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Has Florida State’s NCAA bubble burst?

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fsuFlorida State sure could have used a win over ACC regular-season champ UVa. in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Friday.

The ‘Noles (19-13, 10-10 ACC) entered the day with an RPI rating of 52 and a 2-7 record against the RPI top 25. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had FSU among the first four teams out of the tourney field. A win over Virginia would be a highlight on the NCAA resume.

Alas …

“What we have to do is wait and see what happens,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said after his team’s 64-51 loss on Friday, seemingly resigned to his fate.

It would mark the second consecutive season that the Seminoles will miss the Big Dance, and the ninth time in 12 years that Hamilton will miss the NCAAs at Florida State.

Hamilton’s teams are known for their length, athleticism, tough-nosed defense, but they’ve always been just a step off when it comes to achieving what the fan base seems to want to expect.

Nothing they can do about that now, of course.

“I do believe that we’re more than capable of doing well in the NCAA Tournament. But at this particular point, it doesn’t do you any good to play the what-if game. Because there’s a lot of criteria that the committee will use as they try to make their decision. We hope that we have fulfilled most of them,” Hamilton said.

“A win today probably would have helped us a lot better than a loss. So at this particular point there’s not anything else we can do other than go back and try to regroup from this game and learn from it and move on and try to get a little rest, prepare ourselves for whatever tournament we are going to play in,” Hamilton said.

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