Bacon Looks to Take Next Step for FSU

After leading the team in scoring and rebounding as a freshman, Florida State is looking forward to seeing what slasher Dwayne Bacon can do for an encore.

“Dwayne is an excellent player,” head coach Leonard Hamilton said during ACC media days. “Obviously, he’s a really good scorer and he’s one of the best players finishing around the basket that I’ve coached over the years.”

Last season, Bacon led the Seminoles by averaging 15.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Bacon, a 6-7 swingman, became known for his quickness off the dribble and his athleticism. Bacon also had a knack for the dramatic, hitting the game-winning jumper in a win over Florida and a fall-away with the shot clock ticking down to sink N.C. State.

“Where he’s really improved is with his perimeter shooting,” Hamilton said.

Bacon shot just 28 percent last season from beyond the arc, but a respectable 45 percent from the floor. Bacon was largely streaky from deep last season. As a freshman, he had games where he shot 5-for-8, 5-for-10, 3-for-4 and two where he shot 3-for-5 from deep.

Outside of those contest however, Bacon shot just 13-for-88 from the field — less than 16 percent. Improving this aspect of his game would go a long way in getting FSU back to the NCAA Tournament.

Though FSU failed to make the NCAA Tournament for a fourth straight season last year despite having Bacon, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and eventual NBA first round pick Malik Beasley share a backcourt, optimism is high for this season. Not only do Bacon and Rathan-Mayes, the team’s leading assist man, return, but FSU welcomes in a top 15 national recruiting class with six members, headlined by one of the school’s most sought-after prospects ever in forward Jonathan Isaac.

“In practices, we’ve been competing hard and really going at each other,” Bacon said. “It’s not just to get a spot, but to get the best out of each other. They come in and they want to learn and want to get better.”

As was the case last season, FSU plans to run an uptempo offense and try to score in bunches. Where FSU needs to improve is on the defensive end and that too, may start with Bacon. With good lateral quickness and a long frame, Bacon has the tools to be one of the Seminoles’ best on-the-ball defenders. Bacon averaged a steal per game last season.

“The challenge we’ve given him is to become a more complete player – the deflections, the steals, the high-energy stops,” Hamilton said of Bacon.

If Bacon and the rest of his teammates can accept that challenge, the Seminoles should be in good shape for the 2016-17 season. Though he’s only a true sophomore, Bacon is only one of two returning players who averaged more than 20 minutes per game last season and will be looked at as a leader this season.

“He’s a prolific scorer and a guy you can turn to and he’s going to get you a bucket,” Rathan-Mayes said of his backcourt mate. “He’s a great teammate, a great friend. He worked really hard this offseason.”

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson