Leonard Hamilton - Another One Bites the Dust

[CL82]

Basketball and football have different dynamics for NIL and football has had its share of older coaches stepping down too.

Not crazy to believe older employees with 40+ years in an industry find an inflection point where they say "f it".

Recruiting in the NIL era essentially added a new busy season to the sport. In addition to that, you now have to re-recruit your own players annually. It's entirely understandable why the old guard would want to walk away.

 

[navery12]

Basketball and football have different dynamics for NIL and football has had its share of older coaches stepping down too.

Not crazy to believe older employees with 40+ years in an industry find an inflection point where they say "f it".

Of course, I'm not saying there aren't coaches stepping away because of NIL. I think it's dumb and the sport is better off without them if that's their mindset, but that's a different conversation.

But my point is Leonard Hamilton is 76 years old, he was going to be retiring regardless of any of these NIL changes

 

[B1GEast]

Hamilton had some good FSU teams that either underachieved or were poorly coached, maybe both.

He had some success in the ACC but FSU hasn't gotten to a tournament since 21.

With ESPN extending their contract with the ACC, I think the ACC will be adopting a tiered pay structure, so teams that win will get more than the bottom teams.

Money always makes changes

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Five Sweet 16's in 37 years at Oklahoma State, Miami and Florida State. He couldn't recruit, couldn't coach, and therefore couldn't win despite having three pretty good jobs for a long time. Holloway's career as a major conference coach may be over after three years because he stayed loyal to a dead end job like Seton Hall, and Hamilton gets to be mediocre for decades at very attractive programs and retires at 76. Definitely a sign that life is not fair.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

I cant believe he was at FSU for 23 years. I still think of him as the Miami coach who recently left for NBA and then for FSU. I better start making my will.

Yup….remember his big thick glasses? The Constantine Popa years at Miami!

 

[aceboon]

Five Sweet 16's in 37 years at Oklahoma State, Miami and Florida State. He couldn't recruit, couldn't coach, and therefore couldn't win despite having three pretty good jobs for a long time. Holloway's career as a major conference coach may be over after three years because he stayed loyal to a dead end job like Seton Hall, and Hamilton gets to be mediocre for decades at very attractive programs and retires at 76. Definitely a sign that life is not fair.

Saying Leonard Hamilton couldn't recruit(or coach) has to go in your personal top 5 of most outlandish comments and that's saying something

 

[August_West]

Yup….remember his big thick glasses? The Constantine Popa years at Miami!

Loved Popa

Also the Names Darius Rice and Shamon Tooles occupy far too much space in my brain all this time later......

 

[FreeKlaiber]

FSU’s Leonard Hamilton to Step Down As NIL Lawsuit Unfolds

The news comes less than two months after six former FSU men’s basketball players sued Hamilton over “broken” NIL promises.

frontofficesports.com

the Nil lawsuit fascinates me

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Saying Leonard Hamilton couldn't recruit(or coach) has to go in your personal top 5 of most outlandish comments and that's saying something

Sorry, I missed all of his national championships. Oh wait, he didn't win any, or make any Final Fours, and only made one Final 8, IN 37 YEARS!!! He has 14 20-win seasons, TWO Regular season conference championships, and ONE conference tournament championship.

And if he had done this at Tulsa or East Carolina or someplace, you could kind of understand, but he had three pretty good jobs and couldn't win at any of them. He couldn't recruit enough talent to make at least one serious Final Four run every few years at a major conference school in Florida at any point in his 33 years on the job?

Name another coach who spent 37 years at three solid, major conference programs, and has so little to show for it. How many coaches are there that sucked this bad for even 20 years?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Herb Sendek and Mike Brey come to mind, but they usually made the NCAA Tournament and won 20+ games over half the time. Dana Altman has won 20+ games every year at Oregon, a bunch of conference championships, and a Final Four.

I can't think of any other coach at a major program that has been as mediocre for as long as Leonard Hamilton.

 

[Inyatkin]

Hamilton looked like he was shaping up to be one of the best coaches in America at Miami. They went from 0-18 in the Big East to a 2-seed by 1999. Then Michael Jordan swooped in, the Wizards year was a disaster and the Florida State tenure was always a little underwhelming.

