After dropping 16 points and six assists on Duke, Florida State guard Michael Snaer earned praise from Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski, who called him the best competitor in the ACC.
“Snaer’s terrific. I love Snaer,” he said. “He’s just such a great competitor. He never seems to get tired. He just has such a great will.”
Snaer, a second-team All-ACC and All-ACC defensive-team selection, scored 48 points in three games against the Blue Devils this season. Snaer’s teammate Luke Loucks seconded Krzyzewski’s opinion, calling Snaer “definitely the most competitive guy I’ve ever met.”
Snaer defended Duke guard Austin Rivers on his final 3-point shot, forcing an awkward, twisting attempt that proved off the mark.
Said Krzyzewski, “He’s just a dang good player.”
Snaer provided leadership to the Seminoles in a different manner midway through the second half. After allowing Duke to reduce a 10-point lead to two points, Snaer spoke to his teammates during a timeout, reminding them that they were still ahead.
“He just said we were looking like we were down,” forward Okaro White said. “He was basically challenging us to come out and play hard.”
Late night
Florida State took the court about 16 hours after finishing Friday night’s quarterfinal win over Miami. The team finished a late-night scouting report around 1 a.m., forward Bernard James said, and then had a 10:30 a.m. breakfast. Coaches led the team through a walk-through in a ballroom at the team hotel, marking out a court with tape.
“I think we’ll end up doing the same thing [for the final],” James said. “It worked out pretty well for us.”
James, the former Air Force serviceman from Savannah, scored 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting and added seven rebounds, tying for team-high honors with White.
“It just feels really good to get that opportunity to play in a championship game,” James said. “It’s the first championship game of my career.”
James spent six years in the Air Force and was stationed in Iraq and Qatar before enrolling in junior college and transferring to Florida State in 2010.
Off the mark
Duke shot 5-for-20 from 3-point range. The Blue Devils, who had a 38.0 shooting percentage on 3-pointers before the game, shot a combined 10-for-46 in their two games at Philips Arena.
“We got the shots we wanted,” said Duke guard Seth Curry, who was 3-for-8 on 3-pointers Saturday. “We were confident in our shots, but some went in and out.”
Kelly update
Krzyzewski was hopeful that forward Ryan Kelly, who missed the tournament with a foot sprain, will be able to play in the first game of the NCAA tournament, particularly if it is played Friday instead of Thursday. Krzyzewski said that if Kelly, Duke’s third-leading scorer with 11.8 points per game, is limited, he would want to use him at the ends of games.
Krzyzewski expects the team to be sent to Greensboro, N.C., for the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament as a No. 2 seed.
“We probably will, I would think, not to predict,” he said.
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