FSU (5-6) vs. Mississippi Valley State (1-10)
Time: Friday at 7 p.m.
Live stream: ACC Network Extra.
KenPom rankings: FSU is 119, Mississippi Valley State is 365 (lowest among Division I schools).
Coaches: Luke Loucks is 5-6 in his first season as FSU’s head coach. He previously was an assistant coach in the NBA, making stops at Sacramento and Golden State. George Ivory is in his fourth season at Mississippi Valley State. He is 10-95 at Mississippi Valley State.
Streaks: FSU has lost five straight, including a 97-69 defeat at Dayton on Tuesday. Mississippi Valley State has lost nine consecutive games.
Notable wins / losses: Mississippi Valley State lost at Texas A&M 120-84 on Nov. 25 and at Kansas State 108-49 on Dec. 16.
Of note: KenPom projects a 93-62 FSU win over Mississippi Valley State, which shoots just 43.7 percent from the floor and 27.3 from 3-point range. … FSU is 5-1 at home in 2025-26, with the only loss to Georgia (107-73) on Dec. 2. This is FSU’s first home game since then. … This is the first meeting between FSU and Mississippi Valley State.
FSU stats: The Seminoles are making 53.3 percent of their shots from inside the arc, which is 134th among DI teams. … Kobe MaGee will play in his 100th career game on Friday. He is averaging 11.2 points per game. Robert McCray (14.4 points), Lajae Jones (12.6 points), Chauncey Wiggins (11.2 points) lead FSU in scoring … FSU is averaging 10 steals per game, which is No. 23 in Division I. … AJ Swinton started against Dayton, played a career-high 29 minutes and had three points with two assists.
Mississippi Valley State stats: Forwards Michael James (20.6 points) and Daniel Mayfield (13.4 points and 6.7 rebounds) lead Mississippi Valley State … About the only area where Mississippi Valley State is good is at the free-throw line, where they make 77.7 percent of their shots.
Quotable: “There's lots of areas we can improve. We stink right now,” Loucks said on the postgame FSU-Dayton radio interview. “You said a little slide. It's a full slip and slide. Right now we're headed in the complete wrong direction, and is not a good direction to be going. But if there's just one thing, our ball containment and paint defense is atrocious, and it's just an area we have to improve. We have to find a way to get better.
“We tried to go zone, we tried to mix in some some presses. We adjusted our defense from switching one through four to switching one through five to a blitz, and none of those things worked. And that's an indictment on not only our guys playing, but our coaching staff, too. We got to coach these guys better. We got to teach them better.”
