The Florida State women's basketball team began the first of two exhibition games on Sunday at the Donald L. Tucker Center, welcoming the University of Tampa to Tallahassee.
This was the coaching staff’s and fans’ first look at the 2026-2027 team and, although there are some familiar faces from last year's team, this year's team is loaded with new faces and new sets of skills.
FSU held Tampa to one field goal in the first quarter and cruised to an easy 72-44 win. The Seminoles showed their depth with a heavy rotation, even though freshman guard Chemiah Francis and senior forward Avery Treadwell were held out of the game. It wasn’t like they needed their help.
“Even though we’re still in preseason, so to speak, today was a really great opportunity for us to get out and play somebody different and just learn more about ourselves, and I think we did that,” FSU coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “We have a lot of new faces so being able to look at different lineups, see who’s doing what, see where we need to improve and see what we’re doing well.”
Campbell transfer Jasmine Nivar, a sophomore, led all scorers with 14 points and she did so with only 14 minutes of playing time. The Seminoles wore out Tampa with their depth and four of Florida State's freshmen earned playing time on the Tucker Center floor for the first time.
Morgan Stewart, Asia Lee and Kennedy Loux combined for five points but All-ACC freshman Missy Odom showcased her skills in a big way by filling up the stat sheet with seven points, nine rebounds, one assist and two steals, all while committing zero turnovers. Odom runs the floor well, has soft hands around the basket, can shoot and rebound, plus her basketball IQ is advanced for someone her age. Odom also plans to pitch for the softball team later in the year. Standing at 6-foot-2, Odom is a noticeable presence down in the post and she is only going to get better.
“Missy has a lot to give on both ends of the floor,” Wyckoff said. “She’s physical, she can shoot it, she's a much better shooter than she showed tonight and she really took advantage of her time out there. She will be an important part to what we do this year.”
The only thing the Seminoles did not do well on Sunday was shoot the ball from the perimeter. FSU was 5 for 27 from beyond the arc on the day and most of that can be attributed to an off night where the shots weren't falling and it being the first exhibition game of the season. Senior Emma Risch had the best day from beyond the arc, shooting 2 for 4.
“We just have an edge,” junior guard Tatum Greene said. “I think the people that we have on this team this year have been going hard everyday. Coach Hulu (Ronald Hughey) is very defensive-oriented so that starts off our energy and then we carry that on through our offense.”
Coming up
The Seminoles will wrap up their exhibition schedule on Thursday at 6 p.m. when they welcome Palm Beach Atlantic before heading into their regular season opener on Nov. 2 against Merrimack.
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