Two games into Luke Loucks’ first season with Florida State, the Seminoles are 2-0, and the latest win came with a little more resistance than the opener. After handling Florida A&M in Tampa to start the regular season, Florida State returned to the Tucker Center for the first time this year and shook off a sluggish first half to beat Troy by 23 points.
The Seminoles were heavy favorites, so the real question wasn’t whether they’d win. It was how cleanly they’d play.
For a while, the offense looked a step slow, and Florida State carried only an 11-point lead into halftime. Then the second half turned into a different game entirely, with the Seminoles pouring in 54 points and leaning on a parade to the free throw line to pull away.
Troy gave Florida State a better early-season test than Florida A&M did. The Trojans are expected to be one of the stronger Sun Belt Conference teams on paper, and they forced the Seminoles to adjust instead of letting everything come easy. That made this a more useful night for Loucks’ group, even if the final margin still looked comfortable.
Shon Abaev was the headliner. The forward has already shown he can score at every level, including in the exhibition against LSU, and he followed up a solid opener against Florida A&M with his best all-around showing yet. Against Troy, Abaev scored 20 points and added seven rebounds and six assists, giving Florida State the kind of versatile production that changes a game when the shots aren’t falling from deep.
Loucks had an honest conversation with Abaev during recruiting and told him he felt the forward’s effort dipped when he wasn’t scoring. That hasn’t been the story through the first two games.
Abaev has looked confident, active, and willing to do whatever the offense needs. He helped carry the load at the foul line when the perimeter game wasn’t there, and through two games he already looks more valuable than he did in 2025-26.
Sebastian Rancik kept rolling, too. The Colorado transfer posted 18 points, three rebounds, two assists, and a block, continuing to settle into a starting role with authority.
At 6-foot-11, he moves like a guard, and that creates problems for defenses that don’t have an easy answer for him. Troy spent much of the night trying to keep up, and Rancik repeatedly created separation on the way to the basket and to the line.
He also showed a little of the shot-selection issue that came with the night. Rancik launched six 3-pointers and made two, even though Troy didn’t have a clear physical answer for him inside. Still, the production was there, and another double-digit scoring night is exactly what Florida State wants from him.
Kam Taylor added another efficient performance to the mix. Loucks already made a bold claim about Taylor’s athleticism, saying he believes the guard could be the most athletic player Florida State has ever had. Against Troy, Taylor backed up the buzz with 15 points, four rebounds, three assists, and a steal, while hitting all eight of his free throws.
Through two games, Taylor has been a constant problem for opposing defenses. He’s already attempted 15 free throws this season, and he’s missed just five shots from the field and one from the line. Loucks will gladly take that kind of efficiency all year, even if there’s another level Taylor still seems capable of reaching.
Not everything was clean, though. Martay Barnes had a rougher night in his second game with the Seminoles, finishing with three turnovers and missing a couple of open looks.
The guard’s speed stands out, and he likes to push the pace, but Florida State’s best stretches against Troy came when the ball was getting downhill into the paint. Barnes didn’t fully settle into that rhythm until late.
It wasn’t a damaging outing, but it was a useful one. Loucks has already shown he can help players like Abaev improve, and Barnes’ first hiccup should give him a clearer picture of what works and what doesn’t.
Elisee Assui also had a quiet night. The Italian guard, who may be the most experienced freshman on the roster, still looked like a freshman in this one. He missed two open 3-point chances, including a second-chance look from the corner, and finished with four points, five rebounds, and a steal.
In a game Florida State won by double digits, the nitpicking starts with the small stuff. Assui’s defense is part of his value, but the Seminoles will need him to convert the limited shots he gets if they want to keep stacking wins against bigger opponents like Florida, Miami, or Duke.
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