 

[RuffRuff]

Men’s College Basketball Coaching Hot Seat Watch

Examining the big names who likely won’t see another season and those who may depart on their own terms.

www.si.com

 

[Jbirdp5]

So who does Florida State bring in to replace Hamilton?

I know Holloway was mentioned before the season. Has the season his team has had hurt his stock or are people just exonerating him from their poor season because they know the NIL situation isn’t good there?

 

[TheHorde]

Yup….remember his big thick glasses? The Constantine Popa years at Miami!

Could you imagine the double bigs he could have employed if he had Georghe Muresan too?

 

[Hey Adrien!]

One of my favorite high-major coaches of all-time. Such a unique roster makeup of tons of length, excellent defense, deep rotations and pace.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

I know Holloway was mentioned before the season. Has the season his team has had hurt his stock or are people just exonerating him from their poor season because they know the NIL situation isn’t good there?

Maybe.

I love Holloway as a basketball coach, but I don't know if players nowadays at the high-major level love Holloway as a basketball coach considering so many other programs would not command the level of intensity Shaheen needs from his players.

That's why I think he was so good at Saint Peter's. Plenty of his best players were under-heralded players, many of which were offered by just one D1 program, so he was able to coach up guys to compete to the level to be a factor in the MAAC.

However, since Florida State basketball under Hamilton does have a defensive history, that could work out.

 

[CL82]

I know Holloway was mentioned before the season. Has the season his team has had hurt his stock or are people just exonerating him from their poor season because they know the NIL situation isn’t good there?

A lot of Seton Hall guys would love to see him go. I think he's a good coach that badly evaluated NIL talent. Kind of seemed like he was going with the Kevin Ollie "well, these are the guys I can get without a whole lot of effort, let's see how it goes" methodology.

 

[Hoophound]

I cant believe he was at FSU for 23 years. I still think of him as the Miami coach who recently left for NBA and then for FSU. I better start making my will.

23 years?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I know Holloway was mentioned before the season. Has the season his team has had hurt his stock or are people just exonerating him from their poor season because they know the NIL situation isn’t good there?

The NIL situation isn’t good at Seton Hall? “Isn’t good” is getting outbid by Syracuse for your top target. Seton Hall is trying to recruit players with Groupon subscriptions. That is more like catastrophic.

 

[AdamaNation]

Two likely go hand in hand. I’m honestly kind of ok with the older coaches that don’t have much left in the tank and moving on, for hungry young guys.

Let’s just not let our staff aware of these openings for just 2-3 more years. Deal guys?

 

[UCTitleTown]

With Larranaga retiring and now Hamilton, I believe Pitino is the only 70+ year-old coach in men's D1. Coaches earn too much money and recruiting is too dirty for coaches to want to coach that long anymore. Like Hurley said, he doesn't plan on coaching past 60, and he's the best coach in basketball.

 

[RuffRuff]

Let’s just not let our staff aware of these openings for just 2-3 more years. Deal guys?

Have been wondering about that - with all the opening this years and the lack of up and comers to properly fill, if we might see the two of them show up on interviewer slates.

 

[Jbirdp5]

A lot of Seton Hall guys would love to see him go. I think he's a good coach that badly evaluated NIL talent. Kind of seemed like he was going with the Kevin Ollie "well, these are the guys I can get without a whole lot of effort, let's see how it goes" methodology.

Interesting I hadn’t heard that he was a low energy recruiter, doesn’t matter where he is if that’s the case.

 

[Jbirdp5]

The NIL situation isn’t good at Seton Hall? “Isn’t good” is getting outbid by Syracuse for your top target. Seton Hall is trying to recruit players with Groupon subscriptions. That is more like catastrophic.

I’m sorry I didn’t use a strong enough adjective for your liking

 

[CL82]

Interesting I hadn’t heard that he was a low energy recruiter, doesn’t matter where he is if that’s the case.

Yeah, that is probably too much comment by me. I don't know that he is necessarily a low energy recruiter, but his team feels as if it was the best guys he could get without regard to chemistry and positional need. That may be more a function of available NIL than anything else. Honestly, I haven't paid a lot of attention to them this season given their record and the fact that we haven't played them yet.