Florida State Basketball Head Coach Candidates: Who Will Replace Leonard Hamilton Next Season?

Fact Checked by Thomas Leary

  • After 22 seasons, Leonard Hamilton is calling it a career at Florida State.
  • Where will the Seminoles turn next?
  • Candidates include Sam Cassell and Will Wade.

A new era is coming to Tallahassee and Florida sports betting. Florida State's all-time winningest basketball coach, Leonard Hamilton, is resigning at the end of the season. He will address the transition during his postgame media availability after tomorrow night’s matchup with Notre Dame.

Florida State Basketball Head Coach Candidate Odds

Coach

Current Position

Percentage Chance

Odds

Bucky McMillan

Samford Head Coach

+550

15.4%

Takayo Siddle

UNC Wilmington Head Coach

+550

15.4%

Sam Cassell

Boston Celtics Assistant Coach

+650

13.3%

Luke Loucks

Sacramento Kings Assistant Coach

+650

13.3%

Will Wade

McNeese State Head Coach 

+1000

9.1%

Chris Mack

Charleston Head Coach

+1000

9.1%

Kevin Nickelberry

Florida State Assistant Coach

+1250

7.4%

Charlton Young

Missouri Assistant Coach

+1250

7.4%

Other

 

+900

10.0%

Disclaimer: These odds are for information purposes only and are not available through licensed sportsbooks in surrounding states. Sports betting is only legal in Florida via Hard Rock Bet, but our site is monitoring what happens in Tallahassee and will let you know when sportsbooks like DraftKings and BetMGM become available.

Hamilton’s tenure at FSU will end after the team’s final nine games wrap up and the team’s run at the 2025 ACC Tournament ends, with the program looking at a fourth straight Selection Sunday on the outside looking in at the 68-team bracket, with the Seminoles last making the field in 2021.  

To date, Hamilton’s posted a 256-290 (.611) mark with the program, making the Big Dance eight times and winning the league regular season title in 2020 before COVID-19 ended the season on an abrupt note, finishing off a 26-5 season for the longtime football-first university.  

Given Hamilton’s decision to hang up the whistle, it’s no wonder that a host of NCAA mid-major head coaches and NBA assistants with ties to Hamilton and/or FSU are no-brainers to hear their names mentioned in regard to the opening, though FloridaBet.com broke down the odds on which candidate has the best shot at doing so in 2025.  

Bucky McMillan Among Early Favorites

Our top pick to be the first new head coach in Tallahassee since the first term of the George W. Bush administration is Samford Bulldogs head coach Bucky McMillan, who has been at the Southern Conference school since 2020, winning the SoCon Coach of the Year honor in 2022, 2023 and 2024.  

McMillan (+550) is listed alongside UNC Wilmington head coach Takayo Siddle to replace Hamilton at FSU, while three-time NBA champion point guard and FSU alum Sam Cassell is also among the frontrunners, coming at +650 alongside Sacramento Kings assistant coach Luke Loucks.  

Siddle has been at UNCW since 2020, with stops as an assistant at Hargrave Military Academy, Gardner-Webb, UNCW and NC State between 2009 and 2020, while Cassell has been an assistant in the NBA since retiring as a player back in 2008, serving with the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics.  

Loucks played under Hamilton from 2008 to 2012 before playing overseas and in the G League between 2012 and 2016, moving onto the bench as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors and Kings from 2016 to present.  

Other names to keep an eye on in Tallahassee include former Chattanooga, VCU and LSU (and current McNeese State head coach) Will Wade and former Louisville and Xavier (and current Charleston) head coach Chris Mack both at +1000 apiece, while current FSU assistant coach Kevin Nickelberry and Missouri assistant coach Charlton Young clock in at +1250 apiece.  

Whichever candidate replaces Hamilton has the unenviable task of trying to succeed the man who led FSU to their first Elite Eight appearance in a quarter century (in 2018) and eight NCAA Tournament appearances in 23 years as head coach, with the Seminoles needing to find a new man to head up the program for the first time since 2002.

USA Today photo by Sam Navarro.

Author

Christopher Boan

Christopher Boan writes for FloridaBet.com and has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, with experience at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.

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