The Seminoles have one of the worst turnover percentages in the country, based on Ken Pomeroy’s stats. Florida State gives the ball away nearly once every four possessions. That’s brutal for an offense that shoots fairly well but has a tendency to go into slumps.

The result of such inconsistency is an occasional five- or six-minute scoring drought. In the NCAA Tournament, that could spell disaster against a team that catches fire, especially from long range.

But the Seminoles had been improving until Saturday’s ugly win vs. Virginia. Since the calendar turned to 2012, Florida State had kept the turnover percentage to less than 25 percent in all but one game. Against the Cavaliers, Florida State regressed by committing 19 turnovers in 63 possessions, a 30.1 percent turnover rate. That’s just not going to get it done in most games.

Just imagine how good Florida State would be if the Seminoles could somehow trade for North Carolina’s Kendall Marshall. The ACC’s best point guard has a ridiculous 4-to-1 assist to turnover ratio while playing for one of the fastest-paced teams in the land. Under Leonard Hamilton, the Seminoles also like to get up and down the court, and Marshall would turn an average offense into a very good one.

The Seminoles’ defense already ranks as one of the best in the country, anchored by Bernard James, a former Marine who turns 27 Feb. 7. The intelligent, tough senior is wired for defense, and he blocks more than two shots per game and intimidates shooters more than stats will show. Although James’ defensive contributions are the hallmark of Hamilton’s recent Seminoles teams, they aren’t always enough to make up for the offensive inefficiency.

Five Seminole players commit at least two turnovers per game, which is especially concerning when only one of those players logs 30 minutes per game. If Florida State could take better care of the ball and lower the team’s turnover percentage to just the Division I average, Florida State’s offense would jump from ranking around No. 90 in efficiency to the top 50. That shift in balance would make the Seminoles even more dangerous, and the team would start to look like a legitimate Final Four contender.

As North Carolina and Duke have discovered, the Seminoles can beat any team in the country anywhere on any given night. The problem is that Florida State could lose to just about any team if the Noles start getting sloppy with the ball and run into hot shooters. Improve ball security, and the team can better withstand a lucky shooting streak and make some serious noise in March.

Enter the 2011-12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame lost a great deal from last season’s team that entered the month of March playing about as well as any team in the country. Gone from that team are Big East Player of the Year Ben Hansbrough and important role players Tyrone Nash and Carleton Scott, the latter a big defensive leader for that team and a surprise early defection. Already, projections for this team were going to be that they were unlikely to contend for the top of the Big East. When they went 0-2 in Kansas City, including an 87-58 thrashing at the hands of Missouri, it looked like they would be who many thought they would be.

That wasn’t all. The Fighting Irish were not certain to have Tim Abromaitis back, as he played in two exhibition games in the 2008-09 season where he redshirted. But the NCAA granted him this year, so that helped as he was an experienced player and was second on the team in scoring last season. Then in late November, he tore the ACL in his right knee in practice, putting him out for the season.

At that point, the outlook was decidedly not good. But no one told head coach Mike Brey and his team that, and after Saturday’s convincing 76-59 win over Marquette, the Fighting Irish are alone in fourth place in the Big East.

“From the start of the season, no one thought we would be here,” said sophomore point guard Eric Atkins.

Notre Dame hasn’t compiled its record by beating up on the bottom feeders of the conference. Along the way, they have knocked off Louisville, Seton Hall and Connecticut on the road, and now Syracuse and Marquette at home.

“I am very proud of my group,” said Brey, who at this point looks like the runaway Coach of the Year in the Big East, if not nationally. “I told them in one of the final media timeouts that I felt like I was coaching men today. Last year’s team was men. That had a look of more than one fifth year senior on the court. I am thrilled where we are.”

