Next Up - Florida State
And big opportunities for Caleb Foster, Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba
Date 3/1 || Time 7:00 || Venue Basketball Paradise || Video ACCN
Next up for Duke is Leonard Hamilton’s final trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium as the long-time coach of Florida State is retiring in a couple of weeks, barring a miracle run by his Seminoles in the ACC Tournament or an NIT bid if FSU accepts it.
Florida State is currently 16-12 and 7-10 in the ACC.
Hamilton traditionally prefers a deep rotation and shuttling players in and out to keep the defensive pressure dialed up high but he hasn’t been able to do that so much this season.
His top five players are all getting at least 25 minutes a game which forces him to ratchet down pressure D somewhat.
Offensively, his best players are Jamir Watkins and Maliq Ewin.
Watkins, a 6-7 senior, is averaging 18.1 ppg and 5.4 rpg. He may not be first team All-ACC, but he’s good enough to be.
Maliq Ewn, a 6-11/230 lb. junior transfer from Ole Miss, is getting 13 4 ppg and 7.8 boards. That’s up sharply from his 1.4 ppg and 1.1 rebounds with Ole Miss, but he’s getting about 20 minutes more per game at Florida State.
Sophomore Taylor Bol Bowen has emerged as an interesting player. Like Khaman Maluach, he is a refugee from South Sudan. At 6-10 and 195, he’s very lean but he’s also Florida State’s best three point shooter. He’s dangerous, especially in a close game.
Chandler Jackson, who has been around a while and is a familiar face (not so common in college ball these days), is a 6-5 junior who is getting 7.0 ppg, 2.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
The primary reserves are Justin Thomas (6-7 junior), Jerry Deng (6-9 sophomore), who was born in the US to South Sudan refugees, Bostyn Holt (6-7 senior) Alier Malik (7-0 freshman and another South Sudanese refugee), and AJ Swinton (6-6 freshman).
You can see Hamilton is trying to build a traditional Florida State roster, but the talent is off of his recent highs. Things really changed for FSU after Covid.
In 2016-17, the ‘Noles were 26-9. In 2017-18, they were 23-12 and made the Elite Eight. In 2018-19? 29-8 and a Sweet Sixteen team.
In 2019-20, the first year of the pandemic, FSU finished 26-5 and in first place in the ACC and of course, the tournament was canceled.
In 2020-21, FSU was 18-7 and made the Sweet Sixteen.
Since then, they haven’t sniffed the post-season and haven’t finished higher than eighth in the ACC.
Part of it is bad luck. FSU had one of the worst run of injuries between 2022 and 2024 we’ve ever seen. Part of it though is the difficulty many have had in adjusting to the new era. NIL and the new transfer rules have made the environment very different.
In Hamilton’s case, he is being sued by former players who claim he made extensive NIL promises that were not kept.
The courts will sort that out.
In the meantime, Florida State faces Duke without Tyrese Proctor and probably without Maliq Brown.
Even so, the Blue Devils have Kon Knueppel, Khaman Malauch, Sion James, Mason Gillis, Isaiah Evans, Caleb Foster, Patrick Ngongba and of course Cooper Flagg, who is the basketball equivalent of a queen in chess. He just changes everything.
For Duke, the big question is how Evans and Foster fill in for Proctor. Evans is a dazzling shooter but he is still very slender and can be beaten up on defense. He’s probably going to outscore his defenders, but the key word there is probably. It’s better to stop someone than to outscore them.
And Foster, in limited minutes, has just been killing it lately. Earlier in the season it took awhile for him to overcome his foot injury and surgery from last season, but in the last four games, Virginia aside, he’s been terrific. He’s a better defender than Evans and his offense has been almost as productive. Minute by minute, it’s probably been more so.
Getting Brown back would be a big bonus, but just having more minutes for Evans, Foster and Ngongba to continue their sharp development is also great because all three are showing huge progress.
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