Welcome to the Hoos Place 2019 Summer Hoops Refresh, where we review last season and this summer’s personnel moves for all 15 ACC programs in alphabetical order. To read program capsules already complete, you can click here. Today we look at the…

Florida State Seminoles

Florida State is coming off another solid season, the last couple benefitting from a focus more on roster depth and experience rather than Hamilton’s brief flirtation with rent-a-pros (Bacon, Isaac, XRM). There’s a lot of turnover this offseason, however, with a big class of seniors graduating, and Hamilton will have seven new faces to integrate. What kind of team is he going to put together by November?

Coach: Leonard Hamilton; 554-426 in 31 seasons overall, 354-216 (148-138) in 17 seasons at Florida State.

2018-19 Record: Last season: 29-8 (13-5); ACCT Finals (4 seed); NCAAT Sweet 16 (4 seed)

2018-19 Efficiency:

National:

ORtg: 112.8 (36 of 353)

DRtg: 90.4 (10 of 353)

ACC:

ORtg: 104.6 (6 of 15)

DRtg: 96.7 (3 of 15)

 

Roster Roundup:

Key Departures:

PG David Nichols (Graduated)

G/F PJ Savoy (Graduated)

SF Terance Mann (Graduated)

PF Phil Cofer (Graduated)

F/C Mfiondu Kabengele (Turned Pro)

C Christ Koumadje (Graduated)

35 G, 17.5 mpg, 6.4 ppg, 1.7 apg, 32% 3P%

37 G, 14.6 mpg, 5.9 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 33% 3P%

37 G, 31.7 mpg, 11.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 39% 3P%

22 G, 26.2 mpg, 7.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 39% FG%

37 G, 21.6 mpg, 13.2 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 50% FG%

37 G, 15.5 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 63% FG%

Key Returnees:

G Trent Forrest (SR)

G/F M.J. Walker (JR)

SF Devin Vassell (SO)

SF Anthony Polite (RS SO)

F Wyatt Wilkes (JR)

PF Raiquan Gray (RS SO)

37 G, 29.9 mpg, 9.3 ppg, 3.7 apg, 23% 3P%

35 G, 25.9 mpg, 7.5 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 33% 3P%

33 G, 10.7 mpg, 4.5 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 42% 3P%

30 G, 10.6 mpg, 2.7 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 24% 3P%

15 G, 3.8 mpg, 0 ppg, 0.7 rpg, 27% 3P%

36 G, 12.3 mpg, 3.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 44% FG%

Key Additions:

G RayQuan Evans (JR Transfer)

G/F Nathanael Jack (JR Transfer)

SF Patrick Williams (4-star FR)

SF Zimife Nwokeji (3-star FR)

C Balsa Koprivica (4-star FR)

C Naheem McLeod (3-star FR)

C Dominik Olejniczak (RS SR Transfer)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

33 G, 18.3 mpg, 5.3 ppg, 3 rpg, 58% FG%

    as a RS Jr at Ole Miss

*Projected starters in bold

 

2019/20 ACC Opponents:

Home & Away: Clemson, Louisville, Miami, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Virginia 
Home Only: Boston College, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Syracuse 
Away Only: Duke, NC State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest 

 

Outlook:

Florida State has become something of a known quantity over the last few years. Leonard Hamilton keeps the roster stocked with big athletes and gets them to play active, confident team ball. You almost never hear about chemistry issues in his locker room. This year does feature a high amount of turnover however. FSU graduated five seniors this summer and additionally lost big man Mfiondu Kabengele to the NBA Draft. Only two players from the main rotation return. Forrest is the veteran and plays a little out of position as the point, though does have a net positive assist-to-turnover ratio. Walker was a lauded recruit in 2017 who has been waiting his turn to star. A number of former role players will have an opportunity to step up at the 3 and 4, but they’ll have to compete with seven new faces that were brought in to refresh the roster. JuCo transfer Evans is the mostly likely to crack the rotation. He was a do-everything volume guard at North Idaho, averaging 18 p, 7 r, and 5 apg as his conference PoY. Jack, also a JuCo transfer, will come off the bench. FSU will need to find shooting, and badly. Evans was a 29% 3P shooter last year, Jack 33%. The returners most all struggled as well. Shooting may open up an opportunity for stud freshman wing Pat Williams to make his mark early. In the post, grad transfer Olejniczak will man the middle while freshmen Koprivica and McLeod adjust.

They are lucky that they only have to face UNC and Duke once apiece this year, though will struggle in home/away pairings with Clemson and UVA. This is a tournament team, and may even spend some time in the Top 25 this year, but I think it lacks the high ceiling of last year’s veteran squad, unlikely to get out of the NCAAT’s first weekend without a very favorable draw. The defense will be solid, and they’ll out-athlete and out-hustle a lot of teams. But there will be games where they simply lack the veteran presence and the shooting to hang with better teams.