Sam Cassell
The decision makers in Tallahassee have a number of values to weigh in who they want as the next head basketball coach. Bringing in Cassell would reunite the program with a proud alumnus, as he played for the Seminoles over thirty years ago before starring in the NBA. The question is if Florida State wants to bring in a new leader without head coaching experience.
Cassell starred between 1991 and 1993 with the Seminoles, winning a pair of All-ACC honors before becoming a 1st round pick in the NBA Draft. Cassell would spend the next sixteen years bouncing between 8 NBA teams while winning three NBA titles during his career. After his retirement, he became an NBA assistant and has been on an NBA bench for the last 17 years, most recently with the Boston Celtics, fresh off another title of their own.
The initial issue with Cassell as a candidate is hiring someone who doesn’t have collegiate experience. We’ve seen these types of hires fail time and time again in the college game, with a prime example happening at Indiana with Mike Woodson. Cassell has certainly learned and shared a lot as an assistant coach for nearly two decades, but he’s never even run a team on his own and there’s no guarantee he’d be a successful on-court coach with the Seminoles.