North Florida Sports Network Podcast
North Florida Sports Network Podcast
FSU Hoops: Saying Goodbye to Leonard Hamilton and Hello to Luke Loucks
Yeah, I haven't hit it Okay.
Speaker 2:What's up? Welcome back. It's the North Florida Sports Network. We got basketball, baby. Yeah, we say goodbye to Leonard Hamilton. We say hello to Luke Louse.
Speaker 1:What's up Luke?
Speaker 2:We will question whether Leonard Hamilton will end up in the Hall of Fame, but he don't care about that because he's trying to get to heaven. That's right, man. That's right, yeah, that's right, yeah. We will talk about what Luke Louse needs to do to get the Noles back in the tournament. Fsu baseball loss to Florida. Spring training getting going? I don't know, probably yeah. Football Spring Free agency. Spring training getting going? I don't know. Probably. Football free agency NFL free agency, screw spring.
Speaker 2:Let's start with free agency there, then we'll get to spring so if you haven't done so, go ahead and do so at anywhere you might get podcasts. The podcast is available everywhere, so get on board the shuttle.
Speaker 1:Up on Well it's over.
Speaker 2:We got the chance to go to Leonard's last game here in Tallahassee Right With the big win against a quality opponent, acc win number 200. Big time.
Speaker 1:I mean, it was man. I'm glad he got the win. No idea how they pulled it out of their ass. They tried, they tried yeah.
Speaker 2:Malik Ewan tried. They didn't want to have that post-game event after a loss. Yeah, I was just hoping that.
Speaker 1:It would carry over.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I knew that this team wasn't going to do anything in the tournament.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's too Jekyll and Hyde with its best player and it's just not deep enough. But I mean, at least it went over .500. It wasn't like like what?
Speaker 1:the virginia tech guys say oh yeah, I mean everybody expected us to be ass, I mean we were still ass, but it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2:What a great quote so I mean it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2:I had a little little higher hopes for this season. I know I told you before the season that I had a goal of NIT. Yeah, but it's over for that. I have a lot of fond memories of Leonard Hamilton what seems to be my whole adult life. He's been here as head coach of the Florida State Seminole basketball team and he looks the damn same as he did If not he almost looks older when he got hired. Yeah, it's crazy. Um, just uh, the way he handles his business. And um is what I'm gonna remember about coach ham. Um, what he, the changes he makes to people who are around him in their lives and that's his character is high, highest I've seen around these parts in terms of coaching.
Speaker 1:Right, you don't see it a lot in college basketball, not these days anyway. People that don't compromise their core values and their program for wins.
Speaker 2:Do you think Lerner Hamilton is a Hall of Famer?
Speaker 1:I mean, I look at it as the other three guys in the ACC with 200 wins are in the Hall of Fame. And yeah, I know Gary Williams has a national title, but what if he didn't? I think he's still a Hall of Famer and I think Leonard Hamilton I mean where he won those games has to be taken in consideration. So it wasn't just Florida State. He won games at Miami when they were in the Big East. You know he won a Big East title at Miami. Think about that.
Speaker 2:I think he had a role in there. I mean, who's to say he doesn't flirt with the NBA and Michael Jordan to say, if he doesn't flirt with the nba and michael jordan and he maybe stays there the whole time.
Speaker 2:What happens there? Right, but he built two programs to the highest level I guess not the highest. They didn't get to the final four, but um, that's again a tournament, and then his best team ever didn't even get a chance to play in it yeah, there's that a team that probably would have flirted with a number one seed.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think he's a Hall of Famer man. I think you take his entire career under consideration, being an assistant at Kentucky for a national title team. You know he was at Oklahoma State. You look at the assistants that have coached under him, bill Self probably being the most notable, but there's others All over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we just played one. It's his ability to find anybody and open his door to doing whatever it takes to get the job done without sacrificing what he stands for. Right, he's just hard work and never give up. You know, you have, you have a standard of what you have to get done in the classroom and off the court. That's first and foremost for him. And well, and yeah, a lot of times when you're in the heat of the battle, it can that's hard to you know. Stay at the head.
Speaker 1:You know the front right and college college athletics is uh, that's not how it how it's built anymore. It's not how it operates. It's in basketball especially, um, you know, long-term degree plans and and staying at a school for three, four years isn't really in a lot of these kids' thought process. So I think you're going to see the fundamental day-to-day kind of change, but still keep some of those old-school ham values like working hard on defense.
Speaker 2:Because it's up to former player, now FSU head basketball coach, luke Lauchs, who has been officially announced has signed a five-year deal. What are your initial thoughts there?
Speaker 1:I like it. I don't know that we could have done any better. There's other names. I mean, Will Wade is out there, the guy that was at LSU, and if you want to just get renegade with basketball and just cheat your balls off and, just you know, go all in that way, then that would have been a guy to maybe take a look at. I don't think he would have taken this job, but I think it's a good. I think it's something that they probably had worked out last year.
Speaker 2:We'll see who he hires as an assistant. What's the you want to take? You know the type of person Leonard Hamilton has, but you know what? What do you think's the key for Luke Laux to get it rolling here at Florida state? You got to find people that can shoot the ball man Right Like it the rolling here at Florida State you got to find people that can just shoot the ball. Man Right, right Like it. The game has changed.
Speaker 2:He's been in the pros for the last decade almost so he knows the G League type of player or the transfers or that scouting type of aspect to it that it's going to take to get those type of players that you're going to have to find, because it's going to be hard to outbid for the big stars. You're not going to get those, so you got to find those diamonds. You got it. Yeah, those players that want to develop or make something of themselves in a certain way you got to sell that develop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can develop you to a payday, whether it be nba or a bigger blue blood school man like yeah you know, hey, who's to say that kentucky's not going to come sniffing around Florida State's roster throwing money if you go find some diamonds in the rough man. I mean it sucks, but it's the way that Florida State basketball has to operate. Right now. We are not going to have the money to compete with Blue Blood programs. We definitely don't have the clout in terms of tradition and history, so you're going to have to just work really hard and find your neon bedro guys.
Speaker 2:All right, three years, luke Laux. Three years coaching over or under NCAA's appearances. One.
Speaker 1:In three years. I would be satisfied if he just had us on the bubble in year three, so under, yeah. I don't know, though, man, it can change so quickly depending on who you get to come to school sucks now yeah it does, and you only need maybe one or two guys that are big time players.
Speaker 2:So those years where you know we're making the dance 23 and 11, you know you do that with. Now, in this state of the conference, you might get left out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the talent level, those teams. They win this conference this year or at least finish top two.
Speaker 2:Well, he's got a lot of work to do. He'll have Leonard. I don't see Leonard going anywhere. He'll have him to lean on as a mentor. Still, I'm sure he'll be around. He'll be missed, but just a class act. Yeah, someone I'll remember. Hopefully Florida State will do something to honor him. I think you got to put a statue in the arena, man. We're right outside of it, outside someone I'll remember.
Speaker 1:Hopefully we'll florida state will do something to honor him. I think you got to put a statue in the arena, man, we're right outside of it outside. I like it inside better, less, less, uh well, they got it outside of dope. Yeah, I know, maybe right there where you walk up I just don't want nobody shitting on that statue, man, birds included yeah, well, uh, it's been crazy.
Speaker 2:Um, baseball is getting started. We'll touch. You know, florida came in here beat the seminoles. It's bound to happen right.
Speaker 1:Um, if you didn't watch, evan crest, the starter for florida state, took himself out of the game in the second inning. Um 18 pitches and then the parent arm injury. That's not good. That's probably the only takeaway from that game for me is that you had a potential pretty significant injury. I mean, florida's really good. Some of the young hitters in Florida State's lineup have never faced pitching like that before BJ Gibson you could tell that it was something he's not quite used to. But I mean, dude, you saw Miles Bailey hit another home run. He's keeping it going. You know, midweek game, florida's really good, I think.
Speaker 2:ACC play gets underway, so we'll see how they do against bc um next week. Uh nfl free agency heating up man yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:It uh depends on who you're a fan of. I know it's over for your niners. Yeah, it's been overdue. I man, earlier in the week, when people were talking about jamis going to San Francisco, what did I say? No way. Well, he went and got Mac Jones. Yeah, they've wanted him since he was at Alabama. Now they finally get him. What is it?
Speaker 2:Sam Darnold. He signed with Seattle, daniel Jones signed with Indy, justin Fields signed with the Jets. Yeah, just a lot of weird stuff going on man, the music stopped and there's not a lot of chairs left. I guess, right now you have the Steelers, you still have the Steelers, you have the Browns, you have the Giants that need quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers it's not going to be the Browns Is deciding, I think, between retirement Steelers or Giants, vikings or Vikings, which I said I told you you know.
Speaker 1:I think it actually might end up being Minnesota, if anybody If he's going to play, he's going to be there.
Speaker 2:But yeah, pittsburgh still needs a quarterback yeah, they need, they need to start jamis still needs a team.
Speaker 1:Damn it see these other backups getting signed right and it it kind of seems like, uh, teams are using jamis to kind of hurry this process along. Man, you see him mentioned with the jets and then they go and get justin field signed. You see him mission with the 49ers and they do something stupid like signing Mac Jones. So I think right now he's every NFL franchise.
Speaker 1:You still got Aaron Rodgers, you still have Russell Wilson, and then you get into the Jameis kind of joke See, that's my whole thing is, if you're going to sign Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson, you have to believe that they have all of it left Right, not just like a little tiny piece that they can still go out there and be. They're going after Rodgers. Yeah, it's way easier to believe, but I think they should go ahead and sign Jameis.
Speaker 2:I think you could sign him for cheap. You need. But they went and signed mason rudolph.
Speaker 1:They're bringing him back so I think they're waiting to see what happens there?
Speaker 2:the uh, the dolphins signed zach wilson to back up to a. Oh my god, yeah, I I mean cousins is apparently gonna back up phoenix, up Phoenix. I don't buy that, so still a lot.
Speaker 1:No, I still think that you're going to see them ship him somewhere. That's just not a. You know the franchise. The organization and Kirk Cousins are not on the same page.
Speaker 2:Yeah, on any level.
Speaker 1:But yeah, they're running out of spots for Jameis. Yeah, I'd like to see Jameis. Yeah, I'd like to see him in Atlanta.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Helping the little rookie QB along. I say New York because now I just want him to play. So if that gives him the best chance, let's go there.
Speaker 1:And I mean, you know, in terms of pressure to win, it doesn't really get any lower than New York in terms of the expectation.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, the fans are going to be horrible no matter what, but nobody expects the giants to do anything right, well, uh geez, it's kind of a slow time.
Speaker 2:It's not going to be a spring game.
Speaker 1:Thank God, do you know why, like I know why they're doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I actually think that it might be something that's permanent. I do too. You saw Nebraska do it, and that is a program that puts 98-whatever-thousand in the stands for every spring game. Well, now with the transfer portal Right, and he came out and said it I don't want anybody watching us practice and deciding who they're going to make offers to based off of our spring game. Yep, and I get it, man. You know like it's savage out there, but that's, you still got a ways to go. Everybody's in their off-season conditioning program. You know bond building, getting them loving each other.
Speaker 2:Are you looking forward to March Madness at all?
Speaker 1:I mean looking forward to Not really, yeah, not really Duke.
Speaker 2:Cooper Flagg Injury.
Speaker 1:I, just as long as Florida doesn't win the national title.
Speaker 2:I'm fine, I think I'm going to. It's going to be a one seed.
Speaker 1:I think I might get behind St John's just because it's Patino's 85-year-old Right Swan song. I don't know, dude, I don't care, I Swan song. I don't know, I don't care, I'll fill out a bracket. I'll fill out a bracket. All right, I'll fill one out after everybody's already lost.
Speaker 2:They'll decide that Sunday. The NBA playoffs are winding down. Let's go. I'm going to give you the standings, if they were to start today. In the West, you have OKC with a huge lead 12 games over the second-place team team, which is the Memphis Grizzlies followed by. Okc is.
Speaker 1:Memphis and Denver are tied alright. So when you go through these two teams, I know Denver has the big lead.
Speaker 2:Okc is on a historic run 54-12.
