Before they hit the showers for the final time as members of the 2017-18 Florida State men’s basketball team, associate head coach Stan Jones offered the Seminoles’ players a few words of advice.
As much as they hurt following a four-point loss to Michigan in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, Jones encouraged them to focus on how far they had come this season instead of dwelling on how close they were to reaching the Final Four.
“Please take time to celebrate yourselves,” Jones said in the postgame locker room. “You had a heck of a run. You’ve gone to places not many Florida State teams have ever gone. Even in the pain, you’ve got to enjoy it a little bit.”
Part of Jones’ message was that there will be plenty of time to think about the little things that went wrong in Saturday night’s 58-54 loss to Michigan. And there will be even more time to focus on needed areas of improvement heading into the 2018-19 campaign.
But at least for a little while, Jones, head coach Leonard Hamilton and assistant coaches Dennis Gates and Charlton Young wanted their players to appreciate all they had accomplished:
* Winning three NCAA Tournament games over higher seeds;
* Advancing to the Elite Eight for the third time in school history;
* Recording big regular-season wins against then then-No. 6 Florida on the road and then-No. 12 North Carolina at home, and also taking top-five opponents Duke and Virginia down to the wire.
And they did it after losing their three leading scorers in Jonathan Isaac, Dwayne Bacon and Xavier Rathan-Mayes – all three of whom have played in the NBA this season – and also two of their top post players, Michael Ojo and Jarquez Smith.
Looking back to the start of this season, Florida State’s coaches knew they had plenty of talent on the roster – some returning and some incoming – but they also understood that virtually all of those players would be called upon to fill much larger roles than ever before.
Terance Mann, Braian Angola and Phil Cofer would have to shoulder more of the scoring load. Trent Forrest and C.J. Walker would have to become primary ball-handlers. Several other young players would need to be contributors.
“My biggest thing going into this season was if we had enough reference points to go into big moments,” Jones said. “We found those this year. And we’re going to have enough reference points now to hopefully propel into an even bigger season next year.”
When their tournament run ended on Saturday, the Seminoles expected to lose just one or two scholarship players from this year's squad.
Angola is definitely gone, having exhausted his eligibility, while Cofer is waiting to hear if he will be granted an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA. FSU is applying for the waiver because Cofer played in only 11 games as a sophomore before missing the rest of the year with an ankle injury.
If Cofer is granted a medical hardship for that year, the Seminoles could return eight of their top 10 scorers and six of their top seven rebounders for next season.
And that’s even after the news on Tuesday that sophomore point guard C.J. Walker has been granted his release and is planning to transfer to another school. Walker started 34 of 35 games this season, but he actually played slightly fewer minutes per game than fellow sophomore Trent Forrest.
Though he wasn’t in the starting lineup, Forrest emerged as the Seminoles’ floor leader in the final weeks of the season. In FSU’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against Missouri, Forrest played 32 minutes to Walker’s 9.
With Walker on the move, the Seminoles likely will look for a backup point guard once the NCAA’s late signing period begins on April 11.
“We have most of our players coming back next year,” Hamilton said after the Michigan loss. “And I think we can improve – learn and grow – from the challenges that we went through this year. And hopefully when we come back, next year will be even bigger and better.”
"Bigger and better" could be a tough ask following an Elite Eight appearance, however, the Seminoles love the talent that they have returning and the growth they saw this season. They also have high hopes for the lone current member of this year's signing class, Georgia shooting guard Devin Vassell, who averaged 21.6 points and 8.9 rebounds per game for Peachtree Ridge High.
There could be one or two more additions as well, depending on what happens with Cofer.
“This team isn’t done yet,” said Gates, who just finished his seventh season on Hamilton’s staff. “At the end of the day, we’re gonna learn from it. And our goal now is to be back and go even farther. We got experience in the Elite Eight. We’re trying to go beyond it now.
“It will be the center point of every individual workout and every practice in the back of our minds. But I’m proud of our guys. We fought. We left it all on the court. And that’s all you can ask for.”
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