The homesickness was a familiar feeling. After all, Isaiah Swann had bounced around plenty during high school.
So even though the Gaithersburg native took a quick liking to Tallahassee during his freshman year at Florida State, he still wasn’t sure it was the place for him.
“I was like, ‘I miss my people at home.’ I was getting homesick here and there, but I fought through it, and I knew that everything was going to be alright,” said Swann, a junior shooting guard. “I wanted to build something. I didn’t want to be a part of something that already was.”
Swann made his mark in only two years at Magruder High, where he led the Colonels to an undefeated season and Maryland state championship as a freshman. He also helped them earn a regional title as a sophomore, but grades and negative influences outside of school led to stops at both Oak Hill Academy and Hargrave Military Academy before college.
“The biggest thing that I’ve taken with me everywhere [from Magruder] was being unselfish and being selfless as a player,” Said Swann. “When we went 27-0, the biggest thing was the chemistry that we had on our team and everybody played to each other.”
To find that family feeling in Tallahassee, Swann stays close with Maryland transplants: friends at nearby Florida A&M and on the Tallahassee Community College basketball team like Jermaine Dixon (Blake High), younger brother of former Maryland star Juan Dixon.
The Seminoles, who advanced to the second round of the NIT last season, seemed poised for an NCAA Tournament bid just three weeks ago after a three-game winning streak with victories at home against Maryland and the program’s first-ever win over Duke. But Florida State has since lost four straight.
“We do not have a defeatist attitude,” said Seminoles head coach Leonard Hamilton. “We’re extremely positive. We have confidence, and we realize now that our backs are totally against the wall, and we gotta get busy and win games.”
Swann (9.5 ppg, 3.2 apg) has missed just one start in his career. He’s coming off career-highs in points (23), free throws (seven) and minutes (36) two games ago against Georgia Tech. He knows how important a win would be in College Park.
“Man, I cannot wait, you just don’t understand,” he said. “I highlighted it when the schedule came out. Now my mouth is starting to water. I don’t know what else to say.”
Florida St. (17-10, 5-8 ACC) at Maryland (20-7, 6-6)
» When: Tonight, 9
» Where: Comcast Center
» TV: WDCA-20
