Leonard Hamilton’s legacy as a coach is rooted in how he was raised and an era he grew up in.

He’s always been grounded by his beliefs, reflecting that he grew up just a few steps from his church in Gastonia, N.C. He recalled his father dropping out of school in the ninth grade. And he recalled the changes he has seen in society in his lifetime, drinking from a colored water fountain to winning two basketball titles as Florida State’s coach.

It can be jarring to hear Hamilton use the word "colored" in 2025 but that word illustrates the obstacles and achievements in his life, one that is rooted in education and relationships. Education is what proved impossible for his dad, and implausible for his dad to support him to get a college degree. But he insisted to Leonard that he find a path to college. The son did so via a basketball scholarship.

He later graduated from Tennessee-Martin, adopted his siblings and helped them get a college degree. He recalled on Thursday that one brother went to college, met his wife and both of their children later earned degrees.

“Getting an education was the most important thing that I’ve ever done,” Hamilton said.

One college degree was a tree, growing branches. The value of education was not just his diploma but the start of a journey for him to clear a path for his siblings and their children.

When asked a variation of questions from writers before his final regular-season home game, which is against SMU and former assistant Andy Enfield on Saturday at 4 p.m. (ESPNU), Hamilton was reflective about the big picture but deflected when it came to questions about wins, ACC titles and NCAA Tournament trips.

“To be very honest with you I remember President (John) Thrasher throwing my players a basketball when they walk across the stage getting degrees,” Hamilton said. “That’s probably one of the highlights I’ve enjoyed is knowing that we haven’t lost perspective on what’s really, really important.”

To be fair, Hamilton was asked about memorable on-court moments that stick with him through 23 years at FSU. And those moments, with a president symbolically tossing a ball across a stage, did indeed come on the same floor of the Donald L. Tucker Center where the Seminoles played basketball.

Hoops blue bloods had an advantage. More prestige. Bigger budgets. More fan support. Hamilton rarely grumbled publicly, instead opting for the “New Bloods” nickname of the successful Seminoles teams that had created a basketball culture.

But, yes, at times he knew and was frustrated by what the blue bloods had and FSU didn’t. He and his staff identified talent, recruited, developed, competed and graduated athletes.

“To be here for 23 years and only have one or two players not graduate that whole time that were with you for four years, to me that’s important,” Hamilton said. “That’s more important to me than all of the Hall of Fames that I’m in.”

Hamilton’s life and basketball philosophies worked well at three football-centric schools: Oklahoma State, Miami and Florida State. It’s hard to paint a picture of what the FSU basketball program looked like before Hamilton arrived in March 2002 other than to say FSU went 13-17, 12-17, 9-21 and 12-17 in Steve Robinson’s last four seasons.

It was a slow build. But Hamilton guided deep rosters that went to the Elite Eight (2018) and Sweet 16 (2011, 2019 and 2021). The team that won the ACC regular season in March 2020 could have made a deep run in the NCAA Tournament if not for the pandemic.

The staff recognized transfer talent like Malik Osborne, who left Rice and sat out a year by rule before joining FSU for three successful seasons. But Hamilton and the staff were slow overall to adapt to the wide-open transfer portal era.

FSU couldn’t ride the wave of the 2019-20 team that won the league’s regular-season title or the following year when the program made the Sweet 16 in the bubble in Indianapolis. The Seminoles didn’t hit the portal but also candidly didn’t have the NIL capabilities to compete either.

In the last four seasons, the Seminoles are 59-67 with no NCAA or NIT appearances. That’s skewed by an injury-depleted 9-23 season in 2022-23 but that season and others showed that Hamilton’s program had been historically built on veterans and depth, players who had been developed through hundreds of practices year after year — only to see disruption in the portal.

Hamilton tried to hit the portal. Jamir Watkins has delivered more than 1,000 points in two seasons. Malique Ewin has been inconsistent, but on his best day is capable of a double-double and is one of the best passing big men in the Hamilton Era.

But the roster often included too many transfers who weren’t able to compete in the ACC. FSU is just 16-14 this season but won’t make the NCAA Tournament unless it wins the ACC tournament and is an unlikely NIT team.

Hamilton may have been reluctant to bring in transfers but he made sure they worked hard in the classroom. Transfers like Caleb Mills, Cam Fletcher, Darin Green and Jaylan Gainey graduated. Transfers like Watkins, Bostyn Holt and Justin Thomas will graduate in May. Ewin and Jerry Deng are on track to graduate in May 2026.

The portal has been good for college athletes in basketball and other sports — as long as they find a home. What concerns Hamilton the most, of all of the issues in college basketball, is those athletes who don’t find a college home.

“One thing that’s never really mentioned is the fact that if there are 3,000 or 4,000 kids that put their name in the portal, close to 40 percent of them won’t get a scholarship offer,” Hamilton said. “So over a four-, five- or six-year period, you’ve got close to 6,000 players running around without an opportunity to finish their education on scholarship. And unfortunately I’d say 85 to 90 percent of them are Black. Kids that can less afford to not get their education. But somehow or another that’s been lost in the shuffle.”

Fans and media often focus on the big-name transfers and how much NIL has contributed to the strength of blue bloods and helped turn a number of SEC schools into hoops powers. But to hear Hamilton’s point of view, the priorities have overlooked the need for coaches and administrators to ensure that athletes graduate.

“We complain about the NIL and the changing every year but what about those guys who are losing their opportunities because this atmosphere has been created where the grass is always greener on the other side. What are we doing to make sure that those guys don’t get lost in the shuffle?” Hamilton said. “When you add that up over a 10-year period, how many lives have we negatively affected by creating this, whatever this situation is that we’ve created? This atmosphere that has allowed us to concentrate on a whole lot of other things other than getting our education.”

Hamilton could have managed the portal better. He could have engaged more with the community and generated more NIL money. He is named in a lawsuit with five players from the 2023-24 team who are alleging they weren't paid $250,000 apiece in promised NIL money (it was originally six players but Fletcher dropped out in an amended version of the court filings).

But he coaches his final regular-season game at FSU on Saturday after 23 years, knowing he made a difference in the lives of hundreds of young men.

“When you take young men as teenagers and you usher them into young adulthood, that’s a tremendous responsibility,” Hamilton said. “We get recognized for how many games we win and how many trophies and how many Hall of Fames I’m in, how many NCAA trips you make and games you win.

"But in reality, when you look back over your career, and if your players are not successful, the guys that help you accomplish those things, and they’re not doing well, you don’t feel like you’ve done your job.”

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