Meeting the 2021-22 Florida State Basketball Roster: Bigs

The fact his second best statistical comparison for the 20-21 season was his 19-20 version of himself is almost impressive. The only big difference was block rate, which makes sense, given he wasn’t around the rim nearly as much. His true shooting percentage went up, but so did his turnover percentage (which also makes sense given he’s handling the ball more). The biggest improvement was his free throw shooting. A 24.8% jump is incredibly impressive.

I would love for Florida State to split his time at the 4 and the 5 throughout the season, even though he’s your likely starter at the 4. What Osborne brings is best suited as a small-ball 5: pick-and-pop ability, toughness, hustle, shot-blocking, etc. If they plan to keep him as a full-time 4, he’s going to have to improve as a ball-handler and operate in pick-and-rolls. I’ve learned to never doubt Osborne, and he’s going to be successful no matter where Florida State plays him this season (hopefully it’s for more than 20 minutes per game). And while it’s great that he’s been consistent the last two seasons, FSU will need him to pick up his scoring, similar to what he was doing at the end of last season.

Season Stats Projection: 7.8 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.6 BPG 47.0/37.5/82.0

#15 Quincy Ballard, Sophomore

Last Season: 1.2 PPG, 0.7 RPG, 0.1 APG, 0.3 BPG 71.4/NA/28.6

I’m really high on what Ballard can become. He’s an uber-athletic big man at 7 feet and 240 pounds, he really just looked lost many times last season. Granted, he only played a total of 62 minutes all of last season. He’s a developmental prospect that hopefully we’ll look back at in a couple of seasons and see a player that has blossomed into a great rim-running, shot-blocking big. I think his abilities are compromised when he’s asked to step away from the basket and guard on the perimeter (we’ll talk about this more at the end), and he’s going to have to improve his free throw shooting if he wants to stay on the floor.

This season though, I think it’s going to be very similar to what we saw last year as he continues to improve and learn the system. If he’s seeing more than 10 minutes per game this season, it’s either because he’s made MASSIVE strides or the people in front of him are playing poorly and the staff is trying something to shake things up.

Projected Season Stats: 1.7 PPG, 1.1 RPG, 0.1 APG, 0.0 SPG, 0.3 BPG 66.7/NA/40.0

Incoming Players

#24 Naheem McLeod, Junior

Last Season (Chipola College): 5.8 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 0.1 APG, 0.3 SPG, 1.5 BPG 69.4/NA/60.3

Despite being listed as a junior on FSU’s official roster, McLeod will have three years of eligibility in college basketball. He was supposed to join Florida State for the 2019-20 season, but academic issues forced him out of Florida State and into Chipola College (JUCO) for the 2020-21 season. This is another raw, but talented prospect waiting to find his potential. He has great hands, good shot-blocking instincts, and has the ability to stretch out to 15-feet. What McLeod will have to improve is his focus.

He likely won’t play much this season either, although he has been in contact with FSU’s coaches for three years now, learning the ins and outs of their system. Knowledge of the system shouldn’t be the issue, but he didn’t exactly light the world on fire last year. Usually, high major bound JUCO players are able to dominate the competition. His role was to set screens and roll hard to suck the defense in, when in reality he only shot the ball about 3 times a game despite playing about 16 minutes per contest and starting 19 of them. It just wasn’t his role to score, and it likely won’t be his role here either for this season.

Season Stats Projection: 2.3 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 0.1 APG, 0.1 SPG, 0.8 BPG

#22 John Butler, Freshman

Last Season (High School): 20.0 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 3.0 BPG

Of all the players on the roster, Butler is arguably the biggest unknown. Despite standing at 7-foot-1, he only weighs in at 190 pounds and likely projects as a 4 in the future, much in the mold of a guy like Kristaps Porzingis. His handle for his size is honestly incredible, he can shoot the 3 fairly well, has solid athleticism...the ability for him to grab a rebound and immediately push the break is rare for someone of his size. He just has to put on weight, he’s going to get pushed around in the ACC. A couple of conversations I’ve had with people around the program love the potential he has, as well as the progress he’s already made since he got to Tallahassee.

It’s just tough to see where he fits in his first season. Is he playing backup minutes at the 4 or the 5? Is he a guy that’s going to be able to score at ease because of his height, or someone that will be pushed around because of his weight? It’s probably going to be a little bit of everything, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the staff keeps him on ice for most of this season as he bulks up.

Season Stats Projection: 3.1 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 0.3 APG, 0.1 SPG, 0.7 BPG 41.5/33.3/77.8

Overall

This group has talent, but very little experience, outside of Osborne. Even Ngom as a senior, this will only be his second season of Division 1 college basketball. FSU requires a lot out of their bigs, especially on defense. They’re calling out screens, telling the guards how to play the screen (switch, go over, go under, which direction screen is coming, etc), keeping an eye on things happening on the weakside for cuts… there’s a lot going on for FSU’s centers on defense.

I’m hoping that FSU moves away from switching everything this season, unless Osborne or Butler is at the 5. With Ngom, Ballard, and McLeod, what they’re best at is protecting the rim, they shouldn’t be drawn away from the basket unless the guard gets hit hard on the screen, then switch on emergency. It shouldn’t be an every ball-screen thing. FSU allowed 0.815 PPP on PnR Ball Handler situations (277th Nationally), and that has a lot to do with bigs switching onto guards. I get why they did it last season with an extremely shortened offseason, they chose to work on offense more and roll with what they had on defense from the year prior. With more true centers on the roster this year and a full offseason, it’s just time to go back to switching 1 through 4 and letting the 5 hedge or drop.

Offensively, no one will have plays run through them as much as Koprivica did last season, and most of these guys have similar skillsets. Get them in ball screens, have them roll hard to the rim, and seal off the defender as deep in the paint as they can. Try and get as many easy catches near the rim as possible, I don’t think you’ll see nearly as many post entries with the big set 10-12 feet away from the basket like we did last year since Koprivica was fluid and mobile enough to make it work.

This wraps up our roster preview, next will be a depth chart preview, followed by strengths and weaknesses of the team.