Florida State Basketball: Phil Cofer’s unexpected return makes the Seminoles very dangerous in 2018-19
Phil Cofer has been granted a fifth year of eligibility by the NCAA. This great piece of news could lead Florida State back to the Elite Eight – or even greater.
After a great finish to the 2018 college basketball season, the Florida State Seminoles had to retool a bit for the following season.
Senior Braian Angola-Rodas has graduated and moved on, and underclassmen CJ Walker and Ike Obiagu have transferred onto different programs. Even with the losses, Florida State is better suited than most to recover from the departures, since the team played 11 different players on any given night.
Still, the Seminoles wanted to make sure that they had the same kind of talent as they’ve had in recent years. They got a grad transfer guard to come over in David Nichols, who averaged 14.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg, and 3.5 apg this past season at Albany. He’ll be the likely replacement for the departing Walker.
The roster for Florida State seemed set for next season, until some news came down Friday afternoon.
Florida State's Phil Cofer has been granted a fifth year of eligibility by the NCAA, per release. A Top 15 team just got better. Big ACC news.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 25, 2018
This is the equivalent of getting a late four-star recruit or a quality grad transfer this late in the game. Cofer played just 11 games in the 2015-16 season, before suffering an ankle injury that caused him to shut it down the rest of the way. It wasn’t known to many if he was even requesting the medical redshirt – let alone that the NCAA would say “yes” to it.
After being a mere role player with not much stats to show for, Cofer broke out this past season. He led the team with 12.8 ppg along with 5.7 rpg, and produced 16 points and 11 boards in the Elite Eight loss to Michigan in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
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When considering the pickups and departures, Florida State will likely be a top-15 preseason team, with a solid starting lineup filled with a ton of depth and athleticism. It remains to be seen if they’ll be as good as the Dukes, UNCs and Virginias of the ACC, but the Seminoles will be the leader of the next group of teams in the league. And that should help them get to the second weekend in the Big Dance for consecutive seasons.