College Basketball Recruiting

Florida State’s leading scorer last season Matthew Cleveland has announced that he is entering the transfer portal

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Matthew Cleveland pic

The Florida State Seminoles had a horrible 2022-23 season that got derailed early due to injuries. There was a lot of optimism surrounding the team coming into the season but that quickly changed. FSU only won nine games this season and that is the least amount of wins in a season in over 20 years. It’s the first time they have not had double-digit wins in a season since Leonard Hamilton took over in 2002-03. To make matters worse, FSU is losing players to the transfer portal.

Their top scorer per game last season, Matthew Cleveland, announced that he is entering the transfer portal after two seasons with the FSU. Cleveland joins Caleb Mills as the other Seminole who has entered the transfer portal after an extremely disappointing season.

It was possible that Cleveland was going to declare for the upcoming draft, but he decided to stay an extra year at school. Just not with Florida State.

Matthew Cleveland is moving on from Florida State and is entering the transfer portal

In two seasons with FSU, Cleveland appeared in 59 games and made 38 starts, including 30 games started and played this season. He earned 2021-22 ACC Sixth Man of the Year last season before he took the leap to be the Seminoles’ top scorer this year.

Cleveland averaged (13.8) points, (7.4) rebounds, and (1.8) assists per game this season for FSU. He came in as a five-star prospect out of high school in the 2021 recruiting class. Head coach Leonard Hamilton said he expected a lot of turnover on the roster as FSU had one of their worst seasons in program history.

Not only has Cleveland entered the transfer portal, but FSU’s Caleb Mills has done the same and he already signed with Memphis. Mills and Cleveland averaged nearly 30 points per game combined last season and that kind of production is not easy to replace. FSU needs to stay active in the transfer portal to try and land the best players possible.