Leonard Hamilton evaluates strength of ACC, how to approach rivalry games

Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton has seen the ACC conference change over the past few years. He said one of the biggest changes has been the distribution of good teams in the conference from a small subset to a wide group of programs.

“For me personally, being in ACC, I try very hard not to allow one game to be more important than them because when you do that you have the highs and lows,” Hamilton said after defeating Miami. “I think that’s a little bit of what we’re facing this year. We don’t understand that if you’re not mentally and emotionally engaged with each game you play and don’t give everybody the proper respect you know, something bad could happen to you.

“I try to be matter of fact. I don’t try to blow one team up more than another. The rivalry speaks for itself. But I try to approach every game the same way. When you start playing, making one game more important than the other, it is hard. Sometimes when a nationally ranked team is coming in, your national TV, your emotions and everything getting involved. But that sometime is not what you want your team mindset to be if you’re a coach. You want to try to come out and play well against everybody.”

The Seminoles are having a down year themselves with a 9-20 record after a very successful five-year run from 2016-2021.

But Florida State is not the only program that has dealt with the changing tides of the ACC conference. Traditional powerhouses like Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse have played below their usual standard in parts of the past few seasons.

“The ACC is not like it used to be,” Hamilton said. “It used to be where the same top two or three teams were always at the top. I remember when we were looking at adding Syracuse and Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Boston College. There’s a lot more parity in the league and now that with NIL and the portal, teams can not be as talented but be older, more mature, more stronger physically.

“They can sometimes be more successful against a much more talented younger team who’s still growing in development. It’s evening things out. You can expect moving forward for the ACC to be up for grabs with whoever is playing well in that particular year. No longer are you gonna see one particular team dominate like it has been in the past.”