Michael Alford has had to make quite a few important hires in his just over three years as Florida State's director of athletics.
He hired women's basketball coach Brooke Wyckoff, soccer coach Brian Pensky and baseball coach Link Jarrett in his first seven or so months on the job.
Now, Alford is tasked with probably his biggest hire to date: finding the next FSU men's basketball head coach after the school announced Monday that Leonard Hamilton is stepping down at the end of this season after 23 years leading the Seminoles.
"The respect I have for him and the relationship we've built since I've been here has just been amazing..." Alford told reporters Tuesday night when asked about Hamilton's impact. "What he's meant to this university and what he's meant to this program, but more importantly what he's meant to the countless number of student-athletes that have come through here is just truly remarkable."
The timing of the announcement works in FSU's favor on a few fronts. For one, it clears the air about Hamilton's future. While it was known he was in the last year of his contract, it wasn't clear yet if he would be returning with no announcement made one way or the other.
But probably even more important than that, it gives FSU some time to run a proper search. The basketball transfer portal window opens on March 24. That's just over two weeks from the end of the regular season and just over one week from the end of conference tournament week.
The portal window beginning the day after the second round of the NCAA Tournament concludes is a major disadvantage for teams that will still be playing. However, it seems at this point that FSU will need to win the ACC Tournament in order to make March Madness.
That means the new coach should be able to hit the ground running when it comes to revamping the roster. The Hamilton news breaking when it did allows Alford and the search committee over a month to thoroughly carry out this search before the season ends and portal season kicks off in high gear.
"We're going to look forward. We're going to move the program forward, try to do it as quickly as we can. No promises, but we're just looking to move the program forward..." Alford said. "You look at things timeline-wise, you look at when the portal comes over at the conclusion of the season and the portal really comes open during the (NCAA) tournament in basketball. Looking at that, we have an obligation to these young men to know what the future is going to be holding for the program and the university so that did play a key role (in the timing)."
When it comes to the candidate pool, Alford says there's always been a great deal of interest in the job and he credits much of that to Hamilton and the work he did. FSU made the NCAA Tournament just one time in the nine seasons before Hamilton took over at FSU. It made it nine times (10 if you count the canceled 2020 tournament) in his 23 seasons.
"It's an attractive job and it's an attractive job because of Leonard Hamilton. They know that the program's in a good place, they know that it is supported. They know that we care about this sport here, we want to be successful," Alford said. "But any coach that's interested in this position is interested in it because of him and 23 years and they know they're going to inherit something that's in a good spot. I've talked to him about assisting on the transition. I want him to be a part of this. I want him to always feel welcomed at this university and this basketball program and that's part of it moving forward."
There are a number of likely candidates for the job with FSU ties such as NBA assistants Luke Loucks and Sam Cassell as well as former FSU assistants Charlton "C.Y." Young and Dennis Gates. But there's also likely to be a number of candidates with no direct FSU ties.
As he did with Jarrett back in 2022, he's content waiting out a postseason run for the right coach. However, he doesn't appear set on landing a sitting college coach either.
More than accomplishments, Alford seems determined to find a coach who will be a fitting suitor to Hamilton's legacy, on and off the court.
"Winning, doing it the right way, graduating your student-athletes, being in the community. How can you mirror that guy (Hamilton)? You can't. But can we get someone of high character? I think if you go back through my hiring history, looking at people of high character that are going to really take care of the student-athlete, really understand the education part," Alford said. "Leonard Hamilton is what we try to hire that's going to care about the current student-athlete, that's going to look out for them off the field, off the court more than they do on and really understand 18 to 23 year olds in impressionable years. Someone that's going to pour into them to make them better people. That's really what we're looking for is also looking on the court. What do you do on the court? It's a holistic view. It's not just winning, winning at all costs. We're here to educate young men and women. So what are we doing to make sure that we're getting the best candidate that's going to complete that mission?
"It's more about finding the right fit for us and the culture that we've developed here amongst the athletic department, amongst the university that's gonna go out in the community. That's more important than anything else is finding that right fit to come in that understands what we're trying to get accomplished holistically, not just individually."
Follow The Osceola on Facebook
Follow The Osceola on Twitter
Subscribe to the Osceola's YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Osceola's podcasts on Apple
