Leonard Hamilton challenges FSU basketball team to step up effort to battle depleted depth

Things are definitely looking bleak for the Florida State men's basketball team.

The Seminoles (13-11, 6-8 in ACC) dropped their sixth straight game Saturday at North Carolina, losing by 20 after trailing by as much as 40 points. It's the program's longest losing streak since the tail end of the 2004-05 season when FSU dropped nine straight games.

FSU will look to avoid making it seven straight losses when it hosts Clemson (12-13, 4-10) Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Tucker Civic Center.

There are plentiful excuses for this recent skid including an extremely unfortunate run of injuries that have decimated FSU's active roster. But FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton wasn't having many of those excuses when reflecting back on the UNC loss after spending Sunday watching the film of the game.

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"In the last 10 or 12 years, there have been very few games that I can feel like teams have given more effort than us and I felt that in the Carolina game," Hamilton said.

"For whatever reason, we were a half-a-step slow. I felt that they ran a little faster, the jumped a little harder, they moved a little quicker and moved the ball a little better. I basically think that they played harder than us and that is concerning.

"It is almost like our culture has been compromised, unintentionally, because I have high-character players who really respond to us in a very positive way. But I don't know whether it is a lack of confidence, I don't know, but we have to fix that. First, it starts with a tremendous amount of effort. But without the leadership on the floor that is leading that way, I think that somewhere along the line we've had a little disconnect here."

The Seminoles got more bad injury news Saturday when leading scorer Caleb Mills left the game after playing just seven minutes with an ankle injury. Hamilton said Monday that it's not a broken ankle and that a foot specialist was coming in that day to look at Mills' leg. 

Hamilton didn't say for sure that Mills was out for the game against the Tigers, saying he was unsure what his status would be. However, he did admit that Mills didn't practice Sunday.

As things stand now, Mills is one of just five Seminoles who have played in all 24 of FSU's games this season. That number could be reduced to four this week.

If Mills, who is averaging 12.7 points per game this season, is unable to play against Clemson, the Seminoles will be without three of their top four scorers. Mills, Malik Osborne and Anthony Polite average a combined 32.4 points per game.

This quite unlucky streak of injuries has played a major role in what is proving to be a disappointment of a season.

FSU is one of just three schools that has made each of the last three Sweet 16s and started the season ranked 19th. Some early struggles showed this team may not keep that streak of Sweet 16s alive.

Although the Seminoles were likely destined to be on the bubble come Selection Sunday, they were trending in the right direction towards a fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, which would be a new program record.

Now, FSU's only real chance at another March Madness trip would be a miracle run through the ACC Tournament for the conference's automatic bid. And given the state of the roster, the chance may be real but it's far from likely.

The problem for the FSU coaching staff is they have to balance the short-term goal of finding more success down the stretch with the long term. Many of the newcomers FSU has been forced to rely on heavily due to the mounting injury report are likely going to be back next season.

It's forcing the coaches to find the fine line between being hard on them for their areas of struggle while not taking that too far.

"I think what you have to do is be honest. I think when you start trying to psychologically figure out what buttons to push then you compromise the reality of the situation," Hamilton said.

"You preface your conversations that we're not having a pity party. We're not blaming anyone. But we need maximum effort from everybody in order for us to be successful and here is why. Show them what our shortcomings are on the video and the challenge that we've given to them is that you can't point fingers, you can't blame anything, you've got to look yourself in the mirror and (figure out) what part am I contributing.

"What can I do better, how can I make it easier for my teammates as opposed to trying to take it all upon yourself as an individual. You have to be able to realistically evaluate each individual and then as a team, we have to all come together. This is the frame of mind we have to be in to maximize each individual talent."

Florida State vs. Clemson

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Tucker Civic Center

TV/Radio: Bally Sports Florida, ACC Network Extra/101.5 FM

Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.

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