Florida State’s hopes of duplicating the feat ended on Friday night in the ACC Tournament semifinals, but on this day five years ago, the Seminoles won their only ACC basketball championship.
The 2011-12 season for FSU didn’t start the way the team envisioned. The Seminoles started the regular with a 9-6 record which included losses to Princeton, Harvard and a blowout loss at Florida.
“Even when we were 9-5 and the season looked doomed, we still believed that our team was good enough to make a run,†Luke Loucks, a the senior guard told The Daily Nole last year. “We had really high-character guys on that team and a good mix of gritty players, athleticism, and our competitiveness was great. We literally hated to lose.”
After a hard-fought road win over Virginia Tech, an unexpected 90-57 blowout of third-ranked North Carolina seemed to jump-start the team. FSU won seven straight games, including three over ranked teams before finishing 12-4 in conference and as the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament.
“I think the breaking point was the game versus Virginia Tech,†then senior guard Deividas Dulkys told The Daily Nole last year. “We came together during that road win versus a really good team.”
After defeating rival Miami to open the ACC Tournament, the Seminoles advanced to the final with a 62-59 win over Duke in a nail-biter where Duke’s Seth Curry had a half-court heave rim out as time expired.
On March 11, 2012, FSU wrapped up the annual tournament — this time in Atlanta — against top-seeded North Carolina. A 33-point win over the Tar Heels earlier in the season in Tallahassee seemed to shift the tide of the season for FSU, but in front of a crowd with more Carolina blue, it wouldn’t be as easy this time around.
Early on, Florida State seemed to be unaffected by the ridiculously talented team it was facing. The Seminoles led 47-31 in the first half, but a 9-2 run by the Tar Heels to close the half let head coach Leonard Hamilton and company know that North Carolina wasn’t going away.
Michael Snaer scored 18 points in the contest to lead FSU en route to being named the ACC Tournament MVP and he needed all of them. Though Florida State stayed in front for the majority of the game, North Carolina refused to go away.
With 30 seconds to play, North Carolina guard Kendall Marshall hit an incredibly tough 3-pointer to cut the FSU lead to 83-82. After FSU’s Okaro White missed the front end of a 1-and-1 on the other end, Marshall got a look at another trey for the lead, but this one went awry.
Wit 3.9 seconds left, it was Dulkys who went to the line. After scoring a career-high 32 points in the first meeting between the team, Dulkys capped 16-point effort by calmly knocking down a pair of free throws. With time running out, North Carolina’s P.J. Hairston hoisted a desperation triple to try and force overtime, but to no avail.
For the first and only time in school-history, FSU was ACC champions. In addition to Snaer and Dulkys, Loucks and fellow guard Ian Miller each finished with 10 points in the win. Harrison Barnes finished with 23 points to lead North Carolina while Tyler Zeller finished with a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Marshall narrowly missed a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds. Hairston scored 13.
Despite all of North Carolina’s talent, it was a stellar effort from beyond the arc that propelled the Seminoles. As a team, FSU went 11-for-22 from beyond the 3-point arc. Dulkys and Snaer combined for eight of those makes.
The Seminoles would earn a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but were upset in the round of 32 by Cincinnati. The seniors of that team became the first class in FSU history to make the NCAA Tournament in four straight seasons.
“It definitely feels like more of a feat now than when it was happening,†Dulkys said. “We had such high hopes that I don’t think any of us were surprised to keep making the tournament.”
Though the tournament run wasn’t as deep as FSU hoped in 2012, what the team was able to accomplish by winning the ACC had not been done before at FSU and hasn’t since. It happened on this day five years ago.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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