FSU newcomers prove they belong in win over No. 6 Duke

Which not only makes me incredibly insightful and worthy of your time, but it makes me pretty darn old. Heck, I remember all the way back to the Jason Rich Days! Before color TV and smart phones.

So in most of these seasons during this decade-and-a-half, I've heard Leonard Hamilton talk about how young his team is, how many newcomers it has, how many players -- even if they're older -- are having to step into different roles. It's an annual tradition.

Which is why I was so intrigued by what he said on Monday, a day before his team pulled off a highly entertaining 79-78 win over No. 6 Duke in overtime.

He said he he was going to stop talking about how inexperienced his team was and how young his roster was.

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Because, as he said on Monday, "I'm expecting them to step up. I'm expecting them to play at a higher level, just like the players that we are playing against. I'm not willing to accept the fact that these guys are inexperienced; everybody's inexperienced at some point in time.

"It shouldn't keep you from going out and doing your very best. That's the way we're going to approach this."

Amen, Leonard. Amen.

Because those least-experienced newcomers -- freshmen John Butler, Matthew Cleveland, Jalen Warley and junior college transfer Naheem McLeod -- went out and acted like they belonged on Tuesday night. They weren't overwhelmed by the moment. They didn't defer to their older teammates. They went out and showed they belonged.

Were they all as talented as Duke's freshmen?

Of course not.

That Banchero kid is from a different planet. He is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft for a reason.

But FSU's kids, specifically Butler, Cleveland and McLeod, were really good on Tuesday night. Good enough to help the Seminoles pull off one of the most exciting wins in recent Tucker Center history.

"John Butler is growing right before our eyes," Hamilton said after the win. "There's not another 7-1 kid in the country that's been asked to do what we're asking him to do."

He guards the ball full court. He is one of the best shooters on the team. Maybe the best actually. He certainly was on Tuesday night.

And when it mattered most, when the game was on the line in the final seconds, it was Butler who blocked the shot of Duke star Wendell Moore, which secured the win for the Seminoles.

But it wasn't all Butler.

That's what was so encouraging. All of the newcomers had their moments (including of course Houston transfer Caleb Mills and Kentucky transfer Cam'Ron Fletcher.)

It was as if Hamilton, with his words on Monday, freed them up to go believe in themselves. To know they could go make plays on this stage, against that team.

His message on Monday to the media had a purpose for sure. And I'm confident it was the message he delivered to his team as well.

McLeod had the best game of his career to date. He scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds (six offensive!!!!) in 11 minutes on the court. Warley didn't do much from a stats standpoint, but he did hit two crucial free throws in the second half.

And Cleveland, who is the best of the bunch, had eight points and six rebounds in 21 minutes. My man needs to start hitting his free throws, but other than that, I thought he proved once again he's on par with just about any freshman in the country in terms of athletic ability.

It would have made sense for these guys, in an environment like that, to perhaps freeze in the moment. To even shrink a little. Instead, those four combined for 33 points, 16 rebounds and that oh-so-memorable blocked shot by Bulter in the final seconds.

"I was very proud of them," Hamilton said. "But I thought our effort was at a Level 5 tonight offensively and defensively. We didn't always execute as well as I would like, but I thought our effort was good throughout the game."

You have to be against Duke. Always.

I sometimes wonder how Mike Krzyzewski would look at life if he didn't have all these ridiculously talented one-and-dones every year, guys who are just better at everything than the dudes they're playing against. Would he hate it? Would he know how to handle it? Could he last a whole season?

The reality is that K is the best to ever do it. And until freshmen Trevor Keels went down Tuesday with a serious-looking leg injury (let's hope he's OK!), I would have said Duke was probably the most talented team in the country.

But as great as K and his program are, they aren't unbeatable. Clearly.

Tuesday night was the eighth time he's lost at the Tucker Center. And while I wasn't sure, with all of FSU's recent success, that a court-storming was still possible in that building, it was pretty fitting that K's final game in Tallahassee ended with him having to dodge FSU students yet again.

And it's fitting that, once again, that Hamilton's young players are growing up right before our very eyes.

On Tuesday night, they showed they belonged on the big stage.

Now, it's just a matter of staying there

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

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