Florida State Basketball – Time to Reload
The Seminoles had their chance.
They staked their claim as the third best team in the Atlantic Coast Conference for a few seasons there. It was a fun time. They made some waves, advanced a bit in the postseason tournaments. But now the fun is over. Everyone is gone. It is time to reload and, unfortunately, start again at the bottom.
Unlike conference brethren North Carolina and Duke, in order for Florida State to reload, they must recruit some nice freshmen and have them develop. Whereas freshmen heading to the Carolina schools can start right away and take the place of departing stars, most schools need young talents to mature and gain experience before they can expect anything from them. Last year was a peak for Florida State where they had a number of experienced veterans on the team. The 2012-2013 season will see FSU head into the valley on the other side of that peak.
Point guard Deividas Dulkys was a senior, as was guard Luke Loucks. Starting center and power forward, Xavier Gibson and Bernard James, were also both seniors. All four men were main contributors and rotation main stays for Florida State last season. Gibson and James leaving are especially painful for a team built on interior defense. The entire strength and core of the Seminoles was holding opponents down and defending the paint with reckless abandon and those were the two men responsible for nearly all of the mayhem.
This coming season’s squad will look much different. Led by Michael Snaer and Ian Miller, two volume-shooting guards, it will be interesting to see how the team looks and plays compared to what fans have grown used to expecting from Seminoles’ teams.
