Leonard Hamilton takes blame for Florida State’s woes

On a positive note, Florida State got a win yesterday with a 75-53 victory over Louisville. On a more sour note, though, it was just the Seminole’s second win of the entire season as they stand at 2-9 now after the win over the now 0-9 Cardinals. Things have not come together so far in Tallahassee. Because of that, Leonard Hamilton did his best to shoulder the blame.

Hamilton spoke about his team’s woes during Saturday’s postgame press conference. He said he didn’t want to come off as though he was making excuses but that, in the end, he thinks decisions he has made since the pandemic seasons have put Florida State in the position they’re in now.

“If I get too deep in this conversation, it sounds like I’m making excuses. But all that kind of falls on me,” said Hamilton. “There are some things that I probably could have done better as we navigated through the pandemic…But I gotta concentrate where we are now with this team. I think we have enough to go out and be successful.”

Out of 363 Division I teams, the Seminoles have a defense that’s 270th and an offense that’s currently outside the Top-300. They’re also just outside the Top-280 of the current NET rankings.

Closes losses to Florida, Purdue, and Virginia are forgivable. However, ugly losses to Stetson and Siena already have Florida State way off track. If they have any hope of getting things back on the rails, Hamilton preached focus as their answer to getting in the win column again as they did over the weekend.

“You’ve just got to stay focused. And don’t use anything to deter you or distract you. That’s pretty much where I’m concentrating on,” Hamilton said. “What we got to do is be the best version of the Seminoles we can with who we’ve got available. And I’m sure we’re moving in the right direction. Hopefully that will allow us to continue to keep winning games like we did today.”

In his 20 previous seasons at Florida State, Hamilton was 417-242. If he and his Seminole team want to get back to that level of success, they’ll need to turn one win into two as they lock in on their next matchup against South Carolina Upstate on Tuesday.