Notre Dame can only get better given that this is a young team with a lot of players who are just finding themselves. Scott Martin is the only other senior besides Abromaitis on the team, while the emerging perimeter unit of Atkins, Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton are sophomore, sophomore and freshman respectively. Connaughton wasn’t expected to play much, but he scored 21 points on Saturday and now starts on the hardwood as well as the mound (the San Diego Padres drafted him last year).

“Right now, we’re really confident that we can beat any team – we can play with any team,” said Grant. “Our team confidence is really high right now, and I’d like to keep it that way because we are playing really well.”

That’s one thing no one can doubt at this point. The Irish have proven that to this point, and as a more confident team they will be even tougher to beat.

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Arizona had a big weekend, sweeping their trip to northern California after a 56-43 win at Stanford on Saturday. The Wildcats may be starting to come alive at a good time.

Syracuse got Fab Melo back for Saturday’s game, and they rolled to a 95-70 blowout win at St. John’s. The win was the 879^th in Jim Boeheim’s career, tying him with Dean Smith for third on the all-time list.

Seton Hall’s struggles continued as Connecticut annihilated them 69-46 in Hartford.

Kentucky had an easy time at South Carolina, committing just three turnovers in their blowout win.

The Big 12 gets a little more interesting at Missouri rallied to knock off Kansas in a big rivalry showdown. Both teams are now 8-2 in conference play.

Who’s on top of the ACC? No, not Duke, although the Blue Devils will be tied if they beat Miami on Sunday. North Carolina is in a tie after a big 83-74 win at Maryland to move into a tie for that spot. The team they are tied with is Florida State, as the Seminoles are 7-1 after a 58-55 win over Virginia.

Temple is now alone in first place in the Atlantic 10 after a 73-56 win at Rhode Island, combined with Saint Joseph’s knocking off La Salle earlier in the day. Temple’s perimeter trio continues to be the driving force for this team.

Wyoming knocked off road-weary UNLV in a close one after the Runnin’ Rebels ran into snow-related travel delays en route to Laramie.

Northern Iowa beat Creighton on a buzzer-beater, right after Creighton had tied it on a big shot.

Iona won a big showdown against Manhattan for the lead in the MAAC.

George Mason grabbed a share of the lead in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 54-50 win over Old Dominion in a first-place showdown. The Patriots are joined by VCU, 59-56 winners over Northeastern, and Drexel, 65-57 winners at Towson, at 11-2 in the conference.

Mississippi Valley State is now 10-0 in the SWAC and two games ahead in the standings, after knocking off Alabama State.

Sunday’s key matchups:

• Michigan at Michigan State
• Miami at Duke
• Northwestern at Illinois
• Stephen F. Austin at McNeese State
• The biggest one of all: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI

And it all happened, ironically, on the day that a football coaching legend appeared close to losing his life. On Saturday night, there were conflicting reports about former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, but we did not learn for sure that he had passed until about 10:30 this morning. We send our condolences to Joe’s family and friends at this time.

The last time Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Mike Krzyzewski lost a game on the same day was January 18, 2003. The three coaches have combined for over 2,600 wins, so they have won a little more than they have lost, and one might even be surprised that this wasn’t the first day all three lost.

It started in the middle of the afternoon, with two of the games. Connecticut took on Tennessee in Knoxville, a return of a game played last year. The Volunteers got a double-double from freshman Jarnell Stokes and fended off a late Husky rally for a 60-57 win. Turning the ball over one time in the second half certainly helped, especially as taking care of the ball had been a problem for Tennessee of late. Connecticut shot just 36.4 percent from the field.

Around that same time, Florida State looked like they had a shot to end Duke’s 45-game home winning streak, as they were right there with the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium. They had leads late in the game as well. And finally, with the game tied at 73 in the final seconds, the Seminoles got the ball up the floor to Michael Snaer in front of his own bench, where he hit a three-pointer just as time expired to give Florida State their second big win in as many Saturdays, a 76-73 decision over Duke.

