Jordan SilversmithFri, November 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM UTC·3 min readFlorida State men’s basketball (3-1, 0-0) looks to continue its undefeated record at home as it takes on Georgia Southern (3-2, 0-0) on Friday night.
The Seminoles are coming off their third win of the season, 87-73 over UT Martin, in a game that was much closer than the score indicated. FSU played without starting forward Chauncey Wiggins, forcing head coach Luke Loucks to play extremely small and give extended minutes to some of the more unproven players on the roster. Wiggins’ absence proved that Florida State’s lack of depth will be a feature, not a bug, of this roster throughout the season, and the Noles will have difficulty overcoming it.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementComing into Tallahassee is a Georgia Southern team that lost narrowly on the road to Georgia Tech on Tuesday, 68-66, but has lost both of its high-major games to begin the season. The Eagles were picked to finish 10th in the preseason Sun Belt Media poll.
Florida State is listed as a 16.5 favorite, according to FanDuel.
How to watch:
Tonight’s matchup tips off at 6 PM on ACC Network Extra. Whoever scheduled this game with FSU football playing on Friday at 8 PM made quite a choice.
Date
Friday, November 21
Time
6:00 p.m. ET
Watch/Stream
Channel: ACC Network Extra/ESPN+
Stream: WatchESPN/ESPN App
Listen
Seminoles Radio Network
FSU Broadcast: Ch. 119 or 193/SXM App
Spread
-26.5, Florida State
Over/Under
176.5 points
Notes to know:
As mentioned, with Wiggins out of the lineup, Florida State relied heavily on big man Alex Steen to soak up some of the Clemson transfer’s minutes. Steen held up admirably, finishing with 13 points, seven rebounds, and two blocks in 22 minutes of game action. AJ Swinton, who is more of a small forward type, also got his most extended action of the season with 12 points across 15 minutes and supplemented badly needed athleticism into the Florida State lineup. Alier Maluk and Thomas Bassong were the other two forwards to receive playing time. The Noles are extremely thin up front, and the loss of Wiggins cannot be overstated. It will be noteworthy to see how Steen’s body holds up over the course of the first D1 season of his career.
The Seminoles are in the stretch of three-straight buy games, UT Martin, Georgia Southern and CSU Bakersfield, but the schedule will stiffen in competition afterwards with matchups against Texas A&M, Georgia and Houston. Florida State needs to keep trying to run up the score in these matchups if its NET ranking will matter down the stretch.
Players to know:
F Aiden Applewhite: Applewhite transferred to Georgia Southern from Murray State, where he made 32 appearances with the Racers a season ago. In his opening game with the Eagles, Applewhite dropped 21 points on the road against East Carolina and led GSU in minutes in their latest matchup versus Georgia Tech with 30. The redshirt senior has also done an excellent job getting to the free-throw line to begin the year, and took 12 attempts against UNC Asheville. With FSU struggling to guard without fouling, keeping Applewhite away from the charity stripe will be paramount.
G Tyren Moore: Not the biggest guy in the world at 5’11”, Moore makes up for his lack of size with a deadly three-point shot and is shooting 44% from beyond the arc to begin the season. Moore has scored double-digit points in four of Georgia Southern’s first five games this season, while recording three or more assists in three of the Eagles’ five contests. Moore was named to the Preseason All-Sun Belt Conference First Team after being awarded All-Sun Belt Second Team for the 23-24 season.
