FSU Basketball returns home to face Louisville to open ACC home slate

After a weeklong break for final exams, the Florida State men’s basketball team returns to the Tucker Center this afternoon to face Louisville in the Seminoles’ ACC home opener.

FSU welcomes in a winless Louisville squad today at 1 p.m. ET (ACC Network) — the Cardinals are 0-8 and 0-1 in the conference. Meanwhile, the Seminoles (1-9, 0-1 ACC) look to break a five-game losing skid themselves.

If Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton’s team is going to get back on the right track, it will have to overcome another major loss to the lineup. Forward Cam’Ron Fletcher, who went down last Saturday with a right knee injury, is now out for the season.

The junior Fletcher averaged 10.8 points and a team-leading 7.5 rebounds in the first 10 games of the 2022-23 season. He also was a fierce presence defensively.

“Cam was such a cleanup guy. He has a knack, while he’s on defense, of going and getting the ball,” Hamilton said. “What I’ve tried to do is have a next-man-up approach. … We’ve got to try and lift them (the players) up and keep thinking we can go win with who we have. We’ve been really matter of fact, that this is who we are. Now we still have enough talent to go step up and win.”

The Cardinals, one of the most successful programs in college basketball history, find themselves winless after suffering three one-point losses to start the year, then five defeats by 15 or more points in head coach Kenny Payne’s first season.

UL senior guard El Ellis, a Tallahassee Community College transfer, leads the team with 15.6 points per game while also dishing out 3.4 assists. Ellis turned in back-to-back 29-point outings in the second and third games of the season.

Before the Fletcher injury, Florida State appeared to be playing better basketball. The Seminoles hung tight with No. 5 Purdue before falling by 10 points; then they took No. 3 Virginia down to the wire in Charlottesville before dropping a 62-57 decision

“Hopefully we’re growing. I think we’ve played better the past two games, but we have to eliminate those spots where it’s a one- or two-point game, and then we go down seven for whatever reason,” Hamilton said. “Now a two- or three-point game becomes an eight- or nine-point game, and we have to rev it up again. … We’ve got to eliminate those spots.”

Hamilton added that Florida State needs to become better at blocking out and rebounding to prevent second-chance buckets. Offensively, better ball movement and creating more pressure on opposing defenses are areas where growth is needed.

Those challenges are made more difficult because of a depleted lineup that already was without two key frontcourt players before Fletcher’s injury.

“We are a lot smaller now without [Jaylan] Gainey, Baba [Miller], and we’ve become more perimeter-oriented. That’s pretty much who we are. We are trying to get our inside game going a little better,” Hamilton added. “It’s a little bit of a challenge and an adjustment for us, but that’s who we are this year.”

With the injuries in the frontcourt, Hamilton noted that puts more pressure on 6-foot-10 true freshman forwards Cameron Corhen and De’Ante Green. And Green missed much of the preseason while recovering from a knee injury sustained in high school.

“Were probably going to have to play De’Ante Green a little bit more at the five,” Hamilton said. “De’Ante, he’s only had about five or six practices, so he’s still learning and growing in our system. The little things that we’ve been teaching since May, he didn’t have the benefit of being in practice to try and grow and learn and let those things become habits. We’ve been playing him more in one of the perimeter positions. …

“We are probably going to get him a little more minutes inside to see if he can give us some quality depth in there so we can keep everybody fresh.”

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