FSU basketball: Leonard Hamilton has ‘no plans to retire right now’

FSU basketball is coming off its worst season in the Leonard Hamilton era. It’s the first time his team finished with fewer than 10 wins, and some FSU fans wondered if Hamilton would return after the 2022-23 season.

However, it appears he has no plans to retire right now and wants to return the program back to respectability at the very least.

Hamilton’s advanced in age, and the program has been on a decline since peaking in the 2019-20 season (26-5, 16-4 ACC), where they won the ACC for the first time and looked poised to be one of the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament before it got canceled by the COVID pandemic.

FSU went on to go (18-7, 11-4 ACC) in the following season, losing to Michigan in the Sweet 16.

The Noles went (17-14, 10-10 ACC) and didn’t make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2014-15 season. FSU hit rock bottom with last year’s team, finishing (9-23, 7-13 ACC). Hamilton has been in similar positions before and made the program respectable.

The program was terrible early in his tenure, and he took them to the Sweet 16 in 2010-11 after several years of going to the NIT. The team missed the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15 and was in the Elite 8 just three years later.

The only problem is Hamilton is much older now and doesn’t have the same staff that helped him take FSU to its peak in the Hamilton era. The ACC doesn’t seem to be what it used to be, and there’s been heavy transition from all-time great coaches like Roy Williams, Coach K, and Jim Boeheim.

I think Hamilton will produce a better product on the court this fall, but this season may largely determine if and when he retires.