Head Coach: Leonard Hamilton: @ FSU: 14-15, 2nd season; Overall: 214-225, 15 years. National Championships: 0; Final Four appearances: 0
2002-03 Record: 14-15 overall; 4-12 in the ACC (9th)
Players to watch -- FSU returns four starters, a big-time JUCO transfer in Diego Romero, and the nation's top recruiting class. FSU is close to bursting onto the national scene, and will give the ACC yet another title contender.
At 6-foot-4, 207 pounds, Tim Pickett doesn't take up all that much space, at least for an ACC shooting guard. And in his first season at Florida State last year, his pesky defense and his stop-and-pop long-range shooting style didn't necessitate any more size than he already had in that frame.
But as the season went along and the Seminoles became more and more legit, Pickett's shoulders grew bigger and bigger, holding nearly an entire developing program on one bulky body part. He took nearly 27 percent of all the Seminoles' shots, led the conference in steals and even led the team in rebounding.
"Last year, basically, if he didn't shoot it, where were they going?" said head coach Leonard Hamilton. "We put him in a position where I thought we asked him to shoulder too much of the burden."
And while Pickett handled it ably, earning a nod on the all-ACC second team and leading the once floundering FSU to an admirable 14-15 record feathered with plenty of close losses, his shoulders won't have to handle so much this season.
The Seminoles bring back four starters and eight of their top 10 scorers, including senior point guard and heady decision maker Nate Johnson. Even Michael Joiner, the talented but inconsistent senior swingman, won't have too much pressure on him with FSU's new depth.
Perhaps the most important addition to Pickett's supporting class is what has been called the nation's No. 1 recruiting class. Shooting guard Von Wafer is a deadly shooter and could see significant minutes early along with fellow freshman Alex Johnson, a 6-foot-10, 250 pound beast in the paint whose shoulders are bigger on the literal side than the figurative. Add that to Joiner's future replacement, transfer Diego Romero, and Hamilton and Pickett could go from just upsetting Duke every year to making Florida State a whole lot more than a football school.
But, Hamilton warns, "hype can affect you emotionally. Hype is not anything--hype will not help you win any games. The only thing hype's going to do is distract you. And the bottom line is we are where we finished last year [eighth in the ACC], and I'm very mindful of that."
Pickett, for his part, is ready to be more keyed in, less distracted by his star status and ready to rise from heavy burdens of the basement to the light weight of being a heavyweight.
He's just concernerned about "not losing my focus, just being patient--that's the main thing. I felt like I was in a rush all last year, so now you just got to out and just play basketball."
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