FSU basketball: What does Leonard Hamilton do after this season?
By Kelvin Hunt
The First Cracks
The 2019-20 FSU basketball team had a legitimate shot to win a national championship. They won the ACC regular season and had a shot to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA National Tournament. However, the pandemic came, and we’ll always wonder how deep that team would have gone in the tournament or if they would have won it all.
The 2020-21 saw the Noles maintain a high level of play, finishing second in the ACC and earning a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament before getting bounced by No. 1 seed Michigan in the Sweet 16. This moment is when the program began to slide for several reasons.
Leonard Hamilton relies on experienced players, depth, and continuity for his system to work. I think most folks expected five-star player and ACC Sixth Man of the Year Scottie Barnes to declare for the NBA after one season.
However, the early departures of RaiQuan Gray and Balsa Koprivica to the NBA, plus reserve player Saadar Calhoun entering the transfer portal meant FSU lost a ton of experience and production going into the 2021-22 season.
Gray and Koprivica were second-round draft picks but would have been starters on that 2021-22 team. Calhoun could have possibly been a starter as well.
Leonard Hamilton hit the transfer portal to add Caleb Mills and Cam’Ron Fletcher, along with a strong 2021 recruiting class that included five-star Matthew Cleveland, John Butler, Jalen Warley, and Naheem McLeod.
That meant RayQuan Evans, Anthony Polite, and Malik Osborne were the only returning players with major experience in Leonard Hamilton’s system.
Hamilton did a good job with a young and inexperienced group, leading the Noles to first place in the ACC with two wins over Miami and a win over Duke in Coach K’s final appearance in the Tucker Center. However, injuries to Osborne, Polite, and Evans derailed the season, and the Noles finished 17-14.
An embarrassing loss against Syracuse in the ACC Tournament was a sign of things to come, as the Noles didn’t make the NCAA or NIT Tournaments. The offseason saw key assistant coach Charlton Young depart the program to join former FSU assistant coach Dennis Gates at Missouri.
Gates left the FSU program after the 2019 season to become the head coach at Cleveland State. He became a highly sought-after head coach and left there to become the head coach at Missouri.
Gates and Young were major contributors to Hamilton’s success in the 2014-2020 stretch. FSU lost Evans, Polite, and Osborne after the 2021-22 seasons.
FSU also lost former blue-chip forward John Butler who declared for the NBA Draft and went undrafted. Luckily, former five-star Matthew Cleveland made the smart decision to return to FSU for another season to improve his game.
However, that meant FSU would rely on Caleb Mills, Cam’ron Fletcher, Jalen Warley, and Matthew Cleveland, who had only been at FSU for one season as key contributors in the 2022-23 seasons.
Remember, Leonard Hamilton’s system requires experience and continuity. Hamilton had to go to the transfer portal for players Darin Green Jr and Jaylan Gainey to join a solid 2022 recruiting class.
However, the star recruit of the class, Baba Miller, was suspended for the first 16 games of the season. Cam’Ron Fletcher and Gainey got injured and had to miss the entire 2022-23 season.