Illinois State at Florida State

This total looks like a good one to exploit, as the Redbirds head to Florida for a test vs an ACC opponent. Illonois St. coach Porter Moser found the going tough last year as the MVC again made itself known come tourney time. The problem was Moser's team stood at 8-10, but dropped 9 of its last 10. He employed a different philosopy, as he tried to be competitive by shortening games, and playing deliberate, but it was to no avail. The Redbirds gave up only 59.1 points a game last year, but scored just 55. Florida St. coach leonard Hamilton, has suggested he has the depth and firepower to run and score. This team with the addition of Toney Douglass (Auburn transfer 17ppg), is really deep at the guard position, and Hamilton wants to utilize that strength by playing uptempo. That should mean Florida st. will improve upon the 76.7 ppg they averaged last year. We took a look at the MVC, which is primarily a "half court" league, as only 2 teams in the entire conference gave up 70ppg last year. The redbirds slow tempo was based on personnel, and league attributes, and not a constant Porter Moser undertaking. Three years as coach here, there has been nothing like the numbers from last year. The fact is when they played the 2 teams that scored 70+ in the league, they both hit 70+ every game. Florida St. has not seen a non-league game go under this total at home in two years. This looks like an oddsmaker looking at the many low scoring games of the Redbirds for one season, and posting a number that in our eyes, does not depict the situation at hand for this one.