TALLAHASSEE – Alier Maluk’s basketball journey is just beginning.

With one season of college basketball under his belt, Maluk announced on April 7 that he wanted to be a cornerstone of what new Seminole head coach Luke Loucks is building at Florida State. With a social media post that proclaimed that he was ‘Here To Stay,’ the rising sophomore pledged his allegiance to the new coaching staff and immediately became one of the faces of Seminole basketball.

“Alier has an incredible upside—both as a basketball player and as a Seminole,” said Loucks. “His maturity really began to shine during his freshman season, and it’s clear he has all the tools to become something special. He’s a high-level athlete with a strong feel for the game, and he’s fully committed to developing into a complete player.”

Maluk quickly became an integral part of Florida State’s success as a freshman as he played in 31 games and averaged nearly 11 minutes played per game. His role expanded once conference play began as he worked to gain increases in many of his statistical categories.

His most noticeable increase came in his games and minutes played during Florida State’s ACC schedule.

Maluk played in all 20 of the Seminoles’ ACC games during the regular season with starting assignments coming at Duke and at Virginia late in the season. He earned 14 minutes of playing time in his first career start against the Blue Devils and totaled 21 minutes of playing time and scored his season-high of eight points against the Cavaliers.

“The main thing I learned during my freshman season was that I had to beat adversity,” said Maluk. “I had to learn how to play in college, I had to learn how to play through the ups and downs of the season, and I had to learn how to become a better basketball player.”

Maluk showed that he belonged on the basketball court from the first tip-off of the season. He scored five points, pulled down three rebounds and blocked one shot in his career debut against Northern Kentucky.

He proved to be a consistent scorer throughout the season as he totaled at least five points scored in seven different games.

Maluk totaled five points in his first ACC game against Louisville, pulled down five rebounds in the Seminoles’ home win over Miami, and blocked two shots in Florida State’s regular season win over Syracuse at the Donald L. Tucker Center. During a game stretch in late February, he scored six points at Louisville, seven against North Carolina, and eight against Virginia.

Throughout the season, Maluk proved to be one of the Seminoles’ best, and most consistent, field goal shooters. During his stretch of games against Louisville, Duke, and Virginia late in the season, he shot 90 percent from the field as he made nine of his 10 field goal attempts.

Maluk shot better than 55 percent from the field during his freshman season. He was even more on target from the field in ACC games as he shot a near-team high .639 percent from the field against conference opponents.

While he had played at an extremely high level in high school at Long Island (N.Y.) Lutheran, Maluk quickly realized that playing in the ACC at Florida State put demands on his body that he would have to improve upon for his basketball journey to continue on the upward trajectory he is hoping for.

“I’m going to work on my body and conditioning because I’ll have a bigger role to play next season,” said Maluk.

With that in mind, Loucks and his coaching staff have already begun to work with Maluk on adding 10-15 pounds of muscle mass to his already strong frame in order to allow him to become one of the top post players in the ACC during his career.

“In order to increase my agility and athleticism around the basket, I have to change my body,” said Maluk. “I want to add weight to be stronger in the post, while becoming quicker and more agile so I can utilize my athleticism to out-athlete my opponent. Coach Loucks and his staff have put together a great plan to help me accomplish those goals.

Maluk has also made it a priority to become a great teammate.

“I want to be the best person I can be on and off the court,” said Maluk. “I want to be a great communicator with my teammates and our coaching staff. I’m going to work with my teammates to be great communicators because I know if we become winning communicators we become a winning team.”

During his first semester on campus, he helped the Seminole basketball team achieve a cumulative grade point average of 3.059.

“The easiest part of my transition to becoming a student-athlete at Florida State has been academically,” said Maluk. “The toughest part of the transition would be practices after traveling to and from games. The academic counselors are great; they provide all the help we need to be successful in the classroom.”

Maluk earned a 3.0 grade point average in his first semester with his first collegiate grade of A in his Public Administration and Society class, and was named to the All-ACC Academic men’s basketball team as a freshman. He has chosen communications as his major.

“The fact that he reclassified and joined Florida State a year early only adds to how high his ceiling is,” said Loucks. “We’re excited to start working with Alier because his drive to improve and his potential for growth are off the charts.”