GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Florida State basketball coach Leonard Hamilton has seen his share of elite basketball as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference with the Seminoles, who he has directed to three NCAA Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight in 22 seasons. As an assistant and lead recruiter from 1974-86 at Kentucky, he was part of three Final Four teams and eight SEC champions.
In the Pete Maravich Assembly Center with the Wildcats, he coached against such guards as Jordy Hultberg, Ethan Martin, Howard Carter and Derrick Taylor.
But Hamilton, 76, was more than just impressed with routine cursory compliments about the Tigers’ guard-heavy, 85-75 win over his team last Tuesday night at the Assembly Center.
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Hamilton, who also was Oklahoma State’s and Miami’s head coach during his career. “And I’m not real sure I’ve seen a team maintain their composure and come out in a second half with a different game and adjustment as well. They just backed up and made the threes with confidence. I’m not sure I could’ve let my players even shoot from as deep as they were.”
Florida State (7-3, 0-1 ACC), which came into the LSU game after receiving votes for the Associated Press top 25 poll, rode a switching defense that befuddled LSU in the first half to a 35-32 lead.
“They tried to take us off the dribble, get into the lane and create kick-outs,” Hamilton said. “Our big guys did a pretty good job of containing the dribble in that instance.”
LSU hit just 3 of 14 from 3-point range and had seven turnovers in the first half. The Tigers moved out in the second half to hit 6 of 13 from beyond the arc with just four turnovers against one of the top stealing teams in the nation.
True freshman guard Vyctorius Miller, who was 1 of 6 from the field in the first half for two points, hit 3 of 6 in the second half with 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range to finish with 15 points. Point guard Jordan Sears added 2-of-4 shooting from 3-point range.
“They were the best version of who they are,” Hamilton continued. “And we didn’t make the same adjustment by moving out a little farther and making them put the ball on the floor. They just backed up. Instead of driving and kicking like they were doing in the first half, they just backed up. And that’s a great strategy for the type team he has. They attacked us. We didn’t maintain the same level of poise that they did. My hat goes off to them.”
LSU (7-1) showed again how it is clearly a guard-strong team as it often plays with a four-guard lineup. Sears finished with 21 and six rebounds. Shooting guard Cam Carter had 26 with eight rebounds. And guard Dji Bailey had eight points with five rebounds, three assists and three steals while holding FSU top scorer Jamir Watkins to three points below his 18-point average. Bailey usually takes the opponent’s top scorer.
“Our offensive numbers with that four-guard attack have been off the charts,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said Friday.
And it’s a good thing LSU is guard-centric, because the Tigers just lost one of their best inside players in 6-foot-10, 240-pound junior forward Jalen Reed for the season in the opening minutes of that FSU win with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
The Tigers will try to replace Reed, one of McMahon’s first signees when he took over before the 2022-23 season, when LSU hosts Florida Gulf Coast (3-6) Sunday at 2 p.m. on SEC Network+.
“It was an emotional week,” McMahon said. “Really proud of our players, thrilled with the performance in the win over Florida State. I thought our second half was just terrific – just the overall offensive efficiency in the second half, once our players got comfortable against the aggressive switching from Florida State.”
Then the sobering news hit the next day about the injury to Reed, who went into the Florida State game averaging a team-high 7.4 rebounds a game with 12.4 points and 1.1 blocks. He had just set a career high with 13 rebounds in a win over Central Florida the previous week.
“The second part of that emotion is the devastation and heartbreak for Jalen Reed with his season-ending injury,” McMahon said. “Just one of my favorite players that I’ve had the opportunity to coach over the years. He was the first top 100 player to jump on board and take a chance on us, and we’ve been able to sign our last seven in the top 100. He worked extremely hard. You’ve seen him get better every year. We are so heartbroken for him.”
It will be up to four forwards to fill the gap left by Reed – junior Daimion Collins (6-9, 200), redshirt freshman Corey Chest (6-8, 220), senior Derek Fountain (6-10, 220) and true freshman Robert Miller III (6-10, 220).
Collins, himself just coming off a shoulder injury, is expected to start in Reed’s place and has looked impressive in spots. He leads the team with 11 blocked shots in only six games off the bench and is averaging 4.8 points and 4.0 rebounds a game. Chest has started three games and is now averaging a team-high 7.6 rebounds a game after getting 10 vs. FSU and 5.6 points.
“Not to sound cold-hearted, but the season doesn’t end,” McMahon said. “So, you just get back in the gym and you get to work.”
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