Hamilton happy with team’s trip to Canada

As Leonard Hamilton prepares to start his 21st season at Florida State, the legendary coach knows this upcoming team is probably one of the youngest he’s had since arriving in Tallahassee.

With seven freshmen and six sophomores comprising most of the 2022-23 roster, the Seminoles face a massive learning curve before the season opener Nov. 7 against Stetson. To help gear up for the campaign, Hamilton took his team on the road for a 10-day NCAA-sanctioned basketball tour of Canada.

“This was a very important tool for us because we have so many new guys to integrate into the system,” said Hamilton, 74. “This is probably the youngest and most inexperienced team we’ve had in a long time. We have four guys that are returning.”

The Seminoles made their way to Montreal and Ottawa, where they played games against Ottawa University, Carleton University and McGill University. It was the type of schedule that felt like a conference tournament in mid-March rather than an early season tune-up.

“They found out what it’s like to be in a tournament-type of atmosphere, where you don’t have a lot of game preparation and you have to go with what you’re working on in practice,” Hamilton said. “From that standpoint, we’ve learned a lot.

“The important part was they got to play against some pretty good competition. It was probably mid-level ACC-type play, which is good for us.

“I’m not sure we could have played against a national team, like we did when we played against Greece. We’re not experienced enough to do that, but these teams challenged us enough.”

While the trip’s focus was primarily basketball, Hamilton said the team participated in several activities away from the court, including sightseeing and a zip-line experience. The schedule, along with the practices and scrimmages, tested the players’ stamina and highlighted the importance of conditioning.

“We had several guys who were dehydrated,” Hamilton said. “They were all somewhat dehydrated and not quite the best, but that was a good situation to be in and learn to play on a little bit of stress.

“They saw what it’s like when you’re not in great shape. You get a better feel for how tough it is to play at this pace and be efficient.”

FSU swept the three games on tour. Hamilton was pleased with what he witnessed.

“We have the potential to be a pretty good scoring team,” he said. “Each player on this team has probably had moments. I’m encouraged by the individual skills and talents they have on the team. We’re still struggling to try and find the right balance.”

Redshirt junior guard Caleb Mills (12.7 points per game) returns after leading the team in scoring last season. He’s joined by guards Matthew Cleveland (11.5 ppg.) and Cam’Ron Fletcher (6.8 ppg.) as returning starters.

The Seminoles also added transfers in junior guard Darin Green Jr. (UCF) and senior forward Jaylan Gainey (Brown).

FSU is hoping to rebound from a 17-14 season when injuries forced Hamilton to rely on inexperience. That could pay off this season as the program looks to replace guard Anthony Polite and forward Malik Osborne.

Osborne, who shifted between forward and center, was a crucial piece to FSU’s offense.

“People who’ve been around our program for a while know how important our post men are to our system,” Hamilton said. “A lot of people utilize their point guard to initialize things, but we use our post guys to initiate a lot.

“We have three guys that we can rotate in the post — Gainey, Naheem McLeod and Cameron Corhen. Cam plays some perimeter and interior, which is important because he has a lot of versatility. They all are very capable of contributing the way that we need them to.”

With the tour over, Hamilton expects the players to return home to recharge before the school year starts.

“We don’t want to burn them out,” he said. “We want them to be stronger in January and February. We won’t have very much activity for them because we’ve been going pretty hard since spring.

“We’ll start conditioning around Labor Day. We’ll go to the sand pits and do a lot of running, a lot of low-impact type of stuff.”

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP FSU coach Leonard Hamilton knows this is one of the youngest rosters he’s had in 21 seasons at the school, so he took his players on a 10-day trip to Canada to get a taste of what tournament-style basketball is like.

STEPHEN M. DOWELL/ORLANDO SENTINEL The James W.“Bill”Heavener Football Training Center, a few days before it officially opens on UF’s campus, costs about $15 million more than the original plans drawn up in 2016.