Bubble Watch: Florida State Keeps Tourney Hopes Alive in Nail-Biter

At this point in the season, a single bounce of the ball can prove to be monumental in impacting a team’s tournament dreams and on Tuesday night, the bounces fell the Florida State Seminoles way late to give the team a much-needed win.

If the Seminoles had lost the ACC clash, the team would have fallen out of tournament contention, but the team survived the scare and continues to hang by a thread in the bubble conversation. The Seminoles now sit at 17-11 overall with one game left to play in the regular season when the team hosts struggling Syracuse on Sunday.

The Seminoles were down the majority of the second half until several last minute heroics lifted Florida State to a victory over the Boston College Eagles. The Seminoles’ saving grace proved to be Boston College’s ineptness as the team failed to close the game time and time again. Okaro White and Aaron Thomas helped deliver a victory for the Seminoles combining for 50 points and 11 rebounds. Boston College’s Olivier Hanlan was unable to shoot the Seminoles’ tournament chances between the eyes as the Eagles’ top threat went cold in the waning moments of the game.

Florida State has done just enough to hang around with other bubble teams this season, but are the Seminoles really a tournament team? The Noles’ best win came to a projected seven seed and the team lacks quality wins since the calender turned, so Florida State will be left to sweat it out on Selection Sunday like many other teams.

The Seminoles have not done enough to earn an NCAA tournament bid and will need a miracle run in the conference tournament in order to gain admittance to the dance.

Greg Douglas is a College Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @thegpd93 or add him to your Google Network.