SMU out to boost fading NCAA tourney hopes vs. Florida State

Not that long ago, SMU seemed to be securely in the NCAA Tournament.

That assumption has moved to treacherous ground entering the Mustangs' regular-season finale Saturday against Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla.

SMU (19-11, 8-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) has lost its last three games, following up an 0-2 California road trip with a 77-69 home loss to No. 22 Miami on Wednesday.

That has dropped the Mustangs firmly onto the bubble. They were listed as one of the last four teams in on ESPN's latest bracketology update posted Friday, which takes into account being No. 38 in the NET rankings and No. 46 in the WAB (Wins Above Bubble).

SMU is focusing on what it can control.

"People only remember the last thing they saw," said SMU guard Jermaine O'Neal Jr. "If we can go out and win this next game and then win the ACC tournament or go as far as we can, nobody's going to be talking about these (three) games."

In what has been a familiar theme for SMU this season, Boopie Miller (18.9 points per game) and Jaron Pierre Jr. (17.9) went off against the Hurricanes by combining for 48 points.

But the rest of the team, which was missing B.J. Edwards (12.7 ppg) for the second straight game with an ankle injury, was a combined 9-of-28 shooting (32.1%).

Pierre scored 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting in SMU's 83-80 home win over Florida State on Jan. 24, a back-and-forth affair which saw 10 ties and 12 lead changes.

The Seminoles (16-14, 9-8) don't have NCAA Tournament hopes unless they win next week's ACC tournament. However, they've dealt blows to quite a few conference opponents' at-large hopes over their recent surge that has seen them win nine of their last 12 games.

The last of those was a dramatic 75-74 victory on Tuesday at Pitt as the Seminoles nearly blew a 24-point second-half lead.

Chauncey Wiggins and Lajae Jones each scored 18 and hit a combined seven 3-pointers for Florida State, which made 8 of 14 first-half threes before making just 3 of 13 after halftime.

With this strong response since its 0-5 start in ACC play, Florida State is in the midst of the bubbly teams in the conference standings.

The Seminoles are the No. 8 ACC seed entering Saturday -- one game up on SMU -- but could rise or fall depending on the result.

"The reality is there's a bunch of teams together: us, SMU, Cal, even Louisville," Seminoles coach Luke Loucks said. "We could end up anywhere from seven to, I believe, 10th or 11th. Huge implications (vs. SMU)."

--Field Level Media