Speaker 1:So tell me who their big guys are, like their leading scorers. The Canadian guy is on OKC, shy Gillis Alexander. Okay, and I know the Nuggets have Big Joker, yep, and then Jabba Rance on the Grizzlies. The.
Speaker 2:Lakers are 40 and 24. Now they're in the four seed. They have to look at trade. They've been playing well, so does little LeBron play ever.
Speaker 2:No, he's in the G League. Okay, bronny is not playing. The Rockets the five seed 41-25. The Warriors they trained for Jimmy Butler they're now 38-28 in the sixth seed and will avoid the play-in tournament if it were to end today. The Wolves T-Wolves a lot of big plans before the season are in the 7th seed, followed by what the hell is that? The Kings? The Kings are in the 9th, the Mavs are in the 10th. Who's that in the 8th? Do I not recognize that logo? Is that how?
Speaker 1:Is that how what? Who is how what? Who is the eight?
Speaker 2:That's insane. I think it's the Pelicans, yeah, okay. I think he took his wallet, all right. Who do you think is leading the East Celtics? Nope, somebody the East Celtics? Nope.
Speaker 1:Somebody's got the Celtics. Yeah, okay, it's the Cavs man, all right. Are the Celtics in second?
Speaker 2:Yes, all right, I got you, but the Cavs have an eight-game lead. They're 55-10. So they're even on a better pace than OKc. So okc and cleveland having great seasons. Those are your two one seeds bought. But I wouldn't say they're probably your favorites. Even people are saying that the lakers and the celtics um, celtics has a two, knicks three, bucks four, pacers five, pistons six, and then the Hawks, magic, heat, bulls round up your Eastern Conference. We.
Speaker 1:We, we.
Speaker 2:Just a little update there as we get closer to the playoffs. Major League Baseball about to start. Anything you're looking forward to there? Not really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I'm, you know, Braves, trying to do something obviously.
Speaker 2:Hopefully they can stay healthy.
Speaker 1:I want to see if maybe one of the FSU guys gets called up Cam Smith or Tibbs. I think Cam Smith has the best shot. It would be for the Astros, yeah, but you know I think Tibbs is doing all right with the Giants. So I just like baseball coming back because it's nice and long man. It gives you something to watch when it's boring as shit we had to go.
Speaker 2:Well, we gotta get on out of here, all right, cheer. Happy spring break, safe travels to everybody out there. Get on back home safely. There's like a teacher planning day after spring break. Are you kidding me? Yeah, they really do, like they're just jacking them up, man.
Speaker 1:Keep these kids out of school as long as we can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Hell. What's it do with these kids, man?
Speaker 2:Hopefully Luke Larks can hit up the transfer portal but, like you said, it's going to be a rough year next year. Anybody on this year's team you'd like to see him hold on to daquan davis in particular, I know I I would yeah, um, I mean I'd I'd like to see him hold on to bo bo, and I don't think that's gonna happen.
Speaker 1:I'd like to see him hold on to ewan and convince him to actually give a%, but again I don't think that's going to happen. Yeah, you've got to have one or two guys. I mean, the Davis kid is probably your biggest.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think you've got something with that kid at point guard Right.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, yeah, Start previewing positions here shortly.
Speaker 1:Yeah they're coming along man, oh God, the draft coverage is just ridiculous. Shador Sanders is plummeting in the draft. That kid's been. He's known where he's getting picked since the week eight of the college football season. That's what I think, yeah.
Speaker 2:Who were the Titans taking the number one pick? They need a quarterback. You got one there. Take him. That's what I think they should do. Just take Cam Ward.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:He's a guy who loves football. He can throw it. He's big, he can run a little bit. He's better. Guy who loves football. He can throw it, he's big, he can run a little bit. He's better than anybody you got on your team. If you're a coach and you're probably going to get fired, why not draft a quarterback? At least you can tie yourself to him.
Speaker 1:And hang around longer, Exactly Like hey, you can't fire me before the quarterback proves that he sucks, yeah Well we got baseball to watch the basketball tournament.
Speaker 2:Nba playoffs will get around shortly. We'll watch it all, We'll react to it all and we'll talk to you next time right here on the North Florida Sports Network.
Speaker 1:Hit it Okay, go to the next hole.
