TAMPA, Fla. -- Charlie Ward will face the school where he won the Heisman Trophy when his Florida A&M men's basketball team opens the 2026-27 season against Florida State in a neutral-site game tonight.

The Rattlers and Seminoles tip off at 8:30 p.m. ET at Benchmark International Arena in the Orion180 Tip-Off Classic. The game will air on ESPNU. It is the teams' first regular-season meeting since 1991. 

A coach with deep ties to both programs
Ward, the 1993 Heisman Trophy winner at Florida State, begins his second season leading the Rattlers. A native of Thomasville, Georgia, and a Tallahassee fixture, he was named the 16th head coach in program history in April 2025.

At Florida State, Ward was a point guard who led the Seminoles to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1992 and the Elite Eight in 1993. He hit a game-winning shot against Louisville to help win the 1991 Metro Conference Championship, and he still holds the school's career steals record with 236. The New York Knicks selected him 26th overall in the 1994 NBA Draft, and he played a decade in the league with the Knicks, Spurs and Rockets before retiring in 2004.

After his playing career, Ward turned to coaching high school football and basketball, working as head football coach at Westbury Christian School in Houston and later at Florida High School in Tallahassee, where he led the team to its first state championship since 1963 in 2022. Both of his parents attended FAMU, and his father, Charlie Ward Sr., was a standout Rattlers football player.

What the Rattlers did last season
In Ward's first year, FAMU went 15-16 overall and 11-7 in SWAC play after being picked eighth in the league's preseason poll. The Rattlers won the ESPN HBCU Hoops Invitational in Orlando in December, beating Florida Memorial 60-58 in the championship game.

They were at their best late. FAMU won four straight regular-season games from Feb. 21 to March 5, beating Alabama State, Southern, Grambling State and Bethune-Cookman, and finished the regular season with an 81-77 home win over the Wildcats. As the No. 2 seed in the SWAC Tournament, the Rattlers beat No. 7 Jackson State 70-60 in the quarterfinals on March 11 before falling to No. 3 Southern 73-70 in the semifinals two days later at Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia.

The team was strongest at home, going 8-4 at the Al Lawson Center, and had a 5-4 record in true road games in conference play. It struggled outside the league, going 3-8 in nonconference games, with its three wins coming against Florida Memorial, Albany State and Jacksonville. FAMU played 10 games decided by five points or fewer and went 4-6 in them. The Rattlers also held opponents under 60 points five times and won all five of those games. Their highest-scoring game came in a 100-96 win over Prairie View A&M on Feb. 9.

A new look in 2026-27
This year's team is almost entirely new. Twelve of the 15 players on the roster are newcomers, including eight transfers and four freshmen. Antonio Baker Jr., a senior guard from Savannah, Georgia, and Tuscan Onuoha, a 7-foot forward from Sydney, Australia, are among the three returners.

The Rattlers have added size. Assane Mbaye, a 7-3 center from Mbour, Senegal, joins from Seton Hall, and Mihailo Stijovic, a 7-1 forward/center from Berane, Montenegro, arrives from Clarendon College. Joel Mokweza, a 6-10 freshman center from Kinshasa, D.R. Congo, and Jakub Lomicka, a 6-11 freshman forward from Prague, Czechia, add to the front line. The roster averages 6-7 in height.

The backcourt is led by newcomers, including Ralph Martino Jr., a 6-7 guard from Lanham, Maryland, who transfers from St. Francis (Pa.), and Alex Montes, a 6-5 guard from Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, who comes from Vincennes. Tampa will have a hometown pair on the floor in Daisean Williford, a 6-7 forward who transferred from Oregon State, and Chandler Davis, a 6-6 guard from Hillsborough. Freshman guard Jayden Joseph is from Miami, and freshman forward Ben Ndour, like Mbaye, hails from Mbour, Senegal. In all, six players are from outside the United States.

Ward's staff is also in its second season at FAMU. It includes associate head coach Jarrod Lazarus, assistant coaches Rob Lewis and Gene Granger, and director of basketball operations Sebastian Aguilar.

The road ahead
FAMU's 32-game regular-season schedule includes 14 nonconference games and 18 SWAC contests, with 11 home games at the Al Lawson Center. After the opener, the Rattlers host Fort Valley State on Nov. 5, then travel to UAB (Nov. 9), UTEP (Nov. 15), UTSA (Nov. 18), South Alabama (Nov. 24) and Kennesaw State (Nov. 30). They also play at Tulsa, Saint Louis and Florida, with the Dec. 21 game at Florida airing. SWAC play begins Jan. 2 at home against Bethune-Cookman, and the SWAC Tournament is March 8-13 at Gateway Center Arena in College Park.