The defending champs won a scrappy, sloppy game on national TV in Tallahassee.

FSU led at the half; foul trouble hurt both teams in the paint. Tolliver's jump shots (6-10, 2-5 from downtown) led the comeback.

'Noles coach Semrau, whose team showed great fan support: "It was a disappointing game... We had been doing such a nice job rebounding and tonight they really took us out of our rhythm on the boards."

Coach Frese: "We needed to play with a lot more energy."

As the Basket Cases point out, last year's Terps also had days of close, grinding wins-- otherwise they wouldn't have been so closely associated with overtime.