After a successful coaching career dating back more than a half-century, Leonard Hamilton recently announced that he will step down from Florida State basketball at the end of this season. The Seminoles are mired in the middle of another tough season and are likely the final stop on the 76-year old Hamilton’s long and eventful career.
Born in North Carolina, Hamilton would play college ball at UT Martin back in the late 60’s and early 70’s before getting into coaching right after graduation. After a brief stint at Austin Peay, he joined the coaching staff at Kentucky and was part of Joe B. Hall’s staff that won the national championship back in 1978.
His own head coaching journey began at Oklahoma State in 1986 where one of his assistant coaches was future Kansas head coach Bill Self. He spent four years rebuilding the Cowboys before taking over at Miami, spending the entirety of the 1990’s with the Hurricanes, including a Sweet Sixteen in 2000. Hamilton then was named head coach of the Washington Wizards but was fired after a miserable 19-63 mark during the 2000-01 season.
Hamilton was hired by Florida State way back in 2002 and has spent the last 23 years helming the Seminoles. While he didn’t lead Florida State to the NCAA Tournament until his seventh season, he took this program to eight trips to the Big Dance, an ACC Tournament title in 2012, and an Elite Eight in 2018. Between 2016 and 2021, Florida State danced each season and won eight total games in the NCAA Tournament.
The program has been trending in the opposite direction in recent years, failing to reach any postseason since 2021. Florida State has been mired with mediocrity despite talented rosters and the time was likely right for a head coaching change. Hamilton leaves an incredible legacy behind during his more than two decades in Tallahassee, but it’s time to consider the next leader for these Seminoles.
We’ll be running through and taking an initial glance at a number of coaches who could be reasonable fits in Tallahassee for the future. Each of these names is different and will likely have different levels of interest, though Florida State certainly just wants the best man for the job.