Noles News: FSU picked to finish 7th in preseason ACC basketball poll

Football

In case you missed it, FSU’s top recruit from its 2026 class, Chauncey Kennon, was dismissed from the team:

FSU takes on Miami at 7 p.m. ET at Hard Rock Stadium this Saturday, a venue they haven’t won at since 2022.

Basketball

FSU men’s basketball will play its first preseason matchup of the year, facing off against Auburn in Birmingham. The game can be viewed on YouTube here at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday night:

This marks Florida State’s second appearance in the annual event, presented by Nike and Hibbett, after facing Alabama in the 2025 showcase. The Seminoles fell to the Crimson Tide, 109-105. The event returns for its third year following sellout crowds in each of its first two editions.

Florida State enters the 2026-27 season under second-year head coach Luke Loucks, who led the Seminoles to an 18-15 overall record and a 10-8 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference play during his first season. The 10 ACC victories established a program record for conference wins by a first-year Florida State head coach.

The Seminoles finished the 2025-26 season by winning 10 of their final 12 games, including a school-record five consecutive ACC road victories. At 36 years old, Loucks enters his second season as the 10th-youngest head coach in Division I and the youngest among coaches at Power Four programs.

Florida State enters the new season with a retooled roster as the Seminoles welcome 12 newcomers, including six freshmen and six transfers. According to On3, Florida State’s transfer class ranked seventh nationally and second in the ACC, while its high school recruiting class ranked 16th nationally and second in the conference.

Senior guard Anthony Robinson II and junior forward Sebastian Rancik recently represented Florida State at the 2026 ACC Tipoff, providing a first look at two of the Seminoles’ key additions.

Robinson II, a Tallahassee native, transferred to Florida State after three seasons at Missouri. He appeared in 96 games with 50 starts for the Tigers and earned a spot on the 2025 SEC All-Defensive Team. During the 2025-26 season, Robinson averaged 8.9 points per game and recorded a team-high 54 steals.

Rancik arrives in Tallahassee after two seasons at Colorado, where the Slovakia native appeared in 62 games with 37 starts. He averaged 12.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game in 2025-26, ranking third on the Buffaloes in scoring and second in rebounding.

Florida State’s 2026-27 schedule features a demanding slate of opponents, including eight games against teams ranked in the top 18 of ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25. The total is tied for the second most in the country.

The Seminoles are scheduled to face No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Duke, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 12 Virginia, No. 15 Louisville, No. 17 Houston and No. 18 Miami twice. Duke, Florida and Houston also occupy the top three spots in KenPom’s preseason ratings.

Wednesday’s matchup will be the 32nd meeting between the Seminoles and Tigers. Seventeen of the first 31 meetings took place between 1958 and 1966, and the programs have met only four times since the turn of the century. Those four games came during home-and-home series spanning the 2009-10 through 2012-13 seasons.

Florida State’s original exhibition opener, scheduled for Oct. 10 against Mississippi State in Pensacola as part of the Southern Tip-Off, was canceled because of anticipated impacts from Hurricane Isaias. Florida State will host LSU in a home exhibition on Oct. 24.

The Seminoles were picked seventh in this year’s preseason ACC basketball poll with 519 points. Duke picked up 45 of the 48 first-place votes.

Full results (first-place votes in parentheses)

1. Duke (45), 861
2. Virginia (1), 778
3. Louisville (1), 758
4. Miami (1), 753
5. North Carolina, 658
6. Clemson, 623
7. Florida State, 519
8. NC State, 502
9. Virginia Tech, 489
10. SMU, 443
11. Syracuse, 353
12. Pitt, 323
13. Stanford, 267
14. Wake Forest, 234
15. California, 225
16. Notre Dame, 153
17. Boston College, 150
18. Georgia Tech, 119

And on the women’s basketball side, the Seminoles were picked 14th out of 18 with 603 points, nearly 150 more than 15th place.

Full results (first-place votes in parentheses)

1. Duke (49) – 1,649
2. Louisville (22) – 1,580
3. North Carolina (1) – 1,462
4. Notre Dame (4) – 1,450
5. NC State – 1,337
6. Virginia – 1,085
7. Syracuse – 1,009
8. Virginia Tech – 1,003
9. Clemson – 988
10. California – 786
11. Miami – 689
12. Georgia Tech – 684
13. Stanford – 674
14. Florida State – 603
15. SMU – 373
16. Wake Forest – 296
17. Pitt – 236
18. Boston College – 170

Freshman F Missy Odom was named to the Preseason ACC All-Freshman team as well:

Odom was one of six rookies named to the list, which was voted on by the league’s 18 head coaches and 58 Blue Ribbon Panel members.

The forward from Parrish, Alabama is the first freshman to be recognized on the team since Ta’Niya Latson ahead of the 2022-23 season. She leads the Seminole freshman class that received a No. 12 final ranking by ESPNW that also includes Morgan Stewart, Chamiah Francis, Asia Lee and Kennedy Loux.

Odom is a two-sport star that will also play softball at FSU. She was a five-star prospect and ranked No. 21 nationally on ESPNW in basketball.  Odom was invited to play in the 2026 Jordan Brand Classic. She was the Class 5A Player of the Year in Alabama in 2024 and was named to the 2025-26 Naismith Trophy High School Girls Player of the Year Watch List as a senior at Monteverde Academy.

Florida State will host Tampa on Oct. 18 at 2 p.m. and Palm Beach Atlantic on Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. in a pair of exhibition games before opening the season against Merrimack at 6 p.m. on Nov. 2.

Jessi Wynn took a look at this year’s roster:

Soccer

FSU soccer is back in action on Thursday, heading on the road to take on Wake Forest:

All Sports

Florida State men’s tennis will compete at the 2026 ITA Men’s Southeast Regional Championship in Atlanta:

The 2026 ITA Regionals serve as a direct qualification for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. The two singles finalists from each region (26 total) and the doubles champion from each region (13 total) will earn an automatic qualification to the NCAA Individual Championships.

Each of the 2026 ITA men’s and women’s regional championships will have a draw size of the following: singles-64 main draw and 64 qualifying and doubles-64 main draw.  Both singles finalists and the doubles champion will earn births into the NCAA Individual Championships.

The Seminoles are sending eight players to the tournament: Mikail Amili, Filip Apltauer, Seydina Andre, Oren Ezerzer, Gabor Horning, Justin Lyons, Azariah Rusher and Elias Sumann. Seven of the eight players will participate in both the singles and doubles brackets.

Florida State is coming off an impressive performance at the Bedford Cup in Orlando, Florida where Justin Lyons and Gabor Hornung reached the finals of doubles play. The duo opened the tournament with a 7-6 (7) quarterfinal victory over FAU’s Simon Myslivec and Roman Venger. In the semifinals, Lyons and Hornung defeated UCF’s Kai-Luca Ampaw and Nicolas Oliveira 6-4 to punch their ticket to the finals. In the championship match, Lyons and Hornung faced FAU’s Mark Havlicek and Marek Pazdera, ultimately falling to the pair 6-4.

Last year, former Seminole Luis Felipe Miguel and Erik Schiessl capped off the 2025 ITA Southeast Regional Championship by claiming two NCAA Championship qualifying positions in singles and doubles. Miguel shared the regional singles co-champion title, while Schiessl paired with Miguel to be named the regional doubles champion.

FSU Baseball has a fall ball match against Jacksonville and North Florida this weekend at home.