By JACOB POLACHECK
Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton has agreed to a five-year contract extension through the 2024-2025 season, the school announced Monday.
The extension will pay Hamilton $2.25 million annually plus bonuses.
“Coach Hamilton has done so much for this basketball program and this university that it is hard to express in words,” Florida State athletic director David Coburn said in a statement. “What he does with his young men, both on and off the court, is truly remarkable. I know both the President (John Thrasher) and I regard him as a university treasure, and he is just now getting the national recognition he has deserved for so long.
“He embodies all the qualities that make a great leader, and we are proud and thrilled to have him as our coach as long as he wishes.”
During his time with Florida State, Hamilton has won three ACC Coach of the Year awards, two ACC titles and has led the Seminoles to seven NCAA tournament appearances.
Hamilton, 72, is on the verge of winning back-to-back ACC regular-season titles as the Seminoles currently sit at 14-4 with a hold on first place in the ACC.
Hamilton’s latest contract has a bonus structure in place that would allow him to make more than $2 million additionally if he hits all its benchmarks.
The benchmarksI include making a $150,000 bonus winning the ACC regular season, $200,000 for making the NCAA tournament, an additional $50,000 for being a top-4 seed and more depending on how far the team advances.
Florida State is ranked No. 11 in the latest AP Poll released Monday.
WILL BROWN OUT AS UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY HEAD COACH
The University of Albany and head coach Will Brown have agreed to ‘mutually part ways’, Brown said in a press release Monday.
“Anyone who knows me knows this decision was extraordinarily difficult,” Brown said in the release. “But I leave the University at Albany with an enormous sense of pride in the positive impact that my staff, my family and, most important, the student-athletes I had the honor of coaching, have had on UAlbany basketball and the greater Albany community.”
Brown, who was hired in December 2001, led Albany to a 315-295 overall record of the past 20 seasons.
Under Brown, Albany earned five NCAA tournament berths, including the program’s first NCAA Tournament win, defeating Mount St. Mary’s 71-64 in the 2014 First Four.
After losing to Hartford in the America East tournament quarterfinals on Sunday, Albany finished the season with a 7-9 record for its third consecutive losing season.
Brown helped lead Albany to two America East regular-season titles and five America East championships during his tenure. He was also named America East Coach of the Year in 2015.
TOMMY DEMPSEY OUT AT BINGHAMTON
The America East Conference saw another coach replaced Monday, as Binghamton University made a coaching change Monday.
Tommy Dempsey is the out as Binghamton head coach, the school announced.
Binghamton assistant Levell Sanders has been named interim coach for next season.
In his nine seasons at Binghamton, Dempsey had a 71-194 overall record, including a 4-14 record (4-10 America East) during the 2020-21 season.
Binghamton’s season came to an end with a loss at Hartford in the opening round of the conference tournament Saturday.
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