Not only had Duke not lost at home since North Carolina knocked them off in February 2009, but they also had a longer (64 games) home winning streak against unranked opponents. They had a chance to tie their own ACC record of 46 straight home wins, set between January 13, 1997 and February 9, 2000.

Florida State is now looking more and more like the team some thought they would be this season. In the preseason, a good number of prognosticators thought they might be the third-best team behind Duke and North Carolina. Virginia had emerged as that team, and probably still is, but now the Seminoles look like another formidable team in an ACC that is not looking much better than last year. They are in a three-way tie atop the ACC at 4-1, along with the two teams they have knocked off the past two Saturdays.

By the time the evening came around, one already had a sense that Syracuse could suffer its first loss of the season. The team announced earlier in the day that sophomore center Fab Melo would not make the trip to Notre Dame and Cincinnati and that junior forward Mookie Jones had left the school for personal reasons. The Orange are so deep, it would not have been a shocker if they came away with two wins, but if they dropped one it would not have been a surprise. Sure enough, a Notre Dame team that knocked off Louisville a couple of weeks ago beat Syracuse 67-58 in South Bend.

Notre Dame led throughout the game and beat a No. 1 team for the eighth time, which ties for the fourth-highest total. They did it led by junior big man Jack Cooley, who went for 17 points and 10 rebounds as the Fighting Irish out-rebounded Syracuse 38-25. While Melo’s absence hurt there, it wasn’t a big factor in the Orange’s offensive struggles on the night.

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With Syracuse losing, that left just one team undefeated: Murray State. The Racers were 82-65 winners at SIU-Edwardsville to improve to 20-0 on the season.

Missouri got perhaps its most impressive win yesterday, going on the road to beat Baylor. That’s two in a row now for Baylor, and it seems that at the moment, Baylor is close, but not there when it comes to the top of the Big 12.

Georgetown got all they could handle from Rutgers, and needed to score the game’s last seven points to eke out a 52-50 win in the nation’s capital.

Louisville continued Pittsburgh’s misery as they went into the Peterson Events Center and left with a 73-62 win over the Panthers, who are now 0-7 in the Big East and have lost eight straight.

UNLV convincingly won a key matchup with New Mexico, the second straight loss for the Lobos as they took on the two favorites in the conference this past week.

Mississippi State won an overtime thriller at Vanderbilt in a key matchup among teams chasing Kentucky in the SEC.

Todd Bozeman returned to the bench at Morgan State, but his team’s struggles continued as they lost for the fifth time in seven games by dropping a 62-61 decision against visiting North Carolina A&T.

Late Saturday night, Long Beach State picked up a key road win at UC Santa Barbara. That makes the 49ers 7-0 in conference play, a full two games ahead of three teams in the loss column.

Let’s start with Florida State, which annihilated North Carolina 90-57 in Tallahassee. The Seminoles had a so-so non-conference run, as they came into Saturday lacking a win against the top 50 in three tries. Beating the Tar Heels is a remedy for that, although they need to make it relevant come March by playing well the rest of ACC play.

Next, we go to Northwestern, a team for whom heartbreak has become a regular occurrence. The Wildcats have had chances to play their way into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in recent years, but haven’t been able to pull out the games they needed to. It looked like this year might be another case of that, too, although they did win the Charleston Classic over Seton Hall, a win that is looking better all the time. They won at mediocre Georgia Tech and lost to Baylor, which is hardly a bad loss. But then they lost at Creighton, got hammered at Ohio State and lost tough ones to Illinois and Michigan by a combined three points. And on Saturday, they knocked off Michigan State in Evanston for their best win of the season. Add that to the Seton Hall win and the Wildcats, who don’t have a bad loss and an RPI of 33 at the start of the week, are in a good place for the moment.

Then there is Oklahoma, a team thought to be rebuilding. But the Sooners knocked off Kansas State 82-73 for their second win against a top 50 team. The Sooners are now 1-3 in Big 12 play, so they have a good deal of work to do. But if they get to .500 in conference and win a game or two in the conference tournament, they may have done enough work by then to be in the discussion for an NCAA Tournament team.  It helps that they don’t have a bad loss.

