 34.3% shooter, and his efficiency has gone down a little as he's taken more shots. He'll still make one or two, at least, in this game, but they only really have three players to worry about.

Another one of them is Jeremiah Wilkinson, who diehard fans may recognize from his time at Cal last year. And he had a good game against FSU last year, putting up 18 points as a freshman guard. And he's taken a step up this year, averaging 16.5 PPG on solid shooting splits: 46.7% from the floor, 34.7% from three, and 76/9% from the free-throw line.

Those are the only two players averaging double-figure scoring, but they have six players averaging between 7 and 9.5 PPG. One of them is Jake Wilkins, son of Georgia and NBA legend Dominique. As you can imagine, he's quite the athlete. They haven't trusted him in the big games yet, as he was scoreless in just eight minutes of an overtime loss against Clemson, though.

The bigger name to worry about is Marcus Millender, who leads the team in assists despite coming off the bench. He's also taking nearly 5 threes per game, but only making them at a 30.8% rate right now. He did shoot 43.8% from deep in his first two years of college, so he's bound to get going at some point.

Justin Bailey has been the best shooter so far, knocking down 40% of his shots beyond the arc on four attempts per game. Kanon Catchings is coming off a game of 17 points and 7 rebounds. Somto Cyril and Justin Abson are each blocking two shots per game. Dylan James is coming down with 6.1 RPG in just 17.4 minutes per game. And Jordan Ross is just an all-around versatile player.

Georgia has shot the three poorly this year, even if they're shooting a lot of them, but they're making 63.9% inside the arc, one of the best marks in the country. FSU's defense will have to be ready for that. They also have one of the better turnover differentials in the country, a stat that FSU can relate to. They're dominating on the offensive glass, coming down with 38.4% of their misses. And they are running FAST. Their offensive tempo is the 4th-fastest nationally.

Nov 11, 2025; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Luke Loucks watches the game against Florida Gators during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images | Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images

Florida State Seminoles Breakdown (5-2 Overall)

FSU is now 0-2 against the SEC, with losses to Florida and Texas A&M. The Florida loss was encouraging, as they were able to hang in against the reigning national champions, but we're finding out that the Gators aren't as good as once thought. They had a loss to TCU last week that isn't exactly a redeeming loss.

And the Texas A&M loss was just disastrous. Texas A&M is a very talented team, but they were struggling to gel early, already falling in non-conference games to Oklahoma State and UCF. The 'Noles couldn't do anything right on Friday, though. They shot poorly from every area of the floor (especially the free-throw line), got dominated on the glass, and while they were forcing turnovers, they were also leaving one of the greatest shooters in college basketball open time after time.

Robert McCray V, Lajae Jones, and Chauncey Wiggins all really struggled to score. FSU just isn't going to win any games when they combine for 12 points on 5/32 shooting. It was good for Kobe MaGee to get going, as he'd struggled to shoot in the games leading in, but he had 21 points on 7/15 shooting, including 4/10 from three.

Some things can be fixed or adjusted, like the defensive pressure to not leave shooters open, but the rebounding is going to be a hard thing to fix just because of the personnel. Alex Steen is undersized, and Shah Muhammad and Alier Maluk don't play much, and they aren't great rebounders either. Chauncey Wiggins has played some minutes as a center, but he has never been known as a rebounder in his career, either.

Team are going to start to realize that FSU doesn't have great rebounders and crash the glass against them. And the Seminoles need to find a way to be prepared for that.

Projected Starters

Florida State

G: Robert McCray V
G: Kobe MaGee
G: Lajae Jones
F: Chauncey Wiggins
F: Alex Steen

Georgia

G: Jordan Ross
G: Jeremiah Wilkinson
G: Blue Cain
F: Kanon Catchings
F: Somto Cyril

3 Keys to the Game

Get Ready to Run

Both Florida State and Georgia are in the top ten of offensive tempo this year, both only taking about 14 seconds on average on offense. So this projects to be a very fast-paced game, which is how FSU wants it to be. But the pace has to be a controlled fast.

The Texas A&M game got out of hand. It was fast, but it was Texas A&M type of fast. They have to be able to dictate the tempo and dictate where the ball goes.

Make Shots

Sometimes, it's as simple as making or missing shots, and that's what the biggest issue was against Texas A&M. They were generating some quality look, and shot well below what their projected score should've been. Robert McCray V, Lajae Jones, and Chauncey Wiggins all have to shoot much better.

But shooting has been a little bit of a concern these last few games. Over the last five contests, they're shooting 28.8% from three and 68.3% from the free-throw line, and they're coming off a game where they shot 8/17 from the line. Shooting has to be a strength for this team to succeed in games like this.

Win the Turnover Battle

Georgia has only lost one game, which was an overtime battle against Clemson. It's one of just two games this year where Georgia had more turnovers than their opponent, but they've also forced a high rate of turnovers: 22.8%, which is top 25 nationally. FSU showed they were horrible against pressure early in Friday's game against Texas A&M, so they'll need to expect more full-court pressure the rest of the season if teams are smart.

Florida State is still the best team in the country at forcing turnovers, though. They need to be better about it not putting them out of position on traps.

Game Prediction

Georgia is favored by 2.5 points with an over/under of 170.5, per FanDuel Sportsbook.

Georgia barely beat Georgia Tech and Xavier, then let Tennessee Tech and Morehead State each score more than 80. I think FSU is due for a bounce back after Friday's poor performance, but this is a tough challenge. Both sides of the ball are going to have to play much better than they have recently.

But I think the offensive rebounding for Georgia is going to give them the slight edge. Unless FSU magically becomes a much better rebounding team, or they force 20+ turnovers, they may have a hard time contending on the glass and being able to run like they want.

Georgia 87, Florida State 84

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