The Florida State Seminoles emerged from their schedule in the hyper-competitive Atlantic Coast Conference with a number of significant wins. And they are certainly on a mission to redeem themselves for a humiliating loss in this event last season. On Friday night, they will take on the Missouri Tigers, who will have the services of one of the most talented freshmen in the country, in a game that begins at 9:50 PM ET at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and will be televised on TBS. While BetAnySports customers are watching it, they can place wagers in real-time, as they access the state-of-the-art software from Live Betting Ultra.

Florida State is coached by Leonard Hamilton, and he has a reputation for putting together teams that play very strong defense. The Seminoles are pretty tough down low against the opposition, allowing just 45.5% inside the three-point arc. But on overall basis, they are 78th in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency. However, their offense looks potentially explosive, as they have topped 90 points on nine different occasions. FSU has scored wins this season over pretty good roster of teams – Florida, North Carolina, Miami, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Louisville and Syracuse. However, they did not get past their first game in the ACC tournament, as they lost to Louisville.

Missouri was in an improved Southeastern Conference this season, and they beat some of the big guns in that league, including NCAA participants Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama. And they basically did this without the services of a kid who came into college as arguably the best freshman in the country. Michael Porter Jr. was highly-sought-after, but the 6-10 forward played only two minutes of the opening game before going down with an injury. He finally came back to action in the SEC tournament, playing 23 minutes in the 62-60 loss to Georgia.

In the NCAA Tournament betting odds that have been posted on this game by the folks at BetAnySports, Florida State is the slight favorite:

Florida State Seminoles -1.5
Missouri Tigers +1.5

Over 147 points -110
Under 147 points -110

Florida State has some shot-blocking ability, with a couple of African imports. Christ Koumadje, a 7-4 center from Chad, has swatted away 1.6 shots per game, while Nigerian Ike Obiagu, a seven-footer, has 2.2 blocks per contest. Both of these guys play somewhat limited minutes, but FSU will always have some kind of intimidator on the floor, in all likelihood.

And maybe that could mean something against Porter, who was a little rusty against Georgia, hitting five of 17 shots, with 12 points and eight rebounds. But the upside on this versatile young star is enormous, and the speculation around him centers upon whether he decides he's going to go into the NBA Draft or not. He would easily be a lottery pick, and quite possibly among the top five players chosen.

One thing that Missouri has that can be very effective here is the triple. And 45.5% of their total attempts have come from beyond the arc. They have been very proficient from there as well, hitting 39.2% for the season. But there is a bit of a problem, in that Jordan Barnett, who averages 13.7 points and 5.9 rebounds, and is one of those three-point artists (42.3%) was busted for drunk driving last week and is suspended for one game. He took 198 treys, so Missouri has to fill in the blanks somewhere. Perhaps that's with Kassius Robertson (16.2 PPG), who was 43.6% accurate.

Florida State is a deeper team than Missouri, which has only seven scholarship players available for this one. Hamilton has ten players who average at least 11 minutes per game. One thing Florida State would love to do is erase the memory of last year's loss to Xavier in the Big Dance, which came by way of a 91-66 verdict. But we are not as confident with FSU on the defensive end as we have been in the past. Rather, Missouri, which ranks among the top 35 teams in the country against both two-pointers and three-pointers, rates the edge in that department. So in this near pick'em situation, we're going with the Tigers.

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(The preceding information was furnished for news matter only)