FSU makes a run at new ACC heights

“We’re third,” Hamilton said. “We’re not satisfied with being third. We still have a ways to go. We still have a mountain to climb.”

The difference, though, is maybe a little mystique. This is an FSU team that beat the tournament’s top-seeded North Carolina by 33 points Jan. 14. It won three times on 3-pointers at the buzzer, including Michael Snaer’s dagger of a game-winner at Duke.

By the time they drew the visiting Blue Devils on Feb. 23, with a shot at the regular-season title at stake, they had sold out their student tickets in 15 minutes. Every other seat, down to the last in each luxury suite, had sold out eight days before the game.

The Seminoles couldn’t match the moment and fell victim to a hot shooting night by Duke’s Andre Dawkins, who made six 3-pointers, and lost 74-66. North Carolina ultimately claimed the regular season outright. But Hamilton still recognizes progress.

“We’ve been in the mix,” Hamilton said. “We’ve come up a little short, but we’re still moving our program forward. I’m not embarrassed of the fact that we’re sitting behind two of the top four winningest programs in the history of college basketball.”

The progress has been subtle at times, beginning with FSU’s 9-6 start, which included losses to Ivy Leaguers Harvard and Princeton, in triple overtime. It’s been downright distant at others, such as Jan. 7 in the ACC opener when the Seminoles lost by 20 to Clemson.

But that same night in Clemson, in the confines of the third-floor visitors’ locker room after the game, the Seminoles might have taken their biggest steps of the season.

The conversation started with usual postgame remarks from Hamilton. It continued well past when he had to leave for his media interviews and was still going strong when he returned. It heated up after one of the coaches suggested senior forward Bernard James hadn’t played with great effort. And it got downright intense after James spoke up in response.

“I played my [expletive] off,” he said.

His comment could have been taken as defiant and started a rift, but what it did was open the floor for conversation. One by one his teammates began to speak up, feeling comfortable to follow his lead. Coaches did, too. And rather than bash each other and complain, they raised concerns. The conversation became constructive.

“A lot of the guys, we were confused with the coaching staff sometimes,” James said. “They would tell us what they wanted us to do, but we didn’t know exactly how to go about getting it done.”

James said the coaches’ response was to break things down in practice. For the next few days, they stripped plays down to the basics and ran them slowly and repeatedly until the players got them.

The Seminoles went on to win their next seven games in a row, a school-record in ACC play.

“Everybody became a lot closer that day,” James said. “The players became a lot closer to each other and the coaches became a lot closer to the players.”

Hamilton said that while the Seminoles are older in terms of their six-senior roster, they weren’t as experienced as it might seem. Jeff Peterson had transferred in. Xavier Gibson and Luke Loucks were playing bigger roles than they had. Ian Miller was just getting back into the lineup after an 11-game academic suspension.

“We’ve been very patient with this group,” Hamilton said. “And I think that gave them the confidence to understand that we believed in them and we never wavered.”

Hamilton was named ACC coach of the year this week. Wins over Duke and North Carolina will do that. But from the inside looking out, it’s what he didn’t do that might have made the biggest difference.

“Sometimes when you hit a tailspin you start wanting to change and make a lot of different moves,” Hamilton said. “... We never panicked. We stayed positive. ... We challenged them, absolutely, but we didn’t lose our focus. Our level of communication became even better during that time. I just knew if we stuck with it we would be fine.”