{"id":189115,"date":"2026-03-12T19:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/189115\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T19:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:49:14","slug":"florida-state-basketball-staffer-goes-viral-for-successful-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/189115\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida State basketball staffer goes viral for successful challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/ncaa\/florida-state-seminoles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Florida State college basketball<\/a> staffer went viral for his reaction to the Seminoles successfully challenging a play at his suggestion in the team\u2019s 95-89 win over California in the second round of the ACC Tournament on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Michael Rubin, a student manager and head video manager for the men\u2019s basketball team, became part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/ncaa-bk\/march-madness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">March Madness<\/a> mayhem this week after suggesting a challenge to head coach Luke Loucks that resulted in an overturned call in favor of the Seminoles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/florida-state-basketball-acc-001.jpg\" alt=\"Florida State Seminoles guard Martin Somerville dribbles\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Florida State Seminoles guard Martin Somerville (1) dribbles as California Golden Bears guard Nolan Dorsey (21) defends in the second half at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 11, 2026. (Bob Donnan\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p>The ACC posted a video of Rubin celebrating with another staffer, resulting in the viral moment. Loucks can also be seen in the video turning to Rubin to fist-bump him after the successful challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Go off, king,&#8221; one person wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0&#8220;The conviction to tell your HC to challenge the play is big time courage enough&#8230; then gets it right!!! thats trust building right there,&#8221; another added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rubin\u2019s role this season stems from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/ncaa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel<\/a>, which approved a new rule \u2013 the coach\u2019s challenge \u2013 in June. According to the rule, coaches can challenge &#8220;out-of-bounds calls, basket interference\/goaltending and whether a secondary defender was in the restricted-area arc.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/florida-state-basketball-acc-003.jpg\" alt=\"Florida State Seminoles head coach Luke Loucks courtside\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Florida State Seminoles head coach Luke Loucks during the ACC men\u2019s basketball tournament between the California Golden Bears and the Florida State Seminoles at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 11, 2026. (John Byrum\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/miami-redhawks-complete-undefeated-regular-season-dramatic-overtime-victory-ohio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MIAMI REDHAWKS COMPLETE UNDEFEATED REGULAR SEASON WITH DRAMATIC OVERTIME VICTORY OVER OHIO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Teams must have a timeout to call for an instant replay, and if the challenge is successful, they are allowed one more video review challenge for the remainder of the game. This includes overtime. But if a team\u2019s first review challenge is unsuccessful, then they are not allowed to challenge for the remainder of the contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Florida State has utilized Rubin and assistant director of operations Ryan Shnider to capitalize on the new rule change. According to the team\u2019s website, the pair are seated behind Loucks &#8220;intently studying every play of each game.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/florida-state-basketball-acc-002.jpg\" alt=\"Florida State Seminoles forward Alex Steen points\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Florida State Seminoles forward Alex Steen (25) reacts in the first half at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 11, 2026. (Bob Donnan\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These guys (Ryan and Michael) work their tails off every day,&#8221; Loucks said earlier this month, via the <a href=\"https:\/\/seminoles.com\/news\/2026\/3\/3\/mens-basketball-the-team-behind-florida-states-newly-initiated-in-game-coachs-challenges\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">team\u2019s website.<\/a> &#8220;They do it because they love the game and love the program. They put so much time and effort, and they are in a tough spot. It&#8217;s a really challenging job because I am breathing down their neck asking whether I should challenge or not. They have to make a split-second decision that can win you or lose you a game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rubin is in his third season as team manager and is a third-year sport management major. Ahead of Florida State\u2019s quarterfinal matchup <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/ncaa\/duke-blue-devils\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">against Duke<\/a> on Thursday night, Rubin had a parting message on X following his viral moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sweepstakes?cmpid=org=ok::ag=owned::mc=editorial::src=ok_content::cmp=cbb_sweeps::add=cbb_Sweeps_Promotion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ULTIMATE COLLEGE HOOPS EXPERIENCE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Moving on- grateful for every moment.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Follow Fox News Digital\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNewsSports_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"> sports coverage on X<\/a>, and subscribe to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>   <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A Florida State college basketball staffer went viral for his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20291,28,30,29,3731,33737,26262,110],"class_list":["post-189115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-california-golden-bears","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-state-seminoles","tag-march-madness","tag-ncaa-bk","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}