Florida State women's basketball assistant coach Bill Ferrara had one more detail he wanted to add to his gameday fit before the Seminoles' preseason tilt against Clayton State on Wednesday.

He drove over to Governor’s Square Mall, headed over to a make-your-own T-shirt kiosk and handed them a picture of head coach Brooke Wyckoff. As game time rolled around at 6 p.m., there was Ferrara, pacing up and down courtside with Wyckoff right on his t-shirt.

"It's an acting head coach move. There's a lot of things you need to do when you're not an assistant for a day," Ferrara said. "I thought it [the t-shirt] turned out pretty good. Brooke didn't like it very much, but there's been a lot of compliments."

"Play hard for coach"

Wyckoff was absent from FSU's bench on Wednesday as she announced publicly on Tuesday that she had breast cancer and had undergone successful surgery to remove the mass, and is currently in recovery. However, that couldn't keep her away from the game.

Following the Seminoles' 97-62 preseason win over Clayton State at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, FSU players were greeted in the locker room by Wyckoff via Facetime, congratulating the team on a win and talking to them after.

"Our number one goal was to play hard for coach Brooke," junior guard O’Mariah Gordon said. "We want to continue to leave a legacy that she continues to push us through every single day."

While Wyckoff went public with the news on Tuesday, she told her team on Monday, mainly so they wouldn't get overwhelmed according to Gordon. If there was any impact to be felt from her absence, it wasn't during the game, but in practice.

"It was weirder for them to practice without her," Ferrara said. "The game is the game. They're out there, they're players and they're going to play. The practice though was the one that I was concerned with because at the time we didn't know how she was coming out of surgery at that point."

It was a tense Halloween practice, constantly waiting for an update on Wyckoff, but once the Seminoles heard that everything went well, they got back into the zone and had one of their best practices according to Ferrara.

"I was super happy when I found out the surgery went well," Gordon said. "I prayed about it and everybody was in good spirits. We were very happy she pulled it out, but we knew she would pull it out. I had a lot of faith in her."

Having fun closing out the preseason

With some weight off its shoulders, FSU was able to cruise to another dominant preseason victory. Sophomore guard Ta’Niya Latson posted her second straight 20-plus point game, downing 21 points in the win, nine of which came in the first quarter.

Gordon had another solid performance as well after finishing with 22 points against Flagler College last week. Against Clayton State she had 17 points, draining eight in the first quarter, complimented by five rebounds. She's a player that Ferrara has big expectations for and is expecting a heightened game from last season.

"O’Mariah Gordon is basically a new player, guys," Ferrara said. "It's like picking up an All-ACC player in the portal. That's how different her game is right now. Two reasons why: she's improved tremendously and she's healthy. That's basically it."

From the players' perspective, they got to see Ferrara step into a head coach position for the first time. An experienced and passionate coach courtside, Gordon said it was fun to see Ferrara take over.

"It was super fun," Gordon said. "Bill said that he's going to be him and not try to be anybody else and he asked us the same thing. Everybody is to be themselves. It was fun. Bill's always fun. I'm really proud of him and he did such a good job."

Thursday's victory will not be logged in the stat books, but one that will be remembered for a long time by FSU players and coaches alike. Out of a tough situation, the Seminoles were able to have fun and win one for their head coach.

"This game, yeah it doesn't count, it's one all those guys are going to remember," Ferrara said. "I'm really happy for them that they got a chance to do that and got a chance to see her [Wyckoff] afterward."

Jack Williams covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @jackgwilliams. 

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida State women's basketball 'plays hard' for Wyckoff in preseason victory