FSU lands Houston transfer Caleb Mills

It's official. The preseason AAC player of the year will be a Seminole.

Former Houston guard Caleb Mills announced his intentions to transfer from Houston roughly a week ago to Florida State on Tuesday night, he told Rivals.com’s Jamie Shaw. The transfer news allows FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton to add a battle-tested star to his roster and gives Mills, a North Carolina native, the opportunity to get closer to home.

In the mind of the former four-star prospect, the decision was not only symbiotic, it was a no-brainer.

"It was an opportunity to play a lot of games closer to home,” Mills said of his decision on Tuesday. “They play a lot of games within driving distance from my house, My parents really haven’t been able to see me play much.”

But it was more than FSU’s North Florida location that sealed the deal. Mills sees the Seminoles’ style of play as a fit for his game and admires the program’s history of producing pros, It all added up to a quick commitment for a player that had plenty of options following his decision to transfer.

“Coach Hamilton wants me to come in and showcase my entire game,” Mills said. “[He wants me] have the ball in my hands and do what I do.

“They’ve had guys like me recently go to the league, and that played a factor in choosing FSU”

Mills, who averaged 13.2 points per game as a redshirt freshman at Houston in 2019, has played in just four games this season. He says he intends to enroll at FSU immediately.

WHAT FSU IS GETTING: “Mills is a high-level scorer. It’s that simple. You open up Synergy and you can see his ability to fill up the scorebook at every level. He has good length and is completely fearless, wanting the ball in the big spots. Florida State is getting another guard who can make a play with the ball in his hands. He should pair well with Scottie Barnes and MJ Waker.” --Rivals.com analyst Jamie Shaw