Lastly, San Diego State knocked off UNLV in a thriller, 69-67. The Aztecs were actually in a reasonably good place before Saturday, but perhaps now they can be called an NCAA Tournament lock if they win the games they should the rest of the way. The Mountain West figured to be rebuilding this season, but that hasn’t been the case thus far as both of these teams look like they will be in the field of 68.

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Pittsburgh lost at Marquette, 62-57, and is now 0-5 in the Big East for the second time in program history and first in 12 years. They have never started 0-6, but they play at Syracuse on Monday.

Connecticut freshman Ryan Boatright was suspended by the NCAA and did not play in the Huskies’ 67-53 win at Notre Dame. The NCAA is investigating more eligibility matters with the freshman guard.

Iowa handily took out Michigan 75-59, and continues to be something of a Jekyll and Hyde team.

Jarnell Stokes gave Tennessee a boost in his debut, but Kentucky prevailed in Knoxville 65-62. The thinking is that although it was a loss, Saturday’s game bodes well for the Volunteers.

The Ivy League has started the season a little differently this time around, and Penn has started off 2-0 with wins at Columbia and Cornell. Normally teams play their travel partners over two weeks, save for Penn and Princeton, before the Friday-Saturday weekends start.

No America East team will go undefeated in conference play this season, as Stony Brook had its six-game winning streak end at Boston University, who has won three in a row after losing six straight.

Two Monday night games demonstrated the importance of evaluating a player’s total contribution to his team, especially for defensive-minded squads like coach Leonard Hamilton’s Seminoles. Florida State has emerged as one of the toughest teams to score against these days, and James is the centerpiece of that defense.

In Florida State’s 73-50 win against Central Florida, James finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds — five at the offensive end — and three blocks. Those numbers are solid, but they don’t pop out as much as those of Central Connecticut State’s Kyle Vinales. The freshman guard put up 39 points in the Blue Demons’ high-scoring 102-93 overtime loss to Niagara. That’s going to get you noticed, especially when you’re a freshman.

However, how does Vinales’ scoring outburst compare to the total package that James delivered for Florida State?

In short, James’ impact was about seven points greater than Vinales’. By running the players’ stats through the Total Impact Quotient, we find that James finished with 31.4 points compared to 24.3 for Vinales. The TIQ adjusts for tempo, which is critical because Vinales did his work in a game with 91 possessions, leading to slightly bloated stats. In addition, Vinales put up a ton of points but not much else. He finished with five turnovers, three rebounds and one assist. James had fewer turnovers and more production in pretty much every other category. Plus he did it in Florida State’s 70 possessions.

When projecting the players’ stats over 40 minutes, they both would be on pace to contribute about 42 points to their team’s effort. James had a higher tally for the game because he was able to stay on the court for a higher percentage of minutes. In addition to playing at a break-neck pace for 45 minutes, Central Connecticut State was fighting through a melee in which they picked up 35 fouls and four out of five starters, including Vinales, fouled out.

Projected starting five:

Sr. G Jeff Peterson
Sr. G Deividas Dulkys
Jr. G Michael Snaer
So. F Okaro White
Jr. C Bernard James

Important departures:

Chris Singleton: 13.1 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 1.2 apg
Derwin Kitchen: 10.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 3.6 apg

Percent returning scoring and rebounding:

Scoring: 69.3 percent
Rebounding: 70.9 percent

Additions:

Jeff Peterson, senior point guard transferred from Arkansas
Kiel Turpin, junior power forward transferred from D-II Lincoln College
Antwan Space, No. 91 Rivals.com and ESPNU four-star freshman small forward from DeSoto, Texas
Terry Whisnant, No. 103 Rivals.com and ESPNU four-star freshman shooting guard from Cherryville, N.C.

