UTM Alum Leonard Hamilton to Retire from Coaching Florida State

Florida State basketball coach  Leonard Hamilton, a former basketball player at The University of Tennessee at Martin, announced he will be stepping down at the end of the season. He is the winningest basketball coach in Florida State history with a record of 453-290.

Hamilton, 76, who played at UTM from 1969-1971 for coach Floyd Burdette, has guided the Seminoles since 2002. He was three-time Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year. He was so named in 2009, 2012 and again in 2020 when Florida State finished 26-5, 19-4 in the ACC. That 2020 campaign was halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hamilton’s teams earned 12 NCAA tournament invitations and 11 National Invitational Tournament bids. He guided the Seminoles to the Elite Eight in 2018 and three times to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen (2011, 2019, 2021). As of press time, Florida State is 14-9 this season, 5-7 in the ACC.

Hamilton was an assistant at Kentucky during the 1978 national-championship season. He was tapped to take the helm at Oklahoma State in 1986 and compiled a 56-63 record. He was hired at Miami (Fla.) in 1990, just five years after the Hurricane program was reinstated. In 2000, the Hurricanes finished tied for first in the Big East Conference and advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. Oddly enough, Hamilton isn’t the only UT-Martin product to coach at Miami. Lin Dunn coached at Miami from 1978-1987 before heading to Purdue.

A year later, he headed north to Tallahassee to assume the Florida State post. At the time of publication, Hamilton has a 657-501 career worksheet. He is the first head coach to be named National Coach of the Year by the National Sports Media Association from two conferences (Big East and ACC).

While at UTM, Hamilton was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. His brother Ray is a minor league baseball coach.