- FSU men's basketball road trips are coordinated months ahead of time by people behind the scenes of the team.
- Get more insight into FSU men's basketball by watching Inside Seminole Basketball every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. on ABC27.
- Watch now to hear from FSU MBB's director of basketball operations and equipment manager describe how much goes into planning team road trips.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Teamwork is just as important off the court as on it.
I'm your College Town neighborhood reporter Alberto Camargo, outside of Glory Days in Northeast Tallahassee.
Inside Seminole Basketball starts here at seven.
This week I went behind the scenes of FSU men's basketball to find out team trips are handled, well before the games tip-off.
Fresh off a road trip, the Noles have a month until their next long trip, the ACC tournament.
It's still a month away, but director of basketball operations Jarrod Lazarus has been planning the trip for nearly a year.
"The ACC tournament planning started almost ten months ago."
He says coordinating travel logistics during tournament time is the most challenging part of his job every season.
"You have your head coach, associate head coach, assistants, trainers, academics, equipment, GAs, managers. Now you're factoring in the Golden Girls, band and cheer, administration as well."
Lazarus says these traveling parties can be over 50 people and cost close to 150 thousand dollars for travel, hotels and meals.
Even their favorite snacks.
"Coach Hamilton loves orange Powerade and chocolate chip cookies. Got to have them."
And once the Seminoles step on the court, that's where equipment manager Erick Casto comes in.
He oversees all basketball gear and accessories.
The exact number of pieces of clothing under his watch is anyone's guess.
"Not even going to try to guess. Too many, way too many."
Doing his job takes a lot of attention to detail to make sure everyone has what they need.
"There's 20 guys, so 20 uniforms. 20 game pants. 20 shooting shirts. Each player can take their game shoes and a backup pair of shoes."
With the team taking up to four different uniforms for tournaments...
The math might make you dizzy.
But Casto has seen it all in his 17 years at FSU, from custom-made size 20 shoes... to 6XL shorts.
"Pretty much anything that has the Nike swoosh on it, I'm in charge of."
Casto and Lazarus, two of the most important gears that make the FSU men's basketball engine run.
If you missed this week's edition of Inside Seminole Basketball, don't worry, it'll be back every Wednesday evening through the end of the season, right here on ABC27.
In Northeast Tallahassee, I'm Alberto Camargo.
