By Brent Kallestad
Associated PressTALLAHASSEE, Fla. ó Florida State’s Toney Douglas didn’t like hot weather or getting roughed up by his older brother when growing up in suburban Atlanta, so he decided to play indoors.
The older sibling, Harry Douglas, went on to star in football at Louisville and is now with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
Toney Douglas, who is 18 months younger, gave up football after his freshman year of high school and a promising baseball career for his first passion: Basketball.
“I like a lot of action,” Douglas said during a rubdown in the Florida State training room. “That’s why I fell in love with it.”
Douglas is feared by opponents and coaches as he leads the 22nd-ranked Seminoles into an ACC Tournament quarterfinal Friday against the winner of the Clemson-Georgia Tech game.
Tuesday, he was named the league’s defensive player of the year after earning 53 of 76 votes from Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association members.
“A total player,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who described the Seminole senior as one of the top ACC players in recent years.
“He impacts every possession of every game. He has an impact on every play in the game because he defends the ball better than anybody. And he can handle it and shoot it.”
Especially in the second half.
Douglas has averaged 15.2 points in ACC play during the final 20 minutes of each game, even scorching North Carolina for 25 points in the last half.
Douglas led the league in scoring in conference games ó averaging 23.1 points and posting 20 or more points in 13 of 16 ACC contests.
“He lets the game come to him, and then he takes over,” said Clemson coach Oliver Purnell, who watched Douglas lead the Seminoles to a pair of regular-season wins over his Tigers.
In Tallahassee they call it TDT: Toney Douglas Time.
It’s something Douglas has worked on since he was 3 years old, competing to keep up with his big brother.
“Harry always used to run into the house and say, ‘I beat Toney 130-40,’ ” the boys’ dad, Harry Douglas Sr., said. “Toney would run into the house right behind him crying and say, ‘Dad, Harry’s cheating.’ I’d say, ‘Toney, he’s just trying to make you better.’ ”
Toney Douglas still recalls the first time he beat Harry in a best-of-five backyard game of 21.
“I was like 10, and Harry begged me not run into the house to tell mom and dad,” Douglas said.
Douglas’ parents always had the boys on the same teams, pitting Toney against other kids at least 2 years older.
Douglas, who is halfway through a masters degree program in sports management, came back to Florida State as one of just two returning starters on a team otherwise comprised of a half dozen new players, including five freshmen.
Douglas envied Harry’s experience of playing in four bowl games during his Louisville career and told his dad that he hoped to share that feeling.
“He’d never been to the NCAA tournament,” Douglas’ dad said. “He said, ‘Dad, I want to take this team to the tournament.’ ”
With Florida State at 23-8 overall and 10-6 in the ACC, there’s little doubt that Douglas achieved his goal.
He’s the lone player to average double figures on an inexperienced team feeling its way through the first year of the ACC schedule and a difficult nonconference slate that included Pittsburgh, Florida, Cincinnati, California, Northwestern and Western Kentucky.
“Toney basically had to shoulder the responsibility of being a leader, mentally and emotionally, on and off the court,” said Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, who will be making his first NCAA appearance in seven years at the school. “He did all the things you like to see a leader do.”
Hamilton said Douglas is the best defensive guard he’s ever coached over his four decades in the business, and that includes a dozen seasons as an assistant at Kentucky.
Douglas left Auburn following the 2004-05 season after a sterling freshman year there, but he wanted to play point guard and Hamilton was amenable to giving him a shot.
He’s scored 1,545 points in three seasons for the Seminoles and needs 61 more to move past Doug Edwards, who also played just three seasons, as the fifth leading scorer in school history.
Douglas has scored 2,074 points in his collegiate career counting his freshman year at Auburn, andhe is closing in on becoming the second player in Florida State history to get 700 points in a season.
The late Jim Oler accomplished the feat 53 years ago. Douglas has 645 points with at least two games left to play beginning with Friday’s ACC contest and a first-round NCAA game.
The new stable of teammates now have some 30 games under their belts and are in sync with Douglas.
“It was a struggle at times just to get better with so many young players,” Douglas said. “I know they’ll go how I go.”
It’s turning out to be Hamilton’s finest season at Florida State and the Seminoles’ best in 16 years.