Florida State men's basketball announces hiring of new assistant, two new transfers
Josh Nickelberry and Jamir Watkins have been added to the Florida State Men’s Basketball roster by Head Coach Leonard Hamilton. Both Nickelberry (La Salle University) and Watkins (Virginia Commonwealth) will join the Seminoles for the upcoming 2024 season as transfers and both as proven scorers, shooters and leaders who are expected to play important roles at Florida State.
Nickelberry (6-4, 205) was named the Sixth Man of the Year in the Atlantic 10 as he averaged 10.9 and 2.7 rebounds while shooting .401 from the 3-point line during the 2022-23 season. He made a team-leading 79 3-point shots and shot a team-leading .803 from the free throw line in earning Philadelphia Big 5 honors.
The fourth-year guard finished tied for fourth in the Atlantic 10 in 3-point field goals made (79), sixth in the conference in 3-pointers made per game (2.3), and seventh in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (.401).
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Nickelberry (Fayetteville, N.C.) will play his fifth collegiate season in 2022-23 after playing two seasons at Louisville (2020 and 2021) and two at La Salle (2022 and 2023). He enters his final collegiate season having played in 87 career games with 40 starts. He averaged in double-figure scoring in both of his two seasons at La Salle. Nickelberry will play as a graduate transfer at Florida State as he is set to earn his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from La Salle in May.
“Josh is a very fundamentally sound player who has proven himself to be an outstanding shooter during his collegiate career,” said Hamilton. “He is experienced, has played in a ton of high-intensity games during his career, and is a great addition to our roster. The experience Josh has gained, and the style of basketball he has played throughout his career makes us a better team immediately.”
Watkins (6-7, 201) helped lead VCU to the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and to the NIT in 2022. He scored eight points and earned four rebounds in the Rams’ victory over ACC Regular Season Co-Champion Pitt (November 17, 2022), scored 13 points in a win over Vanderbilt (November 30, 2022) and totaled a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds at Memphis (November 20, 2022).
Watkins (Trenton, N.J.) was VCU’s fourth-leading scorer with his 9.5 points per game scoring average this past season. He made 36 3-point shots as a sophomore and made 58 long-range shots in his two seasons at VCU.
“Jamir will play in his fourth season as a collegiate student-athlete beginning this fall,” said Hamilton. “He was highly recruited out of high school and played in 61 games while he was a VCU. Jamir is going to help us because he is an athletic wing, can shoot the basketball and wants to play defense. He averages more than one steal a game for his career and blocked 23 shots this past season.”
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Kevin Nickelberry Named Assistant Coach
Kevin Nickelberry, a veteran coach of more than 30 years in the ACC, SEC and Big East, has been named an assistant coach at Florida State by Seminole Head Coach Leonard Hamilton. Nickelberry has coaching experience as both a head coach and as an assistant coach at the highest levels of college basketball, with nearly 200 career wins and appearances in both the NCAA and CBI Tournaments as a head coach. Nickelberry has been a part of seven programs that have made postseason appearances.
Nickelberry comes to Florida State following one season as the Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Georgetown in the Big East. He helped Georgetown gain the No. 2 ranked Transfer Portal recruiting class in the nation in 2022.
Prior to his year with the Hoyas, Nickelberry spent three seasons helping build LSU into an NCAA Tournament team. In his three years with the Tigers, LSU advanced to the 2021 and 2022 NCAA Tournaments (2020 was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic) and achieved 20 wins in two of his three years.
Nickelberry’s ability to assess talent contributed to the Tigers bringing in top-10 recruiting classes in each of his three years in Baton Rouge. The Tigers’ 2020 recruiting class was ranked No. 5 nationally in 2020, No. 6 in the nation in 2021 and No. 9 in the nation in 2022.
“Kevin Nickelberry brings the entire coaching package to our staff,” said Hamilton. “He’s been successful as a head coach, an assistant coach, and an administrator. He’s a proven winner at the highest levels of college basketball. Because of his experience as a head coach and a recruiter on so many levels, he has such a vast knowledge of how to find and coach players who will fit our system. Simply put, his resume speaks for itself.”
Nickelberry has been named as one of the nation’s top assistant coaches in the nation numerous times by both Basketball Times, Hoop Scoop and Rivals. He has been recognized throughout his career as one of the top-20 assistant coaches in the nation, including in each of the last two seasons by ABIS (Advancement of Blacks in Sports).
His 2019 Howard squad became the first team at the school since 1992 to advance to postseason play, earning a spot in the College Basketball Invitational tournament. His teams at Howard recorded GPAs of at least 3.0 in eight of his seasons as the Bison’s Head Coach.
“I’m truly blessed to be at Florida State with Coach Hamilton and in the ACC,” said Nickelberry. “As a Washington, D.C. native, I grew up in the shadows of Cole Field House at the University of Maryland. The ACC is the best college basketball conference in the country. The opportunity to work at one of the top programs in the ACC is something I have dreamed about throughout my coaching career.”
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Seminoles announce Josh Nickelberry, Jamir Watkins & Kevin Nickelberry
