Florida State won its 20th game last weekend against a program that its head coach is quite familiar with. Leonard Hamilton’s Seminoles pulled away from Miami — his former team — last week to complete the season sweep and win 20 games for a program-record fifth straight season.
FSU was unable to win Tuesday at Duke, but the Seminoles are off to a 20-4 start and seem to have a pretty good chance of reaching or eclipsing last season’s program records for wins and ACC victories. During the 2018-19 campaign, FSU finished 29-8 overall and 13-5 against the ACC during the regular season.
The 99-81 victory over Miami gave FSU its 12th 20-win campaign in 18 seasons under head coach Leonard Hamilton. That is more than FSU had in its 56-year history prior to Hamilton’s arrival.
Before Hamilton, FSU had 11 seasons with at least 20 wins. Five of those came under Pat Kennedy, who coached at FSU in the late-1980s and 1990s. His predecessor, Joe Williams, won 20 games twice. The four other 20-win seasons came under Hugh Durham, who famously coached the Seminoles to the 1972 national title game.
While he once had his detractors, most tend to now acknowledge how far the program has come under Hamilton. Hamilton is among the wins leaders all-time in the ACC and holds virtually every coaching record there is to hold at Florida State.
Although the Seminoles have hit new heights in recent seasons, winning at least 20 games 12 times in 15 years speaks to the consistency of Hamilton’s program. There also seems to be a very good chance that Hamilton wins his third ACC Coach of the Year Award this season. He would be just the seventh coach to earn that distinction three times, joining Everett Case, Dean Smith, Dave Odom, Bobby Cremins, Mike Krzyzewski and Tony Bennett.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson. Like The Daily Nole on Facebook. To pitch an idea, author a post or to learn more about The Daily Nole, email Mike Ferguson at Mike@TheDailyNole.com.
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