Well, it’s officially over. Selection Sunday came and went without the Noles’ name being called, and now, after a senior vote, the NIT invitation is off the table too. The 2025-26 Florida State basketball season has come to a close at 18-15, and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a sting to it. This was a team that had become genuinely fun to watch, and I wanted to see them keep playing. I think a lot of you did, too.
But let’s talk about how this went down, and more importantly, what it actually means.
The Seniors Decided — And That’s Okay
After FSU’s gut-punch 80-79 loss to No. 1 Duke in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals, coach Luke Loucks did something that tells you a lot about how he runs this program. He put the decision in the hands of the people who earned it.
“We have tremendous respect for the National Invitational Tournament and the role it has played in college basketball for many years,” Loucks said in his statement. “When we were asked previously about the possibility of an NIT invitation, I meant it when I said Florida State would welcome the opportunity to compete. After our loss to Duke on Thursday night, I felt strongly that the players who carried this season, especially our seniors, deserved a voice in that decision.”
The Seminoles’ six seniors voted to decline any invitation other than the NCAA Tournament. And Loucks, true to his word, respected that decision. “Our team ultimately chose not to participate, and I respect that decision.”
Look, I get it. Some fans, myself included, wanted more games. But let’s be real about the math here. FSU will lose six seniors from this roster — Robert McCray V, Kobe Magee, Chauncey Wiggins, Lajae Jones, Alex Steen, and Shah Muhammad. When five or six of your top contributors aren’t coming back regardless, the “extra practice time” argument for playing in the NIT loses a lot of its weight.
These guys wanted to go out on their own terms, after pushing the best team in the country to a single possession on one of college basketball’s biggest stages. Honestly? You can understand that.
One of the Hottest Teams in the Country Down the Stretch
Here’s what I refuse to let get lost in the disappointment: this Florida State team was a completely different animal in the second half of the season than the one that stumbled out of the gate.
FSU started conference play 0-5 before its remarkable in-season turnaround and became the first team in ACC history to reach at least .500 in conference play at any point after a winless start of at least five games. Think about that. No team in ACC history had ever done that. Not one.
The Seminoles went 10-3 over their final 13 games of the season. They were rolling. And the wins weren’t coming entirely against pushovers, either. FSU beat three teams that earned NCAA Tournament bids — SMU, Clemson, and Miami — all in that final stretch. The Noles also finished within one possession of two No. 1 seeds (Duke and Florida) and a No. 3 seed in Virginia. That’s not a fluke. That’s a team that figured something out and ran with it.
The Seminoles set a single-season school record with 343 three-pointers, the second-highest total in the ACC and 23rd nationally, and they led the entire ACC with an average of 13.64 turnovers forced per game.
Robert McCray V was the engine of all of it. The senior guard started all 33 games and earned third-team All-ACC honors after averaging 16.3 points per game to go along with 200 assists, third in the ACC and 20th nationally, making him one of just five players in the country to average at least 16 points while dishing out 200 assists. He dropped 30 against Cal in the ACC Tournament, then came back the next night and scored 25 against No. 1 Duke.
Lajae Jones, who had his own bumpy road earlier in the year, arguably played the game of his life against the Blue Devils, putting up 28 points. Chauncey Wiggins, who Loucks publicly challenged earlier in the season, scored in double figures in each of FSU’s last six wins, including a 31-point performance vs SMU in the regular season finale.
This group earned every bit of what they did.
The “But” That Hurts
Make no mistake, this one stings because it didn’t have to end this way. The brutal truth is that the early-season version of this team, the one that went 0-5 to start ACC play, lost to UMass and got blown out by NC State and Georgia on its home court, was buried by results that the committee simply couldn’t overlook. The wins in January and February were real. The momentum was undeniable. But the committee doesn’t grade on a curve for turnarounds, no matter how impressive. The losses in November and December didn’t disappear from the ledger just because this team reinvented itself.
That’s just how it goes sometimes. And it’s a lesson this program won’t forget. Unfortunately, it’s not like football where the committee will overlook early-season losses by deeming them a “different team now vs then (ex: Bama losing to FSU last year).
What makes it particularly bittersweet is the nature of that final game. FSU fought hard but couldn’t pull off the Duke upset in an 80-79 loss. A shot that fell just short, and just like that, the season was over. But consider this: Duke went on to win the ACC Tournament championship, and the Blue Devils are the No. 1 overall seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament field. The Noles took the best team in the country to the wire. That’s not small.
In fact, here’s some food for thought. In Duke’s last 10 games, they went 10-0 and defeated No. 10 UVA by 5, Clemson by 12, FSU by 1, No. 19 UNC by 29, No. 10 UVA again by 26, Notre Dame by 44, No. 3 Michigan by 5, Syracuse by 37, and Clemson by 13. FSU pushed them harder than any team on that list over than span.
Additionall, only nine teams all season (through 34 games) finished within two possessions of the Blue Devils when the final buzzer sounded. One was in the first game of the season. Six are currently ranked. FSU did it twice! The Noles proved down the stretch that they could compete with the top team in the country as well as anyone.
After that game, Loucks had this to say: “I’m so proud of these guys, the way they battled throughout this match — but most importantly, the way they battled through the second half of this season, in a season where these guys could have easily folded. They came to work every day and tried to find solutions.”
That quote says everything about what Luke Loucks is building.
Year One Was a Foundation, Not a Ceiling
Here’s where I land on all of this. Year one under Luke Loucks was, by any honest measure, a success. The Noles finished 10-8 in ACC play, best record in five years, and a school record for wins by a first-year head coach. They beat Cal to advance to the ACC Tournament quarterfinals and made the eventual ACC champion and national No. 1 seed sweat it out to the final buzzer. That’s the program. That’s the standard being set.
And the future? The future is genuinely exciting.
FSU’s 2026 signing class, Loucks’ first full class of high school signees, is currently ranked No. 8 in the country and No. 2 in the ACC by 247Sports, featuring five signees all rated as four-star prospects. Add some well-targeted portal additions to fill the roster spots left by the graduating seniors, and pair that incoming talent with the young core that showed real promise this season (Thomas Bassong, Martin Somerville, Cam Miles, AJ Swinton), and this program has serious building blocks in place.
Loucks put it well on social media after the bracket dropped: “FSU Hoops will be invited to the party soon enough, and we won’t stop working until we get back to dancing every season.”
That’s not bravado. That’s a coach who took a program that started 0-5 in conference play and turned it into one that went toe-to-toe with the best team in the country by March. If Loucks can land this top-10 class, add a couple of experienced portal pieces, and retain the young talent from this year’s roster, the Noles won’t just be in the NCAA Tournament conversation. They’ll be dancing.
This season is over. But what Luke Loucks is building in Tallahassee is very much alive. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!