Leonard Hamilton gives honest answer when asked about looking towards the future

This season has been incredibly frustrating for the Florida State men’s basketball team. The Seminoles are just 8-18 overall, which includes a 6-9 record against ACC opponents. Following Saturday’s 83-75 loss against Pitt, Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton had an honest answer when asked about how much he looks towards the future.

Hamilton made it clear that he is still focused on the current season, though he acknowledged that it is necessary to always be looking ahead into the future. In fact, Hamilton said that the future often consumes a large part of his train of thought, as he looks to turn this ship around as frustration builds.

“Every. Available. Waking. Moment,” Hamilton said when asked if he thinks about what to do to improve next season. “It’s all that I think about. Sometimes I be talking to people and I’m thinking about it and I don’t even know what they’re saying. Believe me, I understand where we are. But I also understand how to fix it. This is the new college basketball scenario, and we have to make our adjustments accordingly. That’s just the way it is.

“Every morning I get up, I go to bed with the feeling in my stomach. I wake up in the morning and say, ‘Wow, I didn’t get the memo.’ But my mind’s always on this year, don’t want to start moving too fast. I’ve been around here for a while. Y’all know what to expect.”

Looking ahead at the future for Hamilton involves taking a look at the current state of college basketball. The transfer portal has become a prominent factor in today’s game, as has NIL. Forward Jaylan Gainey and guard Darin Green Jr. were Florida State’s two transfer portal additions last offseason, with guards Caleb Mills and Cam’Ron Fletcher joining the program through the portal the previous year.

Hitting the portal aggressively could be a way to quickly turn things around for Hamilton and the Seminoles program.

Florida State started off the year 0-4, then picked up a win against Mercer to reach 1-4. The Seminoles weren’t able to build any momentum, as they dropped their next five games and hit 1-9. Despite back-to-back wins on two different occasions, Florida State has not been able to have any sustained success since conference play began.

Currently, Florida State has lost five out of their last six games, with the lone victory coming against a Louisville team that is 3-22 on the year.

Hamilton has been at Florida State since the 2002-2003 season, leading the Seminoles to eight NCAA Tournament appearances. Florida State missed the tournament last season and will do so again this year, and Hamilton knows that he needs to get things back on track quickly.