This isn't going to be a column where I chastise Florida State fans for not believing in Leonard Hamilton. But you’d better believe I am going to make fun of some of you.

Because I'm also going to make fun of myself.

As the Seminoles get set to play in their second straight Sweet 16, I thought it would be amusing - and maybe a bit educational - to look back at where our collective heads were at a few years ago.

For starters, let's go back to the end of the 2017 season. You guys were mad about how that one ended, and I don't really blame you. Because I was the one who became a prisoner of the moment after the Xavier loss in the second round and wondered aloud (and in print) if this was the ceiling for FSU basketball under Hamilton's watch.

My thinking at the time was that he was about to lose Jonathan Isaac, Dwayne Bacon and Xavier Rathan-Mayes. And all he had to show for having all that talent was a single NCAA Tournament win. Over Florida Gulf Coast.

That team, I thought, represented his best chance to make a deep run in the Big Dance. Instead they flamed out in the first weekend.

It was a dumb column in hindsight. But I wasn't alone in that opinion, was I?

On Monday, out of sheer boredom more than anything else, I went back and searched my Twitter feed for the comments and replies that were sent to me after that loss to Xavier.

Hoo boy.

"Dude, step back and look at the big picture. Players under Hamilton always crumble against well coached teams."

"It's probably time for ... media members like Corey Clark in that Tallahassee area to call out Leonard Hamilton & FSU Hoops."

"Hamilton has got to go ..."

"One sentence and I'll say it again: Fire Hamilton ASAP!"

"Time to fire Hamilton. He is the reason for this embarrassment."

"Why is it that FSU fans predicted this? So sick of Hamilton's teams playing with no discipline. He needs to retire. Yesterday."

Keep in mind, these tweets came after the Seminoles won the second most games in program history. The year just ended with a thud.

The ones from the season before? When the freshman duo of Bacon and Beasley went through a five-game losing streak and missed the NCAA Tournament? And Hamilton was given a contract extension anyway?

Yeah, those weren't exactly pretty either.

Enjoy:

"We're used to it ... The only thing consistent with Hamilton is inconsistency and underachieving .... #hesgottago #nomorechances"

"Honestly, I've never been so upset/disappointed in my school. They sent a clear (message) that they don't care. So I'll stop watching."

"I'm going to self immolate before I ever click on a "Clark column!"

Ok, that last one was pretty funny for a different reason. But you get the idea.

Neither Hamilton nor I (for that matter) had a ton of fans following the 2016 disappointment.

And, again, I don't blame anyone for being skeptical. Or downright angry. I was skeptical myself. And I wrote as much. Multiple times. Sure, I knew Jonathan Isaac was coming, and that was going to make a difference, but would it be enough to legitimately turn the program back around again?

After making the NCAA Tournament four years in a row and winning the ACC Championship, Hamilton followed that up by missing it four straight years. Not only that, but only in one of the seasons were they even really anywhere close to a bubble. It wasn't like they were the "First Four Out" ... they weren't even on the Committee's radar.

Well, they're on everyone's radar now.

It should be a lesson to all of us. One that maybe we should apply to other sports on the Florida State campus as well.

Just because we believe something doesn't make it so. None of us truly know. We can predict. We can guess. We can write columns or tweets or message board posts, but none of us know if/when/how a coach is going to turn a program around.

When it comes to Hamilton, I certainly had no idea that he was going to alter his style of play. I had no way of knowing the culture was going to be completely transformed by two recruiting classes (the 2016 and 2017 ones).

But more than anything, I was skeptical that he would be able to steer the ship back on course again. He had been here for 15 years. He had one four-year stretch of great success followed by a four-year NCAA Tournament drought.

And this was the most amazing part to me.

It's always hard to turn any program around. But it's exponentially harder, in my opinion, to turn one around if you've been the coach for 15 years.

That's just not normal.

For one thing, when the level of expectations have been raised like they were at Florida State at the turn of the decade, it's not typical for an administration to give an extension to a head coach who has just missed the NCAA Tournament for a fourth straight year (so kudos to FSU for sticking with Hamilton).

But even more remarkable, it's not normal for the longtime head coach to seemingly reinvent his style of play, his philosophy, and get the plane out of the tailspin himself (that's my second straight transportation analogy! Can't wait to see if I can incorporate a land vehicle into this bad boy!)

Turnarounds usually come from the guy who takes over the program. Not from the guy who was there all along. That's rare.

Usually if a program is trending in the wrong direction for four years, it stays that way until a change is made. Not here. Not with this head coach.

Hamilton has been here for all of it. He stayed in the driver's seat the entire time (I knew I could do it!). Florida State stuck by him even when it was unpopular to do so.

And now he's given the fans this run, this team, this season.

I can't say I expected it. Neither can you. But it sure has been fun to watch.

Now I want to end with this: I intentionally kept the Twitter handles out of the tweets I included above because I don't think that's fair, necessarily, to out specific people for three-year-old opinions. Especially when I was writing some of the columns I wrote during that time. Stones. Glass houses. You know the deal.

Plus, I can't even imagine what the message boards were like on here following the 2016 season or that loss to Xavier. So I protected everyone's anonymity. You're welcome.

But I feel like this Twitterer deserves some credit. And it proves that some people can see into the future!

His name is Tyler, and he sent me this in February of 2016. Just one day after Florida State blew a double-digit lead at Virginia Tech for its fourth straight loss.

From @FSUReligionMan: "Firing Hamilton would be a bigger blunder than letting Bobby stay 3 years too long (yes I just said that)"

Well, technically he tweeted it. I'm not sure if he actually verbalized the words as he typed them, but you get the point! Either way, it turns out old @FSUReligionMan was 1,000 percent correct.

See! Sometimes having belief and keeping the faith really does pay off.

It certainly did in Florida State's case didn't it?

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The FSU-Gonzaga game is scheduled to tip off at 7:09 p.m. Thursday on CBS.

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