Finally some good offseason news for the Florida State basketball team.
And this is really, really good news.
On Friday, the school announced that forward Phil Cofer was granted a fifth year of eligibility by the NCAA and would be returning for a second senior season.
During the 2015-2016 season Cofer was injured after 11 games. Florida State played a total of 34 that season - meaning Cofer appeared in 32 percent of the Seminoles' games that year. The NCAA rules dictate a player can be granted a medical redshirt if he appears in 30 percent or less of his team's games.
But the NCAA (because, sometimes, it shows it has a heart!) has granted plenty of medical redshirts to athletes who barely go over that threshold. Which is why FSU felt pretty confident when it applied this past season on Cofer's behalf.
And on Friday that confidence was rewarded.
This news came on the heels of both C.J. Walker (not a big loss) and Ike Obiagu (a huge loss, literally and figuratively) transferring to other schools within the last few weeks.
So it was a welcome jolt for a program coming off its first Elite Eight appearance in a quarter century.
When last season began who could've ever imagined the return of Phil Cofer for a second senior year would be seen as such a vital boost to Florida State basketball?
He had never really done much memorable - save for that incredible dunk over Jahlil Okafor as a freshman - and was seen more of a role player than anything else.
Then came the 2017-2018 season when he was consistently Florida State's best player. He finished as the Seminoles' leading scorer, averaging 12.9 points per game. He scored a team-high 16 points in the Elite Eight loss to Michigan and also had six games of 20-plus points, including a career-high 28 in the shootout at Duke.
He also was arguably FSU's most reliable 3-point shooter, hitting 37.5 percent of his shots beyond the arc and finishing with 48 made 3's for the year.
It was just an incredible resurgence for a player who was almost an afterthought when the year began. Which, if we're being honest, was pretty fair on our part. He had averaged just 2.9 points the previous season.
So nobody could have expected a year like the one Cofer had.
If a crystal ball had told you he was going to lead the Seminoles in scoring you would have assumed it was broken and taken it back to whatever weird magic store you hang out in.
Now we know what to expect though.
And just imagine: If Cofer takes another giant step forward next season- like the one he took between 2017 and 2018 - he might end up having a statue outside the Civic Center!
While I don't expect that to happen, I do think Cofer has established himself as one of the best players in the ACC.
More importantly, with his return, the Seminoles can start to feel good about this offseason again. Obiagu leaving the program was a bitter loss for FSU.
Getting Cofer back has turned the momentum around. Now, Florida State fans can get excited again about the prospects of next season instead of wondering why players were leaving immediately after an Elite Eight run.
With Cofer's return the Seminoles now bring back their top two scorers (Cofer and Terance Mann) and seven of the the top nine off last year's squad.
He's a difference-maker.
He's an impact player.
I didn't think that was the case this time last year. Neither did you. Frankly, his coaches and teammates probably didn't either.
He proved us all wrong.
And now he's got one more year to do it all again.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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