At some point this season, the Florida State men’s basketball team is going to have a repeat leading scorer.
Four games into the season, though, it hasn’t happened.
Freshman point guard Cam Miles was the
fourth different Seminole to lead the team in scoring in Tuesday’ 87-73 win over UT Martin, surging down the stretch with 15 second-half point to lead the way with 17.
He joins Chauncey Wiggins (22 points vs. Alcorn State), Lajae Jones (20 points vs. Alabama State) and Robert McCray V (29 points at Florida) as FSU’s leading scorers this season entering Friday’s home game vs. Georgia Southern (6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra).
“It’s going to be hard to guard us because everybody on our team can score at any time,” Miles said after the UT Martin game. “It’s going to be hard to defend us.”
It’s a staggering difference from last year’s team, where Jamir Watkins was the leading scorer in 20 of 32 games and Malique Ewin was in six more games.
There’s no doubt that if Luke Loucks had possessed a little more money to assemble his first roster this past offseason, he may have gone after a big-fish transfer, the type of player the Seminoles would be counting on for 18-plus points a game.
But with that not really an option, he seems to have done a really good job assembling a balanced roster where it really can be anyone’s night.
“It’s 1,000% by design,” Loucks said after the Alabama State game about the roster construction. “I think our group of seniors are the backbone of the team, but we’ve got some younger guys with a lot of talent. You look at Martin (Somerville), Thomas Bassong, Cam Miles, these kids are good. They’re talented and the most impressive thing is they’re confident for young guys.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if every single game we had a different leading scorer because of the way we can shoot it and because of the way we attack and because of the way the ball moves. I would not at all be surprised if next game it’s someone different and the game after that, it’s someone different.”
Some of this need for depth can definitely be attributed to the frenetic style at both ends of the court that Loucks has installed within the program. No player has the stamina to regularly play 40 minutes given the tempo the Seminoles are playing at.
But Loucks also knows first-hand from his time as an NBA assistant the challenges that are presented by teams with so many scoring options.
Superstar players are great, but deeper teams not as reliant on one or two guys present some other challenges that Loucks believes could help his team as the season progresses.
“I know from experience these are the teams that are toughest to scout against,” Loucks said. “When you have one main guy that you’ve just got to shut down and if you do that, you’re going to win, I’m not saying those games are easy because those kids are usually really talented, but it’s an easier gameplan. When you have five, six, seven guys on any given night that can lead you in scoring, that’s a tough scout.”
