For nearly four decades, Florida State men’s basketball coach Leonard Hamilton has been well-respected in college basketball and has made steady progress in coaching and recruiting.
It was not until earlier this week that six of his former players sued Hamilton for unpaid NIL compensation worth $1.5 million dollars.
Hamilton has a 37-year career, including being FSU’s winningest head coach in program history. Just two days after the suit, FSU stated that it was investigating the NIL conflict.
While it remains to be seen how the lawsuit will be developed, here is how NIL and the transfer portal have negatively impacted college basketball:
Leonard Hamilton, the last remaining ACC coach standing
Some head coaches are reluctant to change, and some are willing to endure it. Hamilton might be a combination of both.
Since 2023, six head coaches (Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Mike Brey, Tony Bennett, Jim Boheim and Jim Larrañaga) have left their respected ACC programs after putting in 20-plus years of coaching.
Hamilton is the longest-tenured head coach in the conference, in the middle of his 23rd season with the Seminoles.
With 192 regular-season victories, he is tied for fourth in the ACC’s all-time regular-season wins and fifth all-time winningest coach in conference history.
With the transfer portal, NIL deals with being part of the new age of college sports, and some of the coaches have expressed their frustration with the new landscape of college basketball.
Larrañaga is the most recent coach to step down from Miami nearly halfway through the season. He spoke about how the NIL took its toll on him after making a deep run in the NCAA Tournament in the last two seasons.
What shocked me beyond belief was after we made it to the Final Four, just 18 months ago, the very first time I met with the players, eight of them decided they were going to put their name in the portal and leave,” Larrañaga said last week during his press conference.
“I said, ‘Don’t you like it (here)?’ (They said) ‘No, I love it. I love Miami. It’s great,'” Larrañaga told reporters explaining his abrupt retirement. “But the opportunity to make money someplace else created a situation that you have to begin to ask yourself as a coach, what is this all about? And the answer is, it’s become professional.”
Bennett, who announced his retirement before the 2024-25 season, also said the state of college athletics helped drive him to calling it quits.
“This game, I think it’s right for players, student-athletes to receive revenue. Please don’t mistake me, I do. I think it is,” Bennett said via SI.com.
“But the game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It’s not, and there needs to be change. It’s not going to go back — I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That’s who I am, and that’s how it was.”
Hamilton, only a year older than Larrañaga, is the longest-tenured head coach in the ACC and is willing to continue despite the changes in the game.
What’s next for Leonard Hamilton at FSU?
The ACC has taken a step back. Duke is the only team in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll Top 25 and the favorite to win. FSU is 9-4 and will return to the court on Saturday night to host Syracuse (6 p.m., ACC Network).
Hamilton has yet to speak out about the lawsuit against him. However, he has expressed that he is adjusting his coaching methods all season while playing 10 new guys on the current roster.
After the Tulane game on Dec. 14, Hamilton spoke specifically about team adjustments and eliminating outside distractions.
“That’s the new world we are living in. That is the new world we are trying to figure out. Every time you talk to a coach, everybody seems to have the same complaints,” Hamilton said.
“It’s the new guys adjusting, trying to get them to focus with all the distractions in their ears and the things they have to listen to. It’s a new ballgame. We all have to figure out what is the best approach in the new climate that exists in college athletics.”
More: Attorney speaks out against FSU basketball’s Leonard Hamilton. Here’s what he said
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More: Tennessee holds off Auburn for No. 1 spot in the USA TODAY Sports men’s basketball poll
Peter Holland Jr. covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at PHolland@Gannett.com or on X @_Da_pistol.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leonard Hamilton: How NIL, transfer portal impact FSU basketball coach
