|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 6, 2012Leonard HamiltonMIKE FINN: We're now joined by Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton. Coach, just a brief opening statement, then we'll go to questions. COACH HAMILTON: We played an excellent University of Virginia basketball team on Saturday that was very well‑prepared. They played a very good brand of basketball. One of the toughest games we've had all year. The two teams really fought hard and defended each other hard. The game could have gone either way. We were fortunate being down one late in the game, we were able to make a couple baskets and be able to get ahead and maintain, fortunate to pull away with a victory. They outscored us 12‑0 on a good run by them. Once again, we were ready to prevail and found a way to pull the game out in the end. MIKE FINN: Questions for Coach Hamilton. Q. Bernard James, can you talk about the maturity and presence he brings to the team after serving in Iraq. COACH HAMILTON: Well, I've been asked so many questions about maturity, serving in Iraq, and basketball. I think some of it is altogether different. The most important thing is Bernard is a young man who is learning the game of basketball. The game of basketball is new to him. He's not very experienced from a basketball standpoint, but he's experienced in life, which gives him a certain level of maturity where he listens, he's coachable, he follows directions. He has a keen sense of humility and where he is, what he wants to accomplish, which makes him an outstanding young man, a great teammate, a great guy to coach. Iraq and the military part I'm not really sure has very much to do on the basketball court other than the fact that he's matured to the point where he understands that he gives his best all the time. He takes it very seriously. He wants to get his degree and improve his quality of life. He's using his opportunity to play basketball as such, wanting to have some opportunities when basketball and college is over. Q. Obviously he's still learning. How high do you think the ceiling is for him? COACH HAMILTON: Well, obviously he's just learning and growing. He has a young body as it relates to basketball. His legs haven't been beat up. He hasn't played on the cement in AAU ball. He has an athletic body. I think his best basketball is ahead of him. Q. The rule that lets graduate students transfer and have immediate eligibility, I'm curious for your thoughts pro and con on that rule and how you've seen it work. COACH HAMILTON: Well, even though we have one on our team, you know, I've got mixed emotions about the rule. I think if a guy is interested in getting his master's degree in an area where they don't have it at that particular school, I think that's a pretty strong justification for a guy doing that. So I'm all for whatever's in the best interest of the young man. It is a little awkward when you invest that much time and effort into a youngster and then when he's at his best you lose him. Like I said, I have some mixed emotion about it. If I'm going to err, I want to err on making the decision in what is in the best interest of the young man without hurting the program. That's something that maybe needs a little bit more discussion. The coaches, somehow or another, in some respects there are so many different committees that meet, so many different surveys they take, sometimes I'm not really clear how we come to some of the conclusions that we really do. Q. Do you have thoughts about ways to make this process fair or better? COACH HAMILTON: No. I think it's something that you just don't take off the cuff quick answers to. I think some of these things you have to think about, the pros and the cons, looking at it, studying it, making a wise decision. I think sometimes you make comments off the cuff without looking at all the different circumstances around, some of the different scenarios that have been on the table. I'd want to make an informed decision. Right now I'm not real sure I totally understand what's all involved with all the different situations that allow us to come up with the conclusion that we actually use in there. Q. Some coaches are concerned about it being like a free agency situation. COACH HAMILTON: Like I said, different coaches maybe have given a lot more thought than what I have. I think sometimes you got to be careful not to just start answering some of y'all's questions without giving it any thought. I think it would be unfair for me to be quoted. I'm sure there's some different scenarios and circumstances that have gone into us making the decision, whoever made the decision, that we did. So I'd want to know all the information before I voiced my opinion on it. Q. Now that you've faced Virginia and Mike Scott, I wonder what your impressions were of him. COACH HAMILTON: I think he's a youngster that's virtually unstoppable. If you give him the ball in certain areas, he's not going to miss. He's a hard guy to defend. He's agile. He's quick. He's explosive. He's very strong. He's smart. He's more than capable of beating you by his‑self. We defended each other so well the other day, I'm not real sure that's a real good indication of anybody. He scored in the first half, didn't score much in the second half. He defended Michael Snaer so well, he was our leading scorer. I think we defended each other very well. In all the films that I've watched, there's no doubt that Scott is a guy who's very capable of hurting you unless you give him an unbelievable amount of attention. One of the reasons why some of the other players were able to get some of the easy opportunities they had was because we had to give Mike so much attention when we played them on Saturday. Q. It seems that maybe what makes him a little different from some of the other big men in the league is that he's got that 15‑footer that he can step out and take about anytime. That's really hard to defend. COACH HAMILTON: It's extremely hard to defend. Most guys post up trying to make layups. He's posting up, knocking down 15‑, 16‑footers. He's a handful, there's no doubt about. MIKE FINN: Coach, thanks for being with us. Good luck this week. We'll talk to you next Monday. COACH HAMILTON: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|