Florida State featured a pair of first-team All-ACC picks in guard Ta'Niya Latson and forward Makayla Timpson last season. Brooke Wyckoff's emphasis this offseason was focused on accumulating depth, adding to a core of veteran players.
Led by Latson and Timpson, along with the emergence of O'Mariah Gordon following her injuries in prior years, the Seminoles return eight players for 2024-25. FSU has added Texas A&M transfer Sydney Bowles (6-foot), Cincinnati transfer Malea Williams (6-4) and junior college transfers Raiane Dias Dos Santos (5-foot-9) and Morelia Chavez (6-1).
Their additions, as well as returning Mariana Valenzuela (who's 6-2) from knee surgery last August, should ensure one of the deepest rosters (literally and figuratively at 12 Seminoles) going into the season.
"We definitely needed to get bigger," Wyckoff told the Osceola. "Getting Mariana (Valenzuela) back from injury will also help that. But every piece that we added at their position is a bigger person at their position, length, size.
"Everybody we brought in is a 3-point shooter, has that capability. That was a step forward as well just on the offensive end. The size was important for the defensive end. That'll be a big a big key for us this year."
Wyckoff reflects on the newcomers, what's next for Latson, continuing to build off the TV ratings success in women's basketball and more.
You can’t coach 6-foot-4. You can coach a lot of Malea's qualities. What does she bring?
Wyckoff: She brings a lot of length. So she's a lanky, long 6-4 that can run the floor. She's athletic. She can rim run. She can also shoot the 3. She plays at our pace. And she's experienced, she's played four years of college basketball already. So that's helpful. That was big for us.
And then at the guard spot, we added these three guards, they can handle the ball, they can shoot it, they can come off ball screens and they’re bigger.
In a somewhat position-less world are the newcomers less point guard or shooting guard and more that they can do a little bit of everything that you're looking for?
Wyckoff: They're versatile in different ways. Raiane (Dias Dos Santos), she will be more of a backup, she's run the point before. She's going to be another ball handler. Thinking of O’Mariah (Gordon) and Ta’Niya (Latson), she's more that kind of guard. Whereas Sydney (Bowles), and we call her Mo, Morelia (Chavez), they're more of the bigger guards that are more like a wing. Again, capable shooters, capable penetrators, Sydney can come off ball screens, she can handle the ball.
Kind of just fills in that position-less — you need a couple kids that there's strength, ball handling strength. You can trust them to just handle the ball pressure. And then there's kids that are bigger and can shoot it, you wouldn't really necessarily want them bringing it up the floor against full-court pressure. We’ve got a mix.
Ta’Niya strikes me as one of the most dynamic guards we have ever seen at FSU. How do you challenge her, how does she challenge herself to find whatever is next for her?
Wyckoff: She wants to be challenged. The thing I love about her first and foremost is she's a competitor. She's a winner. Losing in the first round last year, the first NCAA tournament that she was able to play in, having been injured her freshman year. So that left a bad taste in her mouth, obviously. And that left her hungry, which I love. And so she is on a mission this year to take her game to another level. I think she wants to do that on the defensive end. Now that she's got two years under her belt of understanding how important it is, understanding what college defense needs to look like, she wants to get a lot better there and then take her offensive game, I think particularly her 3-point shooting, to another level. And those are some of the things she said last year, but I think now she understands really what that means and really the importance of that. And is even more motivated to make that a priority.
We have different pieces around her as well. KK (Timpson) and the year O (Gordon) had last year, that helps free her up to not feel like she’s got to do every single thing. But she's hungry. She's already just motivated to really dig in. And so she's made that known, we want to challenge her in that. She really has to continue to lead this team, but it's been different every year.
It seemed like at times some key players like Ta’Niya and Makayla logged heavy minutes. Did you want to be deeper and maybe pull a few minutes away from them as you constructed the roster?
Wyckoff: The overall thing is that we needed depth. And to be able to actually play the people that are on your bench, we needed the size, we need the 3-point ability. And for people like Amaya Bonner and Carla Viegas, having a year under their belt in our system, I fully expect to be able to rely on them to contribute. Avery Treadwell is going to have to play.
So I think this team, we are as deep as we've ever been. I see the capability of each of these kids to be able to contribute in some way, shape, or form because of who they are already and the qualities that they have. Snoop (Turnage) just finds a way to contribute no matter what, wherever she's needed. So that's great to be able to rely on that. Bringing in all those (new players), the size, 3-point shooting ability, that hopefully allows us to be able to play more people.
I can’t remember if you said this a year or two years ago, but you said 10 felt optimal for fear of losing somebody off the end of the bench who might go into the transfer portal. This roster is 12. Is it depth, philosophical?
Wyckoff: Ten to me is optimal, but you're living on the edge. Two years ago, we had 10, it was great. We had eight that could go until we had the wrong two injured at the same time. Two point guards (Latson and Gordon were injured in the NCAA Tournament). It just was the wrong two at the end of the year. So it is a scary thing for everybody, including me at times. I'm the one that has to see kids not being able to play and deal with that. But again, if we have the right people, those are the right 12. Then they can contribute, any of the 12. I'm great with that.
Mariana had the knee injury last summer. How’s her progress?
Wyckoff: She's doing really well. She had surgery last August. We knew it was going to be a longer process, and we were not expecting to get her back at any point last season. And so she's done a great job of continuing to work and the goal is that she's ready to go by November, just her normal self by November. So she's on track and we'll see but she's working her tail off. … She brings size. She has the capability to, if needed, guard a bigger center. She brings the physicality piece that we're missing at that four spot, like a Snoop that just doesn't have the physical ability to guard bigger players. But that 3-point ability, she can take it off the dribble as well, because she's a 3-point threat, she gets guarded and she's able to straight-line drive and things like that. So that's another thing that we really like in our offense is players that can take it off the dribble. Having been in our system, even though it was two years ago, again that experience does help as well.
What were the hot topics at the ACC’s spring meetings? How productive were they?
Wyckoff: I thought they were really productive. They were packed for us for women’s basketball. I haven't been to many of those. But it's the most packed agenda we've had in terms of discussing topics and having people come in, we're having conversations with those people that are productive.
The biggest piece, what we presented to the big group was just taking advantage of the momentum and women's basketball right now, just the eyes, they're on it (NCAA Tournament ratings). The passion that there is around it, the excitement and the exposure. We want the ACC obviously to be a part of that to rise to the occasion. The windows and the time slots, fully take advantage of that.
But that was a big thing for us. It's just asking everybody, administrators and all the stakeholders, to really just help push this forward, help us. We're going to do our part, we're going to try to continue to put a great product on the floor and make it exciting and we want all of the other stakeholders to join us and continue to capitalize on the momentum that we had the last two years.
There’s a women’s athletics fundraising push, which started in November. The locker room at the Tucker Center has been renovated, one recent example of the upgrades. What’s next?
Wyckoff: The Tuck is great. We have a practice facility that has improved in parts and stages, but it's not there yet. That comes down to not only just the experience of our student-athletes, and them being able to have the resources, the same types of resources that we're competing against in other places, but also the recruiting piece. And so continuing to make sure that we're keeping up as much as possible with facilities-wise, and that's not just making it the best facility in the country, it's making sure we're up to speed.
There's been improvements at the BTC (Basketball Training Center). We got a brand new practice court last year, it was much needed. Beautiful. I love it. Third floor offices have been renovated, beautiful. There's other parts of the building that we need some help.
FSU coaches can be open when speaking about the importance of NIL. Mike Norvell did it on the spring booster tour. What’s been your message?
Wyckoff: When asked, ‘What do we need? What's the biggest thing?’ I do mention NIL as a huge part, I don't want to ever say, ‘It's the biggest need,’ because obviously there are other big needs. But it is a reality. It's a big reality in women's basketball. And it's getting bigger by the month. During the transfer portal, when it was open, it was getting bigger by the week. Just the demand, the market was inflating as the weeks went on, and there were more numbers thrown out and higher and higher numbers for less and less impactful kids. And it was really scary, just to see something get inflated that quickly.
I say it's a reality, it's a need. We have a lot of needs. So if you're passionate about being able to help us in that, love to have your help. If you're not, there's other areas that are just as important to the experience of the student-athlete, as they always have been that we'd love your help with, too. So those are the types of conversations I'm having. It's all over the map in terms of people's willingness to want to help in that area of NIL. I think everybody's accepted that it's here. Not everybody has accepted that they like it and want to put their resources towards it. And I 100% understand that. And don't blame anybody if they don't feel that strongly about doing that. But, yeah, it's here. I love being able to at least talk about it and tell people that it's in need.
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