Florida State's two basketball wins over then-No. 7 North Carolina and then-No. 10 Wake Forest last week should focus No. 1 Duke for its matchup with the perennial ACC cellar dweller, but the recent success of the Seminoles will hardly intimidate the nation's most celebrated program. It's probably true that the Blue Devils have nothing to fear from Florida State this season. But if any ACC team has a chance to break through the league's significant historical forces and become one of the nation's elite teams, it's the Seminoles.
It all started with the hiring of Leonard Hamilton prior to the 2002-03 season. While the appointment did not generate much national press, the move gave the Seminoles their first long-term chance at success in the basketball program's history. In retrospect it is not hard to see why. In the college game, Hamilton knows how to win.
In his last job at a university, Hamilton led the Miami Hurricanes to three consecutive NCAA appearances for the first time in school history. The Hurricanes reached the Sweet 16 in 2000, and Hamilton was on the short list of the best coaches in America.
So why is Hamilton not a household name? The physical education major left his cushy position in sunny Florida for a chance to coach the Clippers of the East, the NBA's Washington Wizards. If Michael Jordan can't win in Washington, nobody can, and Hamilton proved no exception to the Washington system by going 19-63 in 2000-01 before being fired.
After a year away from coaching, Hamilton's first squad in Tallahassee showed flashes of brilliance, defeating Duke 75-70 on February 2, 2003. The Seminoles finished a mediocre 14-15 in 2003, but Hamilton seemed determined to turn Florida State into a basketball powerhouse.
Hamiton had arguably the best recruiting year in Seminole history for the class of 2007, a group that was rated the No. 1 crop of recruits in all of college basketball by Insiders.com. Combining this youthful talent with established seniors Michael Joiner and All-ACC candidate Tim Pickett, Florida State has the foundation for a solid NCAA run this year, and for continual appearances at the Big Dance in the future.
The NBA is my favorite sports league, but there is no rationalization to what is happening to the organization now. I'm not worried about players leaving college early--or skipping it all together--I'm worried about what the old guys are doing. With Celtics head coach Jim O'Brien's resignation, 14 of the 15 coaches (including all eight skippers that led their team to the playoffs) in the Eastern Conference have changed from a year ago. I cannot find the words to describe how outrageous that is.
Last year the Detroit Pistons had the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference and the New Jersey Nets represented the East in the NBA Finals. The Pistons' coach, Rick Carlisle, was forced to resign last summer and the Nets fired head coach Byron Scott this week. Terry Stotts of the Atlanta Hawks is now the longest tenured coach in the Eastern Conference.
The reason for this mockery is that owners seem to hire coaches like they are political appointments. Teams either hire coaches no one has ever heard of (Who is Terry Stotts anyway?), or a star player who has not been out of the league long enough to learn how to coach (The Pacers were forced to fire Hall of Fame player Isiah Thomas after he led the East's most talented team to a first round playoff loss). In the NFL, nothing like this would occur. For example, the Raiders hired Norv Turner this week to fill their coaching vacancy. If the NBA were responsible for picking the Raiders coach, they would pick someone like Steve Young. While everyone at Duke knows what can happen when a team keeps a bad coach too long (football head coach Carl Franks), the NBA's Eastern Conference will never improve if it keeps up this slash-and-burn method of coaching selection.
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