If there's one rule basketball coaches swear by, it's that you can't teach tall.
So when Florida State coach Steve Robinson went recruiting last season, he set out to recruit height.
Robinson, then in his second year manning the helm for the Seminoles, faced a height disadvantage throughout last year after sophomore center Karim Shabazz left Florida State five games into the season.
Shabazz's departure created a large hole in the lineup.
A 7-foot-2 hole.
Robinson could not fill that hole with his undersized, undermanned lineup, whose next tallest players measured 6-10 and 6-8.
"It's kind of hard when you lose your starting center in the middle of the year," Robinson said. "You don't just go back and change."
The Seminoles struggled through a schedule ranked the second most difficult by the National Ratings Index, completing the season 13-17 overall and 5-11 in the ACC.
This year, Robinson has added four new big men, all 6-8 or taller, to build on his existing lineup of four returning starters.
"We have an All-ACC player back [Ron Hale], one of the top field shooters in the nation [Damous Anderson], one of the best three-point shooters in the ACC [Adrian Crawford] and a guy who was third in the ACC in assists and steals [Delvon Arrington]," Robinson said.
Hale stepped up last season after Shabazz's exit, taking the reins of a young Seminole squad. The small forward led the team in scoring (16 points per game), rebounding, blocked shots and free-throw percentage (.800). Hale is a triple threat, with ball-handling experience, rebounding skills and a consistent shot.
The 6-8, 210 pound senior is a likely All-America candidate in his final season, but will have to deal with the burden of that recognition on the court as well as off.
"I expect Ron to have another outstanding year," Robinson said. "Now teams will be out to stop him and he will be a marked man, but I know he can have another great season."
Anderson joins Hale in the Seminole frontcourt in his second season at FSU. The Greenville, S.C., native joined the team in the middle of the season but produced such consistent numbers that he ranked fifth nationally in field-goal percentage.
"Damous did a tremendous job for us last year," Robinson said. "Not many people could have been thrown into our system midway through December and done as much as he did without being a natural basketball player."
Arrington returns to man the point for the Seminoles and is joined in the backcourt by junior Adrian Crawford. Crawford threatens opponents as the team's purest perimeter shooter, leading the team in three-point percentage (44.4).
While Hale, Anderson, Arrington and Crawford each averaged about 30 minutes per game, the rest of the Seminoles barely averaged double-digit playing time all together. With this much inexperience on the bench, the quartet of frontcourt recruits will have the chance to make an impact right away.
Centers David Anderson and Nigel Dixon will give the Seminoles much-needed stature in the paint, and prospective post Mike Matthews and forward Robert Tucker will free up Hale to try his hand at shooting guard or wing.
Robinson knows that even with a bolstered frontcourt and experienced backcourt, his team will have no easy task of winning in the ACC.
"Nobody takes it easy on you or has sympathy for you," Robinson said. "You are going to get knocked down, but you better pick yourself up to fight again or you are going to stay down."
So how can such a young, inexperienced team hope to compete in such an arena?
"People may have picked us for the bottom third of the league," Robinson said, "but we only finish there if we allow it to happen. The great thing is that the ACC trophy doesn't have anybody's name on it at the start of the season."
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