NCAA Basketball: 4 head coaches who needs to win big in 2023-24 season
By Caleb Hall
No. 3 Leonard Hamilton, Florida State Seminoles
Wins Needed: NCAA Tournament Bid
Leonard Hamilton has been head coach of the Florida State Seminoles since 2002 and has led the Noles to multiple elite eight and sweet sixteen runs. However, since their 2021 sweet sixteen run they haven’t made the NCAA tournament and had an extraordinarily bad 2023 season, where they started 1-9 and finished 9-23. Hamilton has been known as one of the best coaches in the ACC in recent years. His tournament success has been very impressive and FSU’s home record was something that was nationally impressive year in and year out.
This past season showed FSU basketball was in a bad place. FSU had it’s first season with a losing home record since 2005, it’s worst conference record since 2009, and Hamilton’s worst overall record in over 20 years of coaching FSU. Their defense was one of the worst in the ACC last year, which is very odd for a Hamilton led team. His recruiting classes as of late have also been less then stellar, along with his work in the transfer portal.
The bottom line is Hamilton needs to just win more basketball games in 2023-24 if he wants to stay at FSU. Hamilton has been a head coach since 1986 (Oklahoma State), and turned 75 this year. He needs to show that he can change with the times, by being more active in the transfer portal, and getting back on track with league games. If Hamilton can’t get the Seminoles back on track, he may be the next head coach that is forced to retire because he is unable to change with the landscape of college basketball.