Leonard Hamilton highlights high and lows from difficult 2022-23 season

By record, the 2022-23 season was the worst during Leonard Hamilton’s long career at Florida State. In it, there were still some highs to go with plenty of lows.

After being eliminated from the ACC Tournament, Hamilton looked back on some of those highs and lows from this season.

“We have some really good pieces. I think we have a good foundation. To move forward, we just need to make sure we add the right ingredients to this team. Like we’ve never been this young before,” Leonard Hamilton said. “I looked up many times today, and sometimes we had three and four freshmen first-year players on the floor at the same time. We’ve always, as a coaching staff, we’ve been kind of — we’ve taken for granted those juniors and seniors that we’ve always had in our program setting the tone for our first- and second-year players.”

Unfortunately, as Leonard Hamilton explained, Florida State didn’t have experienced players who could mentor the younger guys. That has provided him with a valuable lesson.

“You grow accustomed to your system, and to be honest with you, sometimes you don’t realize how valuable that is to have those guys that have been in your program and they’ve grown and developed and learned the system. In their apartments and at the dinner table and when they’re hanging out playing video games, they keep imparting that wisdom to the less experienced guys,” Hamilton said.

“We’ve been void of that, and I’ve learned — one thing I’ve learned this year is it is so valuable to have mature and experienced people around that can fill that gap. We haven’t always had what you call five-star players, but we need to be successful with — in the 11 guys, about the same, executing your game plan and giving tremendous effort for the whole game.”

Florida State is a program that expects better. Leonard Hamilton is hoping to develop that next season, as he has in the past.

“We were a little void of that this year, and we have a great value on the importance of that moving forward.”

Leonard Hamilton on the state of the program

After a difficult season, Leonard Hamilton spoke about the state of the Florida State program. There, he pointed out that the buck stops with him.

“Well, I’d say this is a bump in the road. This is not a volcano eruption. We’ve got a great staff, tremendous administration. I thought our fans were there for this year like no other. I was just so pleased and impressed with the support that we got from the community, even though we were having a down year,” Hamilton said.

“I think our fans stuck with us, and I think we have made some progress, but in order for us to maintain and beyond the level that we — the standards that we have had over the years, we’re going to have to do things a little differently. You have no idea how I feel every day I get up, because I feel like the buck stops with me.”