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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 5, 2012Leonard HamiltonLEONARD HAMILTON: Well, I think our players are looking forward to having an opportunity to going and participating in the ACC tournament. We finished the regular season obviously with two wins, one on the road and one at home. We obviously didn't‑‑ we finished third, like we did last year, and didn't finish as high as we would have liked to. Sometimes I didn't feel like we played as well as we're capable, but I think we're making progress with our program, and now we're going to try to take what we learned from the season, the pluses and the minuses and now try to go in and try to play better and more consistently in the ACC tournament. Q. Some debate up our neck of the woods about the importance of the ACC tournament and maybe its importance versus the regular season. From a distant perspective, how important is the tournament? Is it just the next thing and you obviously want to win it, or is this the championship of the ACC? How do you see it? LEONARD HAMILTON: I value‑‑ we value both of them. We think the regular season is just as or more important, or equally as important from that standpoint because it's an excellent measure as to where you are. But on a national basis, the team that plays well in the tournament are the teams that get the automatic bids to the NCAA tournament, so quite naturally it's extremely important. The only reason why I think that mindset would creep into the process is that so many of the teams in the ACC have played so well over the years, and they've always been qualified to go to the NCAA tournament that maybe they didn't have to worry about what they did. Maybe they gave the appearance of it not being an issue, but I think every school plays with a tremendous amount of pride. Everyone knows that it's always important to be able to stay on that ladder and cut Nets down and say that you're No.1, so I don't think that the tournament would ever be devalued or not an important factor of the whole process. Q. Do you approach it differently in years like the last few when you've been pretty sure of being in the NCAA or those years before that when you thought maybe you were on the bubble or needed to win a couple, does that change your approach at all? LEONARD HAMILTON: No, our approach has always been the same. Our approach is the same every time we play. We don't change very much at all. In other words, your preparation is always apparent because of who you're playing, but in terms of your overall approach, we don't change very much as to what we do. We try to respect everybody and try to prepare for each game, and we won't do anything different as we prepare for the tournament. Obviously this time of year, I think most coaches don't necessarily pound their kids or try to practice long hours like maybe we might‑‑ as long of hours as you would be practicing during the regular season, but no, our approach would be basically the same, and we're excited about the ACC tournament and feel like it's another opportunity to play for another championship. Q. Can you describe the all‑around kind of season that Michael Snaer has had? With him it seems to go beyond statistics. LEONARD HAMILTON: Well, I'll say this: I know all coaches might be a little bit pressing for their kids, but I don't know if there's a better defensive guard in the ACC than Michael Snaer. Maybe someone is as good that I haven't noticed because I see him all the time, but I think he's as good as we've had or that I've coached, and obviously Tony Douglas was right there in the running and Chris Singleton, and we've had a couple guys that have been close to being defensive players of the year, and I think Michael is every bit as good or better in some ways than those guys. So from a defensive standpoint, I think that he's the real deal. He gives tremendous effort every time he's on the court. He doesn't always perform as well, but I think it's not because he just doesn't give it‑‑ he plays with a fire and aggressiveness and vigor, and obviously he's our leading scorer, and he's hit big shots, and he's been fairly consistent all year long. And Michael is a high‑energy guy, a guy who defends well and takes the challenge every time we give it to him from a defensive standpoint, and obviously he's done a tremendous job contributing on the offensive end. So I think he's had one hell of a year. Obviously us not being in the mainstream of the exposure, even though I'm sure we're on TV a lot, we're never going to get‑‑ where we're located we're never going to get the same level of recognition, but that's not a complaint, that's just the nature of where we are. But I do feel that he has had a tremendous year, and he's been extremely valuable to our basketball team, and for a while there we were right in the running for the race, and we stumbled a couple times and lost to teams that played very well. But Michael Snaer in my opinion is one of the top guards in the country, I mean, in our league, and he plays with‑‑ he does it on both ends is my point I'm trying to make. Not only is he our leading scorer, but he's a tremendous defender. Q. And just to check, health‑wise your team is in pretty good shape as you head into this tournament? LEONARD HAMILTON: Well, if we were not health‑wise, I wouldn't tell anybody. Q. Talk about how the ACC tournament plays into what you guys do to prepare NCAA tournament wise and how this experience reflects into the next week. LEONARD HAMILTON: Well, to be very honest with you, we're not overly concerned about the NCAA at this particular time. Only thing we're going to do is go in