FSU Basketball: Top 4 Reasons Noles Have Dominated Early Season

Quality Depth

I’m sure all Florida State fans are sick of hearing the word depth. Every time a game is televised, we are bombarded by announcers repeating it over and over and over again. But as annoying as it is to hear about, it is equally as important to the team’s chances of going far this year.

Coach Hamilton has a 12-man rotation. All of them play at least ten minutes a game. In fact, the guy getting the least amount of minutes on average is PJ Savoy, who is the team’s best three-point shooter. Meaning his playing time is likely to rise as well.

Because Hamilton has this vast plethora of players to choose from, no one is averaging over 26 minutes. So once a game reaches its latter stages, FSU is playing on fresh legs in comparison to their opposition. That has already helped them pull away in the second half on multiple occasions this season.

This depth has other positives for coach Hamilton. Guys like Walker, Forrest, and Braian Angola-Rodas are only getting around fifteen minutes per game. They’re all first-year players, who are accustomed to playing over thirty minutes every night from their high school (or junior college) days.

And they must know that to get more playing time, they have to give maximum effort in the limited minutes they are currently getting. That’s why you see all three of them, among others, play so hard, especially on defense, when they are on the floor.

This lack of playing time that Hamilton can offer could eventually become a problem. Guys might get upset at only playing six minutes during a random Tuesday night game against Virginia Tech. But currently, it has worked out perfectly for the team. For our sake, I hope that doesn’t change.