Clark: Injuries have been brutal, but FSU men have to find some fight

Leonard Hamilton did something after Saturday's game at North Carolina that I don't recall him ever doing in the roughly 15 years I've been covering his team.

When he sat down for his postgame press conference -- this one on Zoom, as has become the norm the last two years -- he didn't start with an opening statement.

He just looked at the camera and said, "You guys have any questions?"

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Now, I want to be completely accurate here. He didn't appear angry. He wasn't sad.

He actually was laughing when he sat down -- I think Gene Deckerhoff must have made him laugh at the end of their radio interview -- but he did not offer an opening statement of any kind before taking questions.

That was a first. It was as if he was thinking, "You guys saw it. I don't have a whole lot else to add."

Florida State didn't just lose on Saturday at North Carolina. It was decimated as if the Tar Heels were the 1982 version and the Seminoles were an intramural squad trying to get a few games in before spring break.

Hamilton's team was down 24-1 before it made its first field goal.

North Carolina shot, I think, 120 percent from the floor in the first half and 99 percent from 3-point range in building a 62-24 lead at the half.

Look at the score again. Read it. Study it. Let it sink in.

Because it's the biggest halftime lead North Carolina has ever had in an ACC game. Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Vince Carter, Tyler Hansbrough, none of those dudes ever experienced what the likes of Caleb Love and Armando Bacot did on Saturday afternoon.

Thirty-eight points! Yikes!

"They have been shooting the ball very well," Hamilton said of the Tar Heels. "They're not going to miss unless we make them. We've got to force them to miss by contesting their shots and getting them out of rhythm. I didn't think we did that in the first half.

"On the offensive end, it seemed as though we were somewhat lethargic. The ball wasn't moving."

Now, here's the part of the column where I remind everyone -- and with good reason -- that FSU has been hammered by injuries.

Malik Osborne and Anthony Polite are two of the three most important players on the team, and they once again did not play on Saturday. The other guy, Caleb Mills, injured his ankle early in the first half and did not play the rest of the way either. Emerging junior center Naheem McLeod is also sidelined.

At no point before the season, if you had asked any of us if FSU could go win at North Carolina without Osborne, Polite and Mills, would we have ever said anything but, "Are you high? Of course not."

Still. Giving up 62 points in a half is embarrassing. Scoring ZERO field goals for the first eight-and-a-half minutes of a Division-I basketball game is embarrassing. After all, it's not as if FSU didn't start five scholarship players on Saturday.

And it makes me wonder what a loss like this -- and a losing streak like this -- might do to a young team's psyche.

As I asked Hamilton after the game, how do you skirt the fine line of being patient and understanding when you're having to play so many young kids, but then also demanding enough to let them know that this ain't it?

Florida State Basketball isn't about being punked by 38 points in a half. Too many good -- and tough -- players have come through this program to just allow a team do whatever it wants to your defense for as long as it wants. What happened on Saturday is, and should always be, completely unacceptable.

Losing is one thing. Sure. We all expected that. Being down 18-0? That's something else entirely, and it's something that these young players and newcomers absolutely, positively can't become accustomed to.

And if they do, they need to move on.

Hamilton didn't say that after the game -- he never would -- but you can bet a proud coach with a terrific track record was having some serious introspection watching his team give up layup after layup after layup after wide-open 3 after layup after wide-open 3 after layup after dunk after wide-open 3.

While all the while shooting the ball with zero confidence.

FSI freshmen John Butler and Matthew Cleveland have a chance to be outstanding players who likely will be in the NBA Draft in the next couple of years. At halftime on Saturday, I was wondering if they had regressed so much this past month that they were going to have to re-enroll in high school.

It was a nice sight to see both of them hit some shots in the second half. Maybe that can get them going again. But they need to understand, like Hamilton said afterward, that they have to go step up now. They can't wait around for someone else.

They need to go make shots, be aggressive, prove they can be the impact players they were recruited to be.

Going scoreless in halves isn't what this current FSU team needs right now out of those two freshmen. That's not going to cut it. It's time to grow up.

Look around the country. There are other first-year players who are doing great things. There's no rule that says Cleveland and Butler can't be a part of that group, that they can't get better as the season wears on.

On the subject of first-year players: I really liked what Cam'Ron Fletcher did on Saturday, and I hope that propels him to a solid final month of the season. The Kentucky transfer might be the most talented player on the roster. He's a freakish athlete. He's quick, fast, can jump out of the atmosphere, and he has a nice shot when he has his feet set.

On Saturday, he finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds and four steals and five turnovers. I think that's what you're going to get from Fletcher in extended minutes -- mostly good, some bad (including defensive rotations and awareness) -- but let's hope he can use this final month to build some confidence heading into next season.

And that's the reality of what we're looking at here. These next few weeks don't matter. I know it's painful to realize, but it's quite obvious this FSU team isn't making the NCAA Tournament. For all we know, it might not win another game.

So, this last month should be about building toward the future.

But that doesn't mean anyone should be OK with 40-point deficits either. The guys coming back in 2022-'23 have to establish what they want to be. Are they cool with getting kicked around and saying, "Oh well? Our seniors are hurt. We'll get 'em next year." Or are they going to find some fight and some grit and some defense?

In short, are they going to start playing like an FSU basketball team again?

If they can do that, then there might be something to gain from the end of this injury-riddled season.

If they can't, then as ESPN analyst Cory Alexander alluded to during the broadcast, those scholarships might need to go to somebody else.

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.

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