Florida State University Athletics
Friday, November 21
Tallahassee, Fla.
6:00 PM
Florida State
vs
Georgia Southern
Seminoles To Wear Distinctive Heritage Uniforms Against Georgia Southern Friday At 6:00 PM
11/20/2025 11:04:00 AM | Men's Basketball
TALLAHASSEE – When Seminole head coach Luke Loucks looked at the final stat sheet from Florida State's 87-73 win over UT Martin, his eyes were drawn to one specific statistic: points scored off of turnovers.
With 19 steals and 26 turnovers forced in their third consecutive home win, the Seminoles outscored the Skyhawks by an incredible margin of 33-4 on points off turnovers.
It's a number that Loucks had never seen on a stat sheet at any level during his playing or coaching career.
"Our team did a really good job of turning up the volume specifically defensively in the second half," said Loucks. "As a team I thought our effort, our communication, and our physicality skyrocketed in the second half. It singlehandedly won us the game tonight."
Loucks expects that same defensive effort Friday night when the Seminoles play host to Georgia Southern at 6:00 p.m. at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
The Seminoles' game against the Eagles will be streamed on ACCNX with Trevor DeGroot and Melissa Bruner and can be heard on the Seminole Sports Network with Jack Kavovit and Blake Miles.
Tickets are available for Friday's game at Seminoles.com. Tickets for Florida State students are free; they can be claimed here.
Florida State will wear its distinctive Nike Seminole Heritage turquoise uniforms in its game against Georgia Southern. It marks the 33rd time the Seminoles will wear the uniforms since first wearing them on November 17, 2013, in an 89-61 win over UT Martin.
In a season where Florida State's record book is being re-written on a game by game basis, the Seminoles' defensive effort against UT Martin was nearly record-breaking for the fourth consecutive game.
Five different Seminoles (Martin Somerville, 4; Robert McCray V, 3; Lajae Jones, 3; Cam Miles, 3; AJ Swinton, 3) totaled three or more steals each and the Seminoles totaled a near school-record with 19 steals in their victory over UT Martin.
The Seminoles' 19 steals are tied for the second-highest number of steals in a game in Florida State history and were just two steals shy of the all-time Florida State record for steals in a game. Florida State totaled a school-record 21 steals against Tulane on February 6, 1985, and has earned 18 or more steals in a game nine times since earning 18 steals against St. Leo on January 25, 1982.
"We have some good defenders that are aggressive," said Loucks. "Sometimes, I've just got to get out of their way. That's hard to do as a coach. Sometimes these kids need to get set free. At halftime, we challenged them a little bit and I gave them the freedom to execute the game plan. We never wanted them (UT Martin) to get comfortable."
Collectively, Florida State's players accepted Loucks' challenge.
With 19 steals in their win over UT Martin, the Seminoles have earned double-figures in steals in three of their first four games of the season and are averaging 12.0 steals per game. The Seminoles are ranked second in the ACC in steals with 48 and have two players (Somerville, 2.5 spg, and McCray V, 2.5 spg) ranked within the top three for steals per game in the ACC.
"You could tell the urgency our guys were playing with defensively really helped us force a lot of those turnovers," said Loucks. "That's the way we are going to play. We are going to try to beat you down the court on offense, and defensively we are going to speed teams up. We are going to throw a lot of looks at offenses to keep them off balance.
"One of our goals every night is to win the possession battle, and we won it against UT Martin just by the way we played defense."
Somerville, who tied his career-high with four steals in Florida State's victory over UT Martin, enters Friday's game against Georgia Southern with 10 steals in his first four games as a Seminole. He has seven steals in his last two games (3.5 spg) and nine steals in last three games (3.0 spg).
"We score a lot of points because we possess the ball more than most teams do," said Somerville. "Our coaching staff wants us to be aggressive on defense which allows our team to have a higher number of possessions throughout every game."
Because of the Seminole's aggressive game plan under Loucks and his staff, the Seminoles are ranked first in the ACC and among the top 15 teams nationally for pace of play.
With 19 steals and 26 turnovers forced in their third consecutive home win, the Seminoles outscored the Skyhawks by an incredible margin of 33-4 on points off turnovers.
It's a number that Loucks had never seen on a stat sheet at any level during his playing or coaching career.
"Our team did a really good job of turning up the volume specifically defensively in the second half," said Loucks. "As a team I thought our effort, our communication, and our physicality skyrocketed in the second half. It singlehandedly won us the game tonight."
Loucks expects that same defensive effort Friday night when the Seminoles play host to Georgia Southern at 6:00 p.m. at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
The Seminoles' game against the Eagles will be streamed on ACCNX with Trevor DeGroot and Melissa Bruner and can be heard on the Seminole Sports Network with Jack Kavovit and Blake Miles.
Tickets are available for Friday's game at Seminoles.com. Tickets for Florida State students are free; they can be claimed here.
Florida State will wear its distinctive Nike Seminole Heritage turquoise uniforms in its game against Georgia Southern. It marks the 33rd time the Seminoles will wear the uniforms since first wearing them on November 17, 2013, in an 89-61 win over UT Martin.
In a season where Florida State's record book is being re-written on a game by game basis, the Seminoles' defensive effort against UT Martin was nearly record-breaking for the fourth consecutive game.
Five different Seminoles (Martin Somerville, 4; Robert McCray V, 3; Lajae Jones, 3; Cam Miles, 3; AJ Swinton, 3) totaled three or more steals each and the Seminoles totaled a near school-record with 19 steals in their victory over UT Martin.
The Seminoles' 19 steals are tied for the second-highest number of steals in a game in Florida State history and were just two steals shy of the all-time Florida State record for steals in a game. Florida State totaled a school-record 21 steals against Tulane on February 6, 1985, and has earned 18 or more steals in a game nine times since earning 18 steals against St. Leo on January 25, 1982.
"We have some good defenders that are aggressive," said Loucks. "Sometimes, I've just got to get out of their way. That's hard to do as a coach. Sometimes these kids need to get set free. At halftime, we challenged them a little bit and I gave them the freedom to execute the game plan. We never wanted them (UT Martin) to get comfortable."
Collectively, Florida State's players accepted Loucks' challenge.
With 19 steals in their win over UT Martin, the Seminoles have earned double-figures in steals in three of their first four games of the season and are averaging 12.0 steals per game. The Seminoles are ranked second in the ACC in steals with 48 and have two players (Somerville, 2.5 spg, and McCray V, 2.5 spg) ranked within the top three for steals per game in the ACC.
"You could tell the urgency our guys were playing with defensively really helped us force a lot of those turnovers," said Loucks. "That's the way we are going to play. We are going to try to beat you down the court on offense, and defensively we are going to speed teams up. We are going to throw a lot of looks at offenses to keep them off balance.
"One of our goals every night is to win the possession battle, and we won it against UT Martin just by the way we played defense."
Somerville, who tied his career-high with four steals in Florida State's victory over UT Martin, enters Friday's game against Georgia Southern with 10 steals in his first four games as a Seminole. He has seven steals in his last two games (3.5 spg) and nine steals in last three games (3.0 spg).
"We score a lot of points because we possess the ball more than most teams do," said Somerville. "Our coaching staff wants us to be aggressive on defense which allows our team to have a higher number of possessions throughout every game."
Because of the Seminole's aggressive game plan under Loucks and his staff, the Seminoles are ranked first in the ACC and among the top 15 teams nationally for pace of play.
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