Florida State hosted the Troy Trojans, the two-time reigning Sun Belt champion, on Friday night with a pretty good crowd in the Tucker Center. It was one last tune-up before the top-ranked Florida Gators come to town on Tuesday, even if this is a totally different team stylistically.

It was... ugly early.

Troy played zone for most of the first half, and Florida State just didn't operate well against it, driving recklessly and shooting some wild shots, which kept this from making it a blowout.

The one thing they were doing was getting to the free-throw line. They were in the bonus six minutes into the game and ended up 15/18 from the stripe by halftime. That was the big separator, as both teams were a dreadful 9/28 with four made threes at the break.

FSU also dominated the boards, as you'd expect against a much smaller Troy team, but despite 11 offensive rebounds in the first half, they had only 4 second-chance points at halftime as part of their 38-27 lead.

Ant with the soft touch ‼️#ALLIN🍢 pic.twitter.com/vjazIe3v7d

— Florida State Men’s Basketball (@FSUHoops) November 7, 2026

It was a little better offensively early in the second half, making 6 of their first 12 shots, as Anthony Robinson II had a few nice shots at the rim. However, Troy kept hanging around, and a tough and-one by Jacoi Hutchinson made it a 9-point game with about 13 minutes to go.

Troy was finding some success with the pick-and-pop with Sam Walters, a former four-star recruit, as Marcis Ponder wanted to be in drop coverage and was a little slow to recover to the pop. That helped Troy knock down a few threes, but Shon Abaev was answering on the other end with tough drives to the basket.

Back-to-back and-ones by Marcis Ponder pushed the lead up to 15 with about 11 minutes to go. Troy was doing a good job of keeping FSU's defense off balance with a lot of drives and kicks, or screens and slips with a quick pass over the defense, and that kept them within striking range, just hoping to go on a big run.

Florida State got the lead to 20 after a three-pointer that hit every part of the rim and backboard, and then Kam Taylor hit a pair of free throws. From there, FSU was able to coast to the finish, winning 91-68.

While the first half was rough offensively, FSU still scored 91 points overall. It's hard to be too upset with that.

Next up is a big home matchup against Florida on Tuesday evening.

FINAL: Florida State takes care of business in home opener, beats Troy 91-68

S Abaev 20 pts, 7 reb, 6 ast
S Rancik 18 pts
K Taylor 15 pts
M Ponder 10 pts, 10 rebs

NEXT: Tue vs #1 Florida in the Tuck #Noles pic.twitter.com/a9OkwlfRH7

— Austin Veazey (@EasyVeazeyNG) November 7, 2026

Zone Offense Has to Improve

Florida State just never really felt comfortable against the zone. They were trying to make the cuts and use ball fakes, but a lot of it just felt out of control. FSU has enough people who can attack off the dribble that you would think they could make a defense pay, but the shots have to start falling at a better rate at some point.

The shot selection could have been a little better, but this is still a new team getting used to playing with each other. It showed in a game like this.

Is FSU TOO Reliant on Getting to the Free-Throw Line?

Florida State shot 34 free throws in the first game against Florida A&M, then shot 39 in this game against Troy. It's clear that a lot of their gameplan is to get downhill and get to the free-throw line, but they won't always have games where you're getting this many free throws.

They at least made about 50% of their field goals against FAMU, but that was not the case in this game. At some point, the shot-makers have to make shots. Shon Abaev and Sebastian Rancik were productive in this game, but it needs to be more than that.

Fun Shon Abaev Game

When Shon Abaev is rolling, he's really fun to watch. He can score from everywhere on the floor, has some good strength at the rim, and is good with the ball in his hands. He finished this game with 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, which should give him some confidence heading into Tuesday's big matchup against Florida.

And again, Abaev was great with his playmaking. For someone who has never played point guard, he now has 12 assists and just one turnover in two games. That's a great sign of things to come.

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