Schedule highlights:

Best non-conference game: at Michigan State
Toughest conference stretch: Jan. 7-14 (at Clemson, at Virginia Tech, vs. North Carolina)

Outlook:

Under coach Leonard Hamilton, the Seminoles have perennially been one of the top defensive teams in the country. Even without uber-athlete Chris Singleton, Florida State figures to continue its defensive dominance this season, with Bernard James leading the way. Florida State has good height throughout its lineup, forcing opponents to shoot outside the lane, and no one shot well beyond the arc against the Noles last season.

The question will be whether the Seminoles can generate enough offense to win some ugly, low-scoring affairs. Senior transfer Jeff Peterson will be a major part of that answer. The team could turn to Peterson to play point guard after he graduated from Arkansas last season and transfered to Tallahassee as a player eligible to join the team immediately. Hamilton will need Peterson to play well, and he’s got to hope that Michael Snaer, Deividas Dulkys and Luke Loucks practiced their jump shots all summer. None of the team’s top returning guards shot better than 40 percent from the field last season.

Prediction: Fifth

Next: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Back to ACC preview

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1. Although Phil Jackson seems pretty convinced that there won’t be a next season for the NBA next season, several college players are gambling that they’ll still be making NBA money within a few months. Here are a few of the players who announced during the past few days that they’ll be entering the NBA Draft.

• Arizona’s Derrick Williams, with agent
• Butler’s Shelvin Mack, no agent
• Connecticut’s Kemba Walker, with agent
• Florida State’s Chris Singleton, with agent
• Kansas’ Josh Selby, with agent
• San Diego State’s Kawhi Leonard, with agent
• UCLA’s Malcolm Lee, with agent

2. ESPN.com’s Andy Katz breaks down the NCAA Legislative Committee’s proposal to move up the deadline for declaring for the draft. If the Board of Directors approves the measure, players will need to decide by April 10 whether they intend to declare for the draft — and they can’t turn back. It essentially ends the test-the-waters approach, which isn’t good for the kids, Katz writes.

3. One player who won’t be testing the waters this season is Baylor’s Perry Jones, ESPN.com’s Andy Katz writes. Somewhat surprisingly, Jones will return to the Bears, who had a disappointing season but will return a start-studded team, anchored by Jones.

4. Despite the uproar about the early entry deadline, that’s small change compared to the fiasco in San Diego. The Associated Press reported this week that the FBI is investigating former members of the Toreros program for running a sports betting business, and 10 people have been charged in the case, including the team’s all-time leading scorer, Brandon Johnson. In addition to Johnson, former player Brandon Dowdy is accused of fixing games.

5. Jorts-mania could be coming to a town near you. Kentucky’s Josh Harrellson will be launching a Jorts Tour — after his now-famous nickname — to sign autographs and hawk his clothing line, according to Diamond Leung of ESPN.com’s “College Basketball Nation” blog.

6. As Nebraska prepares to move to the Big 10 next season, the Huskers have reworked coach Doc Sadler’s deal to pay him an extra $100,000 per year, making his salary $900,000 per year through 2015-16, according to a CBS Sports.com wire report.

7. One of Nebraska’s former Big 12 rivals, Iowa State, is dealing with some drama after police arrested freshman center Jordan Railey for punching a man late Wednesday night along a hot spot for Ames restaurants and bars, according to the Associated Press. Coach Fred Hoiberg has suspended Railey while gathering more information about the incident.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE

Man, what a rough week for news in the world of college basketball.

Several players landed in trouble with the law (Nebraska, Florida). An NBA-minded freshman skipped his team’s season-closing banquet to work out in Vegas (Kansas). And speaking of Sin City, the gambling bug apparently migrated south to San Diego, where the very integrity of the game is in question after the FBI unearthed a supposed sports business ring that included former Torero players who are accused of fixing games.

And just to pile on, the NCAA looks pretty selfish and uninterested in the welfare of student-athletes after moving forward with a proposal to give players until about a week after the championship game to decide whether they want to return to school or enter the NBA Draft. Needing only an affirmative vote by the NCAA’s Board of Directors to become official, the proposal applies tortured logic that benefits schools and coaches but not players. And the players already are limited because the NCAA won’t let them profit from their name or likeness in commercial products, such as video games. However, the NCAA is happy to take its cut from those sales.

That’s enough to get you pretty down about the game.

Thankfully, I watched the Harlem Globetrotters play tonight on ESPN. And that evaporated my creeping cynicism. The figure-eight weaves, between-the-legs passes and crowd-pleasing interludes don’t look like traditional basketball. All those fancy moves make for great entertainment, and everyone in the arena is having fun — even the tough-luck Generals.

Basketball is supposed to be fun. Yes, the game can be a means to a career — and a small fortune — for the most talented players. But for the 99 percent of players who don’t come within sniffing distance of an NBA pay check, the game needs to be fun. If it’s not, why play? The Globetrotters take fun to an extreme, but they embody the soul of the game.

Despite the spate of bad news, the game goes on. By November, optimism will be the mood du jour as nearly 350 Division I teams embark on the journey toward a 2012 championship. And with any luck, most of them will have plenty of fun along the way.

Florida State and North Carolina figure to return at least 70 percent of their scoring from this year, and they have tenured ACC coaches at the helm. However, each team has a question mark that could decide whether the Seminoles and Tar Heels become stalwarts of the top 10 or bounce around the Top 25 polls.

For Florida State, the Seminoles are waiting on Chris Singleton to decide whether he’ll return to school or enter the NBA Draft. Like the Seminoles, North Carolina needs to hear from Harrison Barnes before getting too giddy about next season’s prospects. If both players return, the Seminoles would have nearly 85 percent of the team’s scoring back, while the Tar Heels would have an ACC-best 91 percent of the team’s scoring back in action.

In Tallahassee, coach Leonard Hamilton has constructed a defensive juggernaut, and Singleton is one of the most dominating defensive presences in the country. The team’s Achilles heel was an inability to score for long stretches. If this team remains intact and collectively improves its shooting during the off-season, the Seminoles should be competing for a top three seed in the next NCAA Tournament.

For the Tar Heels, Barnes might be the most critical player on a talent-rich squad. John Henson and Tyler Zeller already informed coach Roy Williams that they intend to return to campus for another season. But Barnes is gathering more information about his draft stock, and he figures to be a top five pick. Fears of an NBA lockout could drive Barnes back to Chapel Hill, which would be just fine to North Carolina fans who loved Barnes’ clutch shooting late in games in ACC play.

If Barnes isn’t the team’s most valuable player, it’s probably freshman point guard Kendall Marshall, who blossomed when junior Larry Drew II bolted the team mid-season. Marshall immediately became one of the most impressive facilitators in the country. With Marshall at the helm for a whole season, the Tar Heels have high expectations for a more efficient offense in 2011-12.

Besides Florida State and North Carolina, Miami and Georgia Tech also might return nearly 90 percent of the teams’ scoring from this past season. That will depend on whether the Hurricanes’ Reggie Johnson opts to remain in the NBA Draft. Ditto for Georgia Tech’s Iman Shumpert. For the Yellow Jackets, Shumpert is especially crucial as one of the most valuable players in the ACC. He’s an all-around great player, especially on defense. If Shumpert returns for his senior season, new coach Brian Gregory will have a talented young team with a veteran leader at the helm.

However, Gregory’s ability to lead Georgia Tech to success in his first season will depend on how smoothly the team embraces his style. And there’s no guarantee that every player will be on board for a new coach’s strategy. Miami is in the same boat, except the Hurricanes don’t yet know who their coach will be after Frank Haith left for Missouri. Quite a few fans would love to see the university go after Miami-native Frank Martin, who has led a renaissance at Kansas State. However, he doesn’t appear to be a target of the school’s search right now.

After the ACC received plenty of criticism for having a down season, the conference could have several elite teams once again. Nearly three-quarters of the conference might return at least a third of its scoring. With an influx of talented recruits, ACC teams figure to make strides toward the No. 1 spot among the power conferences after sliding to fourth this season. And stability will be a major factor in realizing that potential.

The rise of Florida State’s offense has coincided with a dip in the impact of the Se♦minoles’ best player: Chris Singleton. In the first eight games, only two opponents cracked 60 points, and Singleton ranked as one of the best forwards in the conference with a Total Impact Quotient of 18.1 points. Three weeks later, Singleton’s TIQ has dipped by more than three points, but Florida State has scored more than 70 points in all six games after failing to do so in the previous three.

With Florida State’s offense sputtering, coach Leonard Hamilton decided to run more of the offense through Singleton. He’s taking more shots, as demonstrated in his 28-point effort in a loss to Butler Dec. 23.

However, the extra energy spent on offense seems to be costing Singleton on defense. After posting double-digit totals for rebounds in four of the first five games, he’s done so only twice in the past nine games. In addition, Singleton blocked at least three shots in six of the first 11 games; he has a total of five blocks in the past five games.

As Singleton’s individual impact fluctuates because of his changing role, Derwin Kitchen, Luke Loucks and Bernard James are having a bigger impact for the Seminoles.

Kitchen in particular has elevated his game, becoming one of the top contributors at his position in the ACC. Although Kitchen is in charge of running Florida State’s offense, he still contributes more than five rebounds per game and is among the conference leaders in steals. That multifaceted production yields a TIQ of 12.2 points, good for fifth in the ACC among guards.

Check out a complete introduction to the TIQ and description of what it means.

Here are the latest ratings for the ACC, through games of Saturday, Dec. 25.

TIQ position averages:
Centers: 14.4
Forwards: 8.8
Guards: 6.6
TIQ = Total Impact Quotient
PD% = Position differential in % difference from average

Player Rankings

The Seminoles already have one grade in for the semester: an A+ in Epic Defensive Mastery.

At 6-2, Florida State appears to be a legitimate contender for a top-third finish in the ACC this season. But the team’s success will hinge almost entirely on a defense that is historically good. According to Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency ratings, Florida State is No. 1 so far, allowing only 0.819 points per possession. If the Seminoles can maintain that pace, Florida State would have the most efficient defense in the nine-year history of Pomeroy’s statistics.

That feat is more impressive when considering that Florida State lost its defensive centerpiece last season when Solomon Alabi took his 2.3 blocks and 6.2 rebounds per game to the NBA. In his place, junior Chris Singleton has emerged as possibly the most dominant defensive player in the country. He has nearly doubled his blocks per game to 2.8 and is sixth in the nation with 3.3 steals per game. Singleton aggressively seeks loose balls, too, collecting 9.4 rebounds per game.

Although Singleton is only an average shooter (44.3 percent from the field), he offers the total package. Singleton’s production has yielded a Total Impact Quotient of 18.1, good for fourth among ACC forwards. But he has played at least two-thirds more minutes than any of the forwards ranked ahead of him.

Through the first eight games, Singleton has helped Florida State hold six opponents to less than 60 points. That’s even more impressive when you consider that the Seminoles don’t slow down the game. According to Pomeroy’s stats, Florida State plays the No. 62 — out of 345 teams — fastest tempo in Division I. The math doesn’t lie: Florida State is one great defensive squad.

Now it’s obviously way too early to crown Florida State with anything. The Seminoles have dominated opponents whose sum offensive firepower ranks No. 205 in Pomeroy’s stats. Let’s see how the Seminoles fare against ACC opponents, starting with the Tigers this weekend.

With Singleton leading the opponent oppression, there’s a good chance that Florida State remains near the top of defensive rankings all season, and the Seminoles end up in contention for an NCAA Tournament bid.