LEXINGTON, Ky. — When Missouri coach Dennis Gates began his postgame news conference at Rupp Arena last Wednesday night after the Tigers’ 73-68 win over Kentucky, he had one person on his mind.

“Had a long conversation with Leonard Hamilton last night,” Gates said of the former UK men’s basketball assistant and ex-longtime Florida State head coach. “Obviously, (you) know who he is around these parts. (He) gave me some great wisdom. Unbelievable mentor to me. This game was dedicated to him.”

Later in the news conference, Gates, a former assistant to Hamilton at FSU, made a plea for Hamilton’s induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Gates cited Hamilton’s success as a head coach at Oklahoma State, Miami and Florida State, as well as his mentorship of several high-profile, current college head coaches. Mostly, Gates emphasized the impact on college basketball from Hamilton’s role in bringing about the full racial integration of the UK men’s hoops program in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Hamilton’s suitability for inclusion in the Basketball Hall of Fame is an interesting case.

Because Hamilton was a college head coach in every season but two from 1986 through 2025, I count 28 college head men already in the Basketball Hall of Fame who can be considered his contemporaries.

Of those 28, 20 won at least one NCAA championship as a head coach, and nine have multiple national titles on their resumes.

Among the eight Hall of Fame coaches on the list of Hamilton contemporaries who did not win the NCAA championship, four took teams to the Final Four.

Over his time as head coach at Oklahoma State (1986-90), Miami (1990-2000) and FSU (2002 through 2025), Hamilton never led a team to the national semifinals.

Of the four coaches from this list who are in the Hall but never made the Division I Final Four, all four have better overall winning percentages than Hamilton’s 56.6% — Pete Carril (65.8%), John Chaney (67.1%) Lefty Driesell (66.6%) and Gene Keady (65.6%).

None of that is to suggest Hamilton does not have consequential head coaching achievements.

Taking the Miami job only five years after the Hurricanes restarted what had been a dormant program, Hamilton coached Miami to the NCAA tournament in each of what became his final three seasons. He led the Hurricanes to the 1999-2000 Big East regular-season championship.

At FSU, Hamilton coached the Seminoles to an ACC conference tourney title (2011-12) and an Atlantic Coast Conference regular season crown (2019-20).

Over a four-year period, 2017 though 2021, Florida State went to the NCAA tournament round of 16 three times, including a trip to the elite eight in 2017-18.

In 2019-20, Hamilton’s team (26-5) was a trendy Final Four pick. A global pandemic took away what would likely have been Hamilton’s best chance to reach the final weekend as a head coach.

Changed the face of UK basketball

To fully evaluate Hamilton, 77, as a Hall of Fame candidate, one must consider the ancillary contributions he made as a coach to the institution of college basketball.

His coaching tree, which includes current college head men such as Bill Self, Andy Enfield and Gates, who each worked under Hamilton as assistants, is impressive.

Then there is Hamilton’s role as a change agent in the history of one of men’s college basketball’s most-prestigious programs.

When Joe B. Hall took over as University of Kentucky men’s hoops head coach in 1972, the program to that point in its history had had three Black basketball players.

Tom Payne, a 7-foot-2 center from Louisville, averaged 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds in 1970-71. Football players Darryl Bishop and Elmore Stephens, also both from Louisville, walked onto the UK hoops team in 1971-72 and appeared in five and six games, respectively.

It was Hall’s intention to fully integrate the UK program. He hired Hamilton in 1974 to help carry out that vision.

In an interview with ESPN’s College GameDay, Hall, who died in 2022, noted that he had hired Hamilton “at a time when Kentucky had not recruited many Black athletes. Leonard broke that. He gave the players a home away from home. They felt protected playing for him. He recruited some of the best athletes in the country.”

Last Wednesday night, Gates said Hamilton “was charged with a difficult task: How do you diversify Kentucky basketball? He was able to do that at a national level with his big-time recruits, that he put Joe B. Hall, the university, on the map in a certain way.

“For that alone, he should be in the Hall of Fame. Forget his head coaching career, he should be in the Hall of Fame because at that moment, the tradition that is here, he has a big part in it.”

Hamilton’s value to UK was such that Hall eventually made him the Wildcats’ associate head coach. However, when Hall retired in 1985, Hamilton did not get an interview to be his replacement.

“There’s no doubt about it, at some point, (Hamilton) should have been the head coach at the University of Kentucky, but he wasn’t,” Gates said. “That’s OK. He started Oklahoma State. He started Miami. He did what he did at Florida State.”

How you feel about Hamilton as a candidate for the Basketball Hall of Fame likely hinges on how much importance to the overall institution of college basketball that you place on his role in the full racial integration of Kentucky men’s basketball.

It’s long past due for the University of Kentucky to recognize Hamilton’s work in helping change Wildcats basketball for the better by inducting him into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame.

Perhaps that recognition from a school that owes Leonard Hamilton much would help build momentum for his inclusion in the Basketball Hall of Fame as well.

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