Leonard Hamilton has had teams loaded with a mix of seniors, redshirt seniors and super seniors. When the 2022-23 team takes the court in an exhibition game on Thursday, Florida State will have no seniors.

More than 20 years after he was hired to rebuild the FSU basketball program, Hamilton has set a standard for competing against the ACC’s blue bloods and consistently reaching the NCAA Tournament with deep, experienced teams that feature size, length and athleticism.

Hamilton sees plenty that makes him smile, and the Seminoles are indeed deep with long, athletic players. And he has definite reasons for optimism.

“We’re showing signs of being a pretty good perimeter shooting team,” Hamilton said. “And I think that we’re showing signs of potentially being efficient in all the things that we require them of – we are just not as consistent as we need to be. Understandably so, this is probably one of the most inexperienced teams that we’ve had in many years.”

When FSU plays host to Newberry College in an exhibition game on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Donald L. Tucker Center, coaches and fans will get an early look at how eight first-year players blend with five “second-year veterans.” That’s a term Hamilton has used frequently in the past month, often with a smile.

The preseason voters have FSU finishing fifth in the ACC. That’s not exactly a surprise with teams like North Carolina, Duke and Virginia earning attention. But it’s also not a projection of a top 25 team either. Preseason polls are just that and have been missed badly in recent years when evaluating the Seminoles.

“It’s not one day where the coaches don't remind us that we're not at the top of the ACC where we want to be,” center Naheem McLeod said. “So I feel like the more and more we hear that, the more hungry we get to compete against guys that are ranked ahead of us and trying to get out there to play.”

Hamilton and the coaching staff have had added opportunities to help the players mesh on and off the court. They held a closed scrimmage over the weekend against Michigan in Orlando and also played three games and three scrimmages in Canada in August.

“It was big,” McLeod said of the Canada trip. “I feel like that was more of a bonding trip than so much of basketball. I feel like we came together, we really did everything together, hang out, go eat together. One person was going for a walk, we all went for a walk. So that was fun. I really enjoyed that experience.”

Among the Seminoles who will make their on-court debuts are guards Chandler Jackson, Jeremiah Bembry, Tom House and Darin Green Jr. (from UCF) as well as forwards Cameron Corhen, De’Ante Green and Baba Miller. Brown transfer forward Jaylan Gainey suffered a preseason injury and is likely to miss the season.

McLeod mentioned a number of newcomers who fans will be excited to watch this season but there is curiosity about Baba Miller, a 6-foot-11, 204-pound forward who played on Spain’s youth national teams.

“I love Baba,” McLeod said. “He’s a pass-first-type player. Baba is special. Can do everything: Dribble, pass, shoot. … He can see over defenders. His IQ, it’s advanced for his age.”

That may be the hope for many of the freshmen – that they are advanced enough to take on perhaps larger roles than Hamilton and the coaches would normally offer to a first-year college player. And those advancements could happen earlier in a season than normal, too. The tests begin soon, with the Seminoles opening against Stetson on Nov. 7 at home in the first of nine non-conference games in the month.

“Regardless of how hard they work and how good their attitudes are, we see signs of inconsistency and habits not being completely formed at this particular point,” Hamilton said. “But I see effort, I see teamwork, I see a great atmosphere in terms of communicating with one another. We need every one of these days that we have left to continue to keep working so we can reach our potential.”

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