Virginia (20-3, 9-2 ACC) at FSU (11-12, 4-6)
Time: Tuesday at 7 p.m.
TV: ESPNU.
KenPom rankings: FSU is 93, Virginia is 15.
Coaches: Luke Loucks is in his first season at his alma mater, with the Seminoles playing their best basketball since a Jan. 20 win at Miami. Ryan Odom has coached at a few stops and perhaps most notably was part of No. 16 seed Maryland-Baltimore County’s upset of No. 1 seed Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Odom went on to coach at Utah State and VCU before settling in for year 1 at Virginia. He is 221-120 in his career as a head coach.
Streaks: FSU has won three straight games and four of its last five games. Virginia has won four straight games and nine of its last 10 games.
Notable wins / losses: FSU’s best wins have come in the last three or more weeks — at No. 43 Miami, No. 71 California, No. 76 Stanford and at No. 83 Notre Dame. The Seminoles also had narrow losses to No. 77 Wake Forest and at No. 36 SMU, but they have also faced a loaded schedule (No. 3 Duke, No. 5 Houston, No. 7 Florida, No. 27 North Carolina). Virginia had some notable road wins in January (at No. 24 NC State, No. 19 Louisville and No. 36 SMU).
Of note: Loucks said he was recruited by Odom back when he was an assistant coach at Virginia Tech … Odom, 51, is the son of longtime Wake Forest and South Carolina coach Dave Odom. “Ryan Odom is doing an unbelievable job. I've been a big fan of his for a long time,” Loucks said. “Ryan actually recruited me when he was working on Seth Greenberg’s staff at Virginia Tech. So I've known Ryan since I was 16 years old.” … Chauncey Wiggins has scored 22, 23 and 18 points in his last three games. … FSU has not defeated Virginia since Feb. 26, 2022.
FSU stats: The Seminoles are making 53.5 percent (110th in DI) of their 2-point attempts and 31.6 percent of their 3-point attempts (290th), although FSU made 15 of 37 (40.5 percent) from beyond the arc in the win over Notre Dame. … Wiggins averages 12.9 points and four rebounds. But he’s up to 21 points over his last three games and is 12 of 25 from 3-point range in that span, too. … McCray averages 14.4 points and 6.2 assists but he’s up to 17.2 points in his last five games (starting with the road win at Miami).
Virginia stats: The Cavs score at a higher rate than the Tony Bennett era, averaging 78 points in their 11 ACC games. … They shoot an impressive 56.1 percent form inside the arc (50th in the nation) and 35.7 percent from 3-point range (77th in DI). Virginia is among the nation’s top offensive rebounding teams. … Forward Thijs De Ridder (6-3, 238) is a freshman from Belgium who is averaging 16.4 points and 6.5 rebounds, including a season-best 32 points vs. Notre Dame and a season-best 13 rebounds vs. Virginia Tech. Malik Thomas (6-5, 215) averages 12.6 points and four rebounds.
Quotable: “Chauncey has completely revitalized himself into the player we all knew he was, and that's why we recruited him here,” Loucks said. “He was more of a role player for Clemson. And in our film, as we recruited him, we felt like he could get to another level for us and and he has.
“He's had some low points in the season, going back to, I think, UMass game, the Dayton game. He was basically non-existent. And we had some real conversations with Chauncey. And we had some really good conversations of, 'You have to produce. You have to show up and be a big part of what we're doing.' It's a testament to his character. He has shown up big in the biggest games. ... When he performs at a high level, we're a very tough team to beat.”
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