Leonard Hamilton seeing signs of growth through Florida State's forced inexperience

Curt Weiler
Tallahassee Democrat

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Florida State men's basketball coach Leonard Hamilton shared Tuesday morning that this verse, James 1:2-4, is one of his favorite in the entire Bible.

It's also a fitting descriptor for the Seminoles' season. A once-promising season has been derailed by a shockingly unlucky run of injuries. This has forced the FSU coaches to hope that, just as the verse says, perseverance will blossom into growth among the younger Seminoles who have been unexpectedly thrust into bigger roles this season.

"As we're winding the season down, this has been an interesting season..." Hamilton said.

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"It's created some different challenges and we're consistently telling our players that life is full of adversities you have to adjust to, life has a way of testing you to see what kind of character you have. It also has a way of challenging you to help build character, make you a stronger person.

"We're trying to utilize these moments as teaching moments to help them understand that life will give you these types of challenges and how you handle them will make a difference in how successful you are in a lot of things."

For the Seminoles, the next challenge presents itself Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when FSU (15-13, 8-10 in ACC) opens the final week of the regular season at home against Notre Dame (21-8, 14-4) on ESPN2.

To put into perspective exactly how challenging a season it has been for the Seminoles, look at who was on the floor for Matthew Cleveland's game-winning three at the buzzer in FSU's 64-63 win at Virginia Saturday.

Walk-on forward Harrison Prieto inbounded it to a true freshman, who hit the shot. Also on the floor were two more true freshmen, Jalen Warley and John Butler, along with senior point guard RayQuan Evans.

With three of FSU's top four players and four players who have started games this season sidelined due to injuries, it has forced the Seminoles to rely very heavily on younger players.

Cleveland is the biggest example of this. With so many players out, he's scored in double-figures in seven straight games. Over the last three games, Cleveland has played all but 10 of the 120 total minutes, playing at least 36 minutes each game.

FSU freshman Matthew Cleveland has played 110 of the 120 minutes over the Seminoles' last three games and has scored 10-plus points in seven straight games.

His 20 points in the win over Virginia and the viral buzzer-beater earned him his second ACC Freshman of the Week honor Monday. 

His 11.7 points per game this season are on pace to be the most since at least Jonathan Isaac back in the 2016-17 season. This almost definitely wouldn't be the case were it not for so many key players missing time due to injury.

While Cleveland was expected to have the largest role of the incoming freshmen, Warley and Butler were expected to play while getting to learn from veterans at their positions. The state of the roster has also thrown them into unexpected starting roles.

"I think most freshmen come in with the idea that they want to be able to contribute. Sometimes you've got to be careful what you ask for," Hamilton said.

"These guys are now being depended on to carry a load that most freshmen don't have an opportunity to carry."

For all three of these newcomers, these larger-than-expected roles have come with their issues, from defensive lapses to offensive hesitancy and turnover woes on occasion. But the growth from this unfortunate situation has also been evident, and Hamilton hopes it will pay dividends in the future for the Seminoles.

John Butler is one of multiple FSU basketball freshmen who has been thrust into a larger than expected role this season due to the Seminoles' mounting injuries.

"I feel like we're growing. I feel that these guys are displaying a little glimpse of what we can do for the future..." Hamilton said.

"I feel like we're growing and maturing. It gives me more confidence that we're doing the right things by our youngsters. Their facial expressions, their body language, the way they communicate in the huddle, the way they call each other out and accept callouts in my opinion has shown that they're growing and maturing."

Notre Dame a tough test

While FSU has decently good odds of coming away with a win in its final home game Saturday vs. NC State, a victory will be hard to come by against the Irish.

After missing each of the last three NCAA Tournaments, Notre Dame will be comfortably in this season in a much-needed bounce-back year from head coach Mike Brey to boost his job security.

ND enters the final week of the regular season second in the ACC standings. While Duke could clinch the regular-season championship with a win at Pitt Tuesday night before Wednesday's game, the Irish can set a new program record for most ACC wins in a season should they defeat the Seminoles.

It's not a great matchup for FSU in a few facets. For one, the Irish have four seniors in their starting lineup, a direct contrast to FSU's experience level.

Additionally, a good three-point shooting team like Notre Dame, which ranks 23rd nationally and second in the ACC with a three-point percentage of 37.7% this season, will be a challenge for an FSU team which is allowing opponents to hit three-pointers at a 36.8% rate this season.

"This is a very dangerous team. That's one of the reasons they have been so successful. They have five guys on the floor that are all capable of knocking down threes," Hamilton said.

"That's a different scenario than you normally guard on a regular basis. They make very few mistakes, they don't foul and they're shooting a very high percentage of their shots from three."

FAMU basketball update 

The FAMU men's and women's basketball teams dropped their regular-season road finals at Southern Monday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

The men jumped out to an early lead but tumbled 58-51.

The Rattlers fell to 12-16 overall and 10-7 in the SWAC.

They currently sit in fourth place in the standings behind Alcorn State (12-4), Texas Southern (12-5) and Southern (11-5).

Jalen Speer and Bryce Moragne led FAMU with 14 points each. Kamron Reaves added 11 and MJ Randolph, the conference's leading scorer at 19.2 points per game, 10. 

Southern out-rebounded FAMU 41-21. 

In the women's game, Southern beat FAMU 66-43. Anisja Harris led the Rattlers (3-24) with 13 points, including 8 of 9 free throws. 

FAMU wraps up its regular season Saturday against state rival Bethune-Cookman at the Al Lawson Center for Senior Night.

The women's game is 2 p.m.; the men follow at 4 p.m.

The SWAC Tournament starts next Wednesday in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Florida State vs. Notre Dame

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Tucker Civic Center

TV/Radio: ESPN2/101.5 FM

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

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