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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 14, 2011

Leonard Hamilton

THE MODERATOR: We have with us now Florida State head basketball coach Leonard Hamilton. Coach, if you could, a few comments about your team and then we'll open it up for questions.
COACH HAMILTON: Obviously we've had a rash of injuries this year. Seems like we've been able to absorb them. We kind of face another situation our leading scorer Chris Singleton. I feel that we're in a pretty good position at this time from an 8-3 position in the league going down the stretch, but we realize we've going to have to make some adjustments as we move forward.
But our players seem to have good spirits. We're really impressed with the fact that Chris is going to be well taken care of and has an opportunity to heal. That's kind of where we are as a team right now.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it for questions for Coach Hamilton.

Q. Can you talk about having the week essentially off to try to readjust to figuring out how to play without Chris. How much of an advantage is that? What options do you have to replace some of the things he gave you?
COACH HAMILTON: We're not going to really replace a guy who is 6'9" with the quickness that can guard anybody one to four, one to five. We're not going to replace that. That's not an easy thing to do. That's not a concern.
We have to make some adjustments. On the offensive end I think everyone has to pick it up a little bit. I think that maybe we can absorb that a lot better than we can the physicality of what he brought to our team from a physical standpoint.
But what we have to do is be more concerned about Chris and his recovery. The most important thing for us is to understand that we can't use anything as an excuse. We still have the remainder of our season to play. His progress will be whatever his genetic makeup will allow him, the rate he'll be able to recover. That's kind of an individual thing. Some youngsters recover quicker than others. We have to ask at this point everybody to absorb a little bit of the loss. We're confident that will be enough for us to continue to play without him.

Q. Obviously losing Chris, you lost your key player. When you look around the league and Duke has played most of the season without Irving, Virginia Tech lost some guys, Virginia, Smith was out for a long time at NC State. Can you remember a year when the league was as devastated?
COACH HAMILTON: It's affected all of us. We missed Ian Miller 12, 13 games. We lost Xavier Gibson. We lost Terrance Shannon. We've had three major guys obviously affected, as well.
But you just have to make the adjustments. I think when you look around, Duke made the adjustment. Virginia Tech made the adjustment. I feel like we have to do the same thing. That's why I'm encouraged we have enough examples of teams that have been able to make the adjustment. We have to put ourselves in that same frame of mind.
To answer your question, it's been tough on the entire league this year. It seems as though each team has made the adjustments and they're moving forward.

Q. With Chris, what is the timetable?
COACH HAMILTON: Like I said earlier, everyone has a different recovery period. Everyone adjusts differently. What we're going to do is not even try to speculate on the recovery time because that's kind of in God's hands, not in ours. Everyone recovers differently.
What we have to do is be more concerned about him just getting completely healed so he can move on with his career. If it's this year, fine. If it's not, then we have to make the adjustment. The most important thing is his well-being and welfare.
Now we have to look at it from our standpoint as a team. We just got to move on with the idea that we don't have him and not allow ourselves to be looking over our shoulders, looking for when he's going to recover.
What we have to do is take who we have, what we have on our team, make the necessary adjustments, and prepare ourselves for this stretch run. The games we have are even more meaningful now here down the stretch. We feel like we're in a good position. Now we have to go out and take advantage of these opportunities and make them successful for us.

Q. Obviously he helped you in so many different ways. Could maybe the biggest void be how he helped your defense so much?
COACH HAMILTON: There's no doubt it's hard to replace that part of it. But we have to. As difficult as it might be, we have to find a way. I'm comfortable that our players will step up. We as a staff will reevaluate, make whatever adjustments we need to and move on. We'll keep Chris in our prayers and hope he recovers in time for him to be completely healed, which I don't see any problem in doing from that standpoint.

Q. Will you have to attack teams a different way, defend teams a different way?
COACH HAMILTON: I'm not real sure we're going to make a whole lot of adjustments in our style of play. I'm not real sure that will be in anybody's best interest. I mean, sometimes you have guys turn ankles, you have guys who get in foul trouble. I'm not real sure that we're going to change what we do. I'm not real sure we could be that effective if we did.
We're going to make some specific adjustments, but I'm not sure we're going to change much. We'll make the necessary adjustments to tweak what we have to do to be successful.

Q. One player has stepped up offensively the last couple games, Michael Snaer. What do you like about the way he's playing right now?
COACH HAMILTON: Michael is a gym rat. He's an awful hard worker. He puts more time in the gym than probably anybody we have before and after practice. It's just a matter of time. I knew it would just be a matter of time that his whole game would start coming together with his experience. He is playing with a lot more confidence. He has a better understanding of how we need to play within the system that we have in place. I think he's just becoming more comfortable, more relaxed in executing our system.
Now that he's more confident, I think he's more relaxed. He's finishing his plays better, hitting his free throws, making better decisions.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about the play of Okaro White?
COACH HAMILTON: Okaro was pressed into the starting lineup because Terrance Shannon had surgery. He's responded very well. He was playing very solid in his role coming off the bench. He's a versatile youngster. He has a variety of skills, but he's still kind of learning on the job here.
He has really responded and been solid for us each and every game. Like most freshmen, I think sometimes they get surprised by some things that they experience. But for the most part he's getting better with each game.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for taking time being with us today.

End of FastScripts

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