While Florida State head football coach Jimbo Fisher continues to bring in some of the nation’s premier talent on the gridiron, Leonard Hamilton and the FSU men’s basketball program made a big splash earlier this week as well.
6’5″ forward Terance Mann announced his decision to play for the Seminoles on Wednesday, over local schools like Boston College and Rhode Island. Herb Sendek and Arizona State were also thought to be major players for Mann’s services.
The Tilton, New Hampshire product is a 4-star recruit and one of the nation’s top 100 high school prospects according to Rivals.
A lanky kid with athleticism and the ability to put the ball in the basket, Mann is the first prospect to commit to Florida State this offseason. The addition of Mann for the 2015-16 season comes as an enormous signing after last year’s recruiting class failed to make much of an impact.
Forward Jarquez Smith averaged just 2.4 points and 1.5 rebounds-per-contest as a freshman while the prize of last season’s recruiting class, guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes, was unable to contribute after being ruled academically ineligible. Florida State also narrowly missed out on landing star forward and the first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, Andrew Wiggins.
Though the commitment from Mann seems to be pleasant news enough, the Seminoles may not need to do much else in terms of recruiting to make the 2015 class a successful one. The lone scholarship senior on the roster for Florida State for the upcoming season is center Kiel Turpin, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA earlier this month.
With Mann already committed and a potentially senior-laden roster set to be in place for the start of the 2015-16 season, Hamilton can be very selective throughout the rest of the recruiting process. While the beginning of the season for Florida State is roughly three months away, landing a big time prospect this early should put a jolt of energy into a program that narrowly missed reaching the NCAA Tournament last season.
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