NCAA Basketball: Way-way-too-early 2019-20 preseason top-25 rankings

Head coach Leonard Hamilton has been on a roll in recent years. Seemingly regardless of who leaves the program each offseason, he finds a way to put together a strong season and I expect nothing less heading into 2019-20. The Seminoles have been one of the deepest teams in the nation for each of the past few years and I think that we will see plenty of breakout stars in Tallahassee during this next season. With that said, though, the ceiling for this team would be dramatically lowered should Mfiondu Kabengele elect to leave for the NBA. He has already declared his intentions to go pro, but the door is left open for him to return to school.

The loss of Kabengele will be tough to see not only because he was the team’s leading scorer during this past year but also because the program will be waving goodbye to five other major contributors as well. The tremendous number of losses suffered by the program this offseason could perhaps be crippling but Coach Hamilton’s scheme shouldn’t change and the roster will surely look fairly similar to those of the past. There might not be a ton of returning talents on the roster but the coaching staff has to be thankful that one of those could be Trent Forrest, one of the better guards in the ACC, if he elects to return.

On the recruiting trail, Florida State has some studs coming in. The Seminoles currently own the No. 15 recruiting class in the nation and the group features plenty of the length and athleticism that FSU has been associated with for the past few years. There might not be that many known commodities on the roster heading into next year but I think it would be a mistake to discount Coach Hamilton’s consistency.