Leonard Hamilton rips Florida State's effort: 'It probably wouldn't be appropriate to write about'

Florida State appeared to be turning things around, winning two straight games heading into a showdown with No. 23 Clemson at home.

The contest was never competitive.

Clemson opened up a 34-14 lead late in the first half and made short work of Florida State en route to a dominant 72-46 win. After the game, Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton was left without words for his team’s effort level.

“Well if I tell you how I really felt, it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to write about,” Hamilton said after the game. “I was disappointed. Very disappointed. That’s not what we teach. That’s not what we’ve been working on. That’s not what we did in practice this week.”

Clemson had an edge in virtually every effort category statistically.

The Tigers won the points off turnovers category by a 16-8 margin. Points in the paint went Clemson’s way 34-24. Assists were 18-5 in favor of the Tigers. And rebounds were 41-33 Clemson.

That his Florida State team didn’t show up in the effort department was a little befuddling for Hamilton.

“That’s a little bit of a mystery. The only thing I can come up with is that I never had 10 new guys on one team at the same time,” Hamilton said. “And I think that this is a reflection of us not all being in sync together, because we have our moments where we win games. But even in the games that we’ve won, I don’t know if I’ve ever come back and felt that we had arrived. I feel like we’re still trying to dig ourselves out of that not being as efficient as we need to be to win.”

Whatever the case, Florida State needs to figure it out in a hurry. A tough stretch on the schedule is coming up.

Florida State will take on Miami at home, then travel to Louisville, host North Carolina and travel to Duke.