Basketball

Florida State men’s basketball has added another pair of non-conference matchups to its 2025-2026 schedule, with the Seminoles set to face off against the UMass Minutemen in the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise and the Houston Cougars in a “neutral” site matchup inside the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets:

A preseason exhibition matchup vs. the Alabama Crimson Tide was announced yesterday.

In addition to the aforementioned matchups against Houston and UMass, the Seminoles have non-conference games scheduled vs. Florida, Texas A&M (in Tampa), Georgia and Dayton — with high-profile matchups taking on an ever greater importance in an era of TV-viewership influenced revenue payouts.

Florida State’s designated ACC opponents were revealed last month: Boston College, Cal, Duke, NC State, Stanford, Virginia and Wake Forest at home while hitting the road to face off against Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Virginia Tech. Dates for each game have not been announced.

With Duke, Houston and Florida on the slate, FSU will face off against three of the Final Four teams from last season.

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Like many young hitters, Smith initially struggled to find his offensive footing. Through May 13, he was batting .214 with a .659 OPS. During that period, Espada sat him four times in a span of eight games.

Since then, Smith is batting .326 with an .852 OPS. Working with Alex Cintron, one of the Astros’ hitting coaches, he opened his stance so he could better see the pitcher, but still made sure to land with his front foot closed. He also became less upright and raised his back elbow to hold the bat at more of an angle. By minimizing his load, he could let his hands work.

The willingness and ability to make such adjustments is why Altuve believes Smith will be the team’s next superstar.

“It’s not the talent he has. It’s that he wants to learn,” Altuve said. “He’s a quick learner. Every little thing the coaches and players tell him to get better, he applies it right away.”

When Mirabel Ting tees off Thursday in the first round of the Amundi Evian Championship, it will mark her first action as a professional.

She’ll be playing for more than herself, too.

Ting, 19, decided last week to forgo her final season at Florida State and turn pro in time to make her major-championship debut. Before she released the news to the world, Ting flew home to Malaysia to tell her grandfather, Ng Siaw Pheng.

It was Ting’s grandfather who would take Mirabel and her older, Malcolm, to play a quick nine holes after school, while also funding their tournament schedules and other golf-related endeavors, including Mirabel’s boarding-school tuition in Australia.

Days later, when Mirabel was at the airport to head to France, she received the “phone call that I didn’t want.” Her grandfather had died.