Previewing Florida State
Toney Douglas
Toney Douglas

Posted Jan 12, 2009


NC State (9-4, 0-1) returns home to face Florida State (13-3, 0-1), in a big conference game for both teams. Pack Pride takes a closer look at tomorrow's opponent -- tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPNU.

  • SCHEDULE
  • ROSTER
  • STATS

    PROJECTED STARTERS
    23 Toney Douglas (G, 6-2/200, SR)
    02 Jordan DeMercy (F, 6-7/208, SO)
    31 Chris Singleton (F 6-9/220, FR)
    42 Ryan Reid (PF, 6-8/235, JR)
    32 Soloman Alabi (C, 7-1/241, FR)

    TOP RESERVES
    22 Derwin Kitchen (PG, 6-4/180, SO)
    41 Uche Echefu (F, 6-9/225, SR)
    1 Xavier Gibson (F, 6-11/230, FR)
    3 Luke Loucks (G, 6-5/205, FR)

    STAR WATCH
    Toney Douglas: One of the top point guards in the country, Douglas is leading Florida State in scoring (18.4), assists (2.8), and steals (2.0). He has good size and is explosive off the dribble. Look for Douglas to give NC State's backcourt a lot of problems.


    Florida State Game Notes

    DOUGLAS CONTINUES TO ENJOY OUTSTANDING SENIOR SEASON
    Senior All-ACC candidate Toney Douglas, who has earned Most Valuable Player honors at Global Sports and Orange Bowl Classics and ACC Player of the Week honors for the week of Dec. 29, scored a team-high 18 points and earned two steals against Duke, is enjoying one of the best seasons of any player in the ACC.

    He has scored an ACC-leading 294 points and is the only player to rank in the top five in scoring (fifth, 18.4 ppg), steals (second, 32 steals) and 3-point field goals made (fourth, 2.1 3FGM/Game) while leading the ACC in 20+ point scoring games with eight.

    Douglas earned the 200th steal of his career against Duke and averages 1.80 steals per game for his ENTIRE career (200 steals in 111 career games). Douglas has led Florida State in scoring in four consecutive games, 12 of 16 games this season and in 22 of the Seminoles’ last 50 games in the last two seasons.

    FLORIDA STATE GETS DEFENSIVE
    Florida State is considered to be one of the top defensive teams in the ACC and the nation. The Seminoles are the only team in the ACC to rank in the top five in the statistical categories of field goal percentage defense (.371, third), blocked shots (6.4 bpg, second), scoring defense (60.9 papg, second) and steals (8.8 spg, fifth).

    The Seminoles have held nine of their first 16 opponents under 60 points scored and all 16 of their opponents under 44 percent shooting from the field. Stetson (in a 79-77 Florida State victory) is the only team to shoot above 43 percent from the field (.431) against the Seminoles defense this season.

    Florida State ranked seventh in the ACC as it allowed a .433 field goal shooting percentage by its opponents during the 2007-08 season.

    FLORIDA STATE’S STINGY FIELD GOAL SHOOTING DEFENSE
    Florida State enters Tuesday’s game against NC State ranked third in the ACC with a .371 field goal percentage defense mark. Florida State has held each of its 16 opponents under 44 percent shooting from the field with only four opponents shooting better than 40 percent (Stetson, .431; Coastal Carolina, .418, Northwestern, .411 and Duke, .429).

    GETTING BACK INTO THE WIN COLUMN
    Florida State is 2-0 following a loss this season as it followed its first loss of the season to Northwestern (Dec. 3, 59-73) with a victory over No. 21/23 Florida (Dec. 7, 57-55) and returned after its loss to No. 3/3 Pittsburgh (Dec. 21, 48-56) with a victory over Western Kentucky (Dec. 28, 82-69).

    DOUGLAS REACHES 200 STEALS PLATEAU FOR HIS CAREER
    Senior All-ACC candidate Toney Douglas, Florida State’s Chief Thief, earned two steals against Duke to push his career steals total to 200 for his career. He has 157 steals in 80 games as a Seminole 1.96 steals per game). Douglas has earned multiple steals in 62 of his 111 career games (.559 percent) and has at least one steal in 87 of his 111 career games (.784 percent).

    ALABI AMONG ACC BLOCKED SHOTS LEADERS
    Center Solomon Alabi, who is one of four Seminoles who has started all 16 games this season, enters Tuesday’s game against ranked second in the ACC with 32 blocked shots and a 2.0 blocked shots per game average. His 32 blocked shots are nearly as many as Florida State’s individual leader (Uche Echefu, 33) had in 34 games last season and are more than the Seminoles’ individual leader (Alexander Johnson, 30) had during the 2005-06 season.

    KITCHEN IMPROVING HIS OWN STANDARD
    Sophomore Derwin Kitchen has improved his career-high scoring total for a single game in each of his last three games. He set his career-high with his first double figure scoring outing of 11 points in the Seminoles’ victory over Western Kentucky in the Orange Bowl Classic, bettered that outing with a 13-point performance in Florida State’s victory over Texas A&M Corpus Christi and established his third consecutive career-high with 16 points against No. 2/2 Duke. Kitchen has scored 40 points in the last three games (13.3 ppg) and is shooting .552 (16-of-29) from the field in the last three games.

    SINGLETON GETTING DEFENSIVE
    Freshman sensation Chris Singleton, who ranks second on the team in both steals and blocked shots, has quickly proven to be one of the Seminoles’ most gifted players – both offensively and defensively.

    He is ranked second on the team in scoring with a 9.6 points per game average (he is only seven points short of average in double figures), second in steals with a 1.6 steals per game average, second in blocked shots with a 1.2 blocked shots per game average. He also leads the Seminoles and is ranked tied for 10th in the ACC with 38 offensive rebounds.



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