FSU coach: Win would be priceless

LOS ANGELES — The prize is right in front of both teams: A berth in the Final Four.

The winner of Saturday night’s West Region final between Michigan and Florida State at Staples Center will advance to the Final Four in San Antonio.

A Michigan win would be the school’s eighth Final Four appearance, but first since 2013. It would be Wolverines coach John Beilein’s second as a head coach. What would it mean for Florida State, which made its only Final

Four appearance in 1972?

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, 69, had never taken a team deeper than the Sweet 16 before Thursday night’s upset win over Gonzaga.

“I’ve been fortunate in my career to have been, as an assistant, to three Final Fours [and] I don’t know how many conference championships,’’ Hamilton, who made those trips as a Kentucky assistant in the 1970s and 1980s, said Friday. “I’m more thinking about how important it would be for our student-athletes to enjoy that experience. I’m not selfish enough to feel that that’s a cure-all for me that’s going to make my life any more important or successful.

“But I realize that these are memories that our young people will have that they will cherish for the remainder of their lives. I want so much for them to enjoy that experience, because I know how much it’s going to mean to them. I’m more excited about when they graduate and get their degrees, when I get a chance to go through their weddings and be the godfather to their kids.

“Me personally, I hope that my reward would be to see the smiles on their face and hear their tone of voice and the excitement in it if we can win this game. So my job is to try to get them to be mentally and emotionally poised, connected, and energized and not pressured because they’re trying to satisfy something for the coach.’’

Nineteen of the past 20 national champions have been no lower than a No. 3 seed. The only exception was seventhseeded Connecticut in 2014, which beat Kentucky, an eighth seed. … The last time Florida State made it this far, in 1993, it lost to No. 1 seed Kentucky.