Leonard Hamilton

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton watches his win during a game against Louisville in the KFC Yum! Center on Feb. 4, 2023.

 ERIC CRAWFORD

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Just a recruiter.

For young black coaches in college basketball, those were the three most dismissive, condescending and hurtful words that anybody could say about you.

But those three words were too frequently said about coaches like Leonard Hamilton when former University of Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall brought Hamilton on the Wildcats' coaching staff in 1974.

Just a recruiter.

Kentucky, like most of the Southeastern Conference, had been years behind the Big 10 and Pac 8 while integrating its basketball program with players or coaches.

Heck, the record shows the entire country was hardly in a rush. In 1974, the spring when Hamilton was hired at UK, 29 teams earned invitations to the NCAA men's basketball tournament. All 29 head coaches were white.

Illinois State made Will Robinson the first Division I black head coach only four years earlier. George Raveling got his shot at Washington State in 1972, the same season John Thompson settled in at Georgetown. Nolan Richardson did not get called to Tulsa until 1980. John Chaney was a Division II guy until 1982.

"There were not a lot of opportunities, even as assistant coaches," said Wade Houston, who left Male High School to work for Denny Crum in 1976. "Leonard was one of the first."

"When it happened at Kentucky, more people paid attention," said former NBA head coach and UK player Dwane Casey. "Coach opened a doors. A lot of doors."

Merely 659 Division I victories later, James Leonard Hamilton, 76, will make his final appearance as a basketball coach in Kentucky at noon Saturday. His Florida State team plays the University of Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center.

Give the man a rousing ovation for a race remarkably run. Stand up and cheer. Not just for the games Hamilton has won or the years he has thrived at jobs where others failed.

Do it for the difference Leonard Hamilton has made.

A lot of guys win games. Not a lot of guys make an impact.

You want to know the impact Hamilton made on Casey, a former NBA Coach of the Year, who has led the Timberwolves, Raptors and Pistons?

"There was never a decision I made in my coaching career without talking to coach Ham," Casey said. "He's always been my sounding board on every big decision. And he has that kind of relationship with a lot of his former players. He's just a very wise and grounded person."

The first decision: Hamilton talked Casey out of transferring from UK to the University of Evansville. Hamilton drove to Casey's home in Morganfield, Ky., to convince him that a four-year career at UK would have more impact in his life than the possibility of more playing time at Evansville.

Make no mistake: Hamilton proved he was more than a recruiter as soon as he was given an opportunity,

Hamilton has won a Big East regular-season title. He's won an Atlantic Coast regular-season title. He's taken 11 Miami and FSU teams to the NCAA Tournament with four Sweet Sixteens and an Elite Eight. Five of his FSU teams finished the season ranked in the Top 25. His best team, ranked No. 4, missed its NCAA shot in 2020 when COVID canceled the tournament.

Don't forget the one season he coached in the NBA — or the countless guys Hamilton has prepared for professional careers.

But for many that is a footnote. What Hamilton did with the opportunity Hall gave him changed college basketball coaching.

Not just a recruiter.

"Leonard was organized, he was focused, he was intelligent and he was a tireless worker," Houston said.

"We recruited a lot of the same players — Derrick Hord, Scooter McCray, Billy Thompson, Rex Chapman, a lot of others. He got some. We got some. It was great competition.

"He set the bar very high. He's shown his capabilities over his entire career."

Indeed he has. And it started at Kentucky, where Casey said Hall entrusted Hamilton with the job of strengthening Kentucky's defense and team discipline.

"Coach was a stickler in making sure you were always in the proper stance and locked into to playing team defense on every possession," Casey said.

At Kentucky, Hamilton created a club: The Five at Five Club.

Miss a class — one class — and Hamilton would invite you into his van at 5 a.m. on Sunday. He would drive the group to a rural spot on Tates Creek Road. You would run 5 miles, trailed by the guiding headlamps from Hamilton's vehicle.

"I only did it once," Casey said. "I got the message. My teammates did, too."

Hamilton served Hall and then Eddie Sutton for a dozen seasons. Then Sutton helped him land the head job at Oklahoma State, Sutton's alma mater. Took over a program that posted losing seasons in two of the three years before he arrived and got the Cowboys to 17 wins and a pair of NIT bids.

Jumped to Miami in 1990. Remember: The Hurricanes dropped basketball in 1971 and slogged to a pair of winning seasons in the five years after the program returned under Bill Foster in 1985.

Hamilton took the Hurricanes to three straight NCAA Tournaments and in 1999 posted a 15-3 record in a Big East that included Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Tommy Amaker and Gale Catlett.

Not just a recruiter. Not at all.

That led to the one season experiment with the Washington Wizards before Hamilton U-turned back to college basketball at Florida State.

He followed Steve Robinson in 2002 and has won nearly twice as many games as any coach in FSU history. Only five men's DI coaches have been on their current job longer, guys like Tom Izzo of Michigan State and Mark Few of Gonzaga. In the ACC, Hamilton outlasted Roy Williams, Tony Bennett and others.

Not bad.

But this will be Hamilton's farewell, his final trip to Kentucky in the final month of his career.

"Coach Ham has earned all the praise and recognition he'll be getting," Casey said. "He's been at the top of the game for a very long time."

More than a recruiter, indeed.

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