Led by signing of 5-star Scottie Barnes, FSU hoops class checks in at No. 6
It took a couple of days before Florida State could make it official, but that didn't diminish the excitement one bit.
On Friday, FSU announced that it had received a signed National Letter of Intent from five-star wing Scottie Barnes -- one of the highest-rated prospects in school history.
Barnes is currently ranked the No. 9 recruit in the nation, and his signing is a main reason why the Seminoles have one of the nation's top-ranked signing classes for the class of 2020.
"He's extremely versatile," Florida State men's basketball coach Leonard Hamilton said. "He can play four different positions. He's right at 6-9. ... He'll definitely be playing a lot of point guard for us. And he's capable and versatile enough to play 1 through 4, offensively and defensively."
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Barnes, from Montverde Academy in central Florida, is a part of a recruiting class that also features four-star forward Sardaar Calhoun, a sharp-shooting, high-scoring JUCO prospect who played high school ball in Virginia.
Calhoun, a 6-foot-6 wing, is currently averaging 23 points per game for Missouri State University-West Plains.
Fellow four-star commit Malachi Wideman is ranked in the Top 100 as well, but he's also a football prospect and therefore -- by NCAA rule -- can't be considered a hoops recruit. So his National letter of intent can't be official until the football early signing period in December.
The Seminoles are still in on at least one more high-level prospect in 7-foot-1 center Hunter Dickinson from the Washington D.C. area, who is ranked as the No. 38 overall prospect in the country. But no matter what happens with him, the Seminoles already feel good about their 2020 class..
"What we're trying to do is be selective as to the type of character we're bringing into our program along with having the ability," Hamilton said. "We think that it's just as important to have people with high character, and Scottie definitely represents both of those qualities that we think represent who we are and what we're about as we try to move our program forward."
According to Rivals, Florida State's recruiting class is currently ranked No. 6 in the country, just ahead of Kansas, Oklahoma State and Virginia.