Florida State Seminoles
2021-22 record: 17-14 (10-10 in the ACC)
Head coach: Leonard Hamilton
Tenure at Florida State: 21st season
Career coaching record: 617-452
Home court: Donald L. Tucker Civic Center
Starters: G Caleb Mills, G Cam’Ron Fletcher, G Jalen Warley, G Matthew Cleveland, C Naheem McLeod
Bench: G Darin Green, Jr., G Chandler Jackson, G Tom House, F Baba Miller, F Cameron Corhen
Overview: Florida State’s roster features only five returning players, and no true seniors will see the court this year. It’ll likely be led by redshirt junior Caleb Mills, whose style of play can be inconsistent across games but who has the most experience of anyone on the roster. The shortest scholarship player Florida State has this year is 6-foot-5, meaning that despite the team’s youth, its height and athleticism will continue to cause problems for opposing teams as it has in previous years.
Staying healthy is the main concern for the Seminoles this year. Senior Jaylan Gainey was projected to bring a big boost to Florida State’s defensive game, but he’ll be out for the season with a knee injury. Additionally, 6-foot-10 freshman De’Ante Green will miss most of the season with a torn ACL, while freshman Jeremia Bembry has an unclear role on the roster due to a back issue he dealt with for most of the summer. While the latter two players could see minutes later in the season, head coach Leonard Hamilton might choose to sit them instead and give them a redshirt year in the future. Given the injuries, the Seminoles will need to have a pretty sizable bench rotation to fill in these holes, particularly defensively, and they may find trouble as the season progresses into ACC and NCAA tournament play if they continue to lose bodies.
Florida State wasn’t ranked in the preseason poll, but it’ll likely find a spot in the Top 25 as the season progresses and finish high in the ACC. Hamilton said that the team will hopefully “be a surprise team in the country,” and given that Florida State has previously finished in the top 10 after an unranked start to the season, it’s certainly possible for history to repeat itself this year.
Team ceiling: The team’s scoring is led by Mills, sophomore Matthew Cleveland and junior Darin Green, Jr., and the Seminoles’ offensive prowess outweighs the weaknesses in their defense caused by losing players to injuries. The height and athleticism of the roster gives it an advantage over teams, propelling Florida State to a high finish in the conference and a decent NCAA tournament run.
Team floor: Veteran leadership isn’t strong enough to help the team overcome such a young roster, and defensive woes accompany a sloppy offense as young players learn to adjust to the flow of college basketball. Like last year, Florida State gets some big early conference wins but diminishes in momentum as the season moves on, finishing in the middle of the ACC again.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Leah Boyd is a Pratt senior and a social chair of The Chronicle's 118th volume. She was previously editor-in-chief for Volume 117.