Florida State's Star Falters as Elite Teams Crash Out of NCAA Playoffs

Florida State men's basketball will not participate in the 2026 National Invitation Tournament. The Seminoles' senior class voted to decline any postseason invitation outside of the NCAA Tournament, according to Warchant's Ira Schoffel . It closes the curtain on one of the more surprising seasons in recent program history.

The decision came in the aftermath of a gut-wrenching 80–79 quarterfinal loss to top-seeded Duke in the ACC Tournament, a game that ended with a potential game-winning three-pointer from Robert McCray V falling just short as time expired. The decision, while difficult, was not surprising. This was a senior class that spent the final two months of the season playing with something to prove, and they had done exactly that.

The Seniors' Choice For the program's senior core, the message was clear: if the postseason wasn't going to be the Big Dance, it wasn't going to be at all. McCray, who could barely lift his head through the postgame handshake line, was devastated that he couldn't piece together one final magical moment for the Seminoles. For him and his fellow five seniors, there was no appetite to continue the season in a consolation tournament.

McCray, Lajae Jones, Chauncey Wiggins, and Alex Steen, the four seniors at the heart of Florida State's remarkable second-half surge, chose to go out on their own terms, on the biggest stage the program has seen in years. As Close as It Gets The Duke loss will sting for a long time in Tallahassee. Not because of how it ended, but because of how close it came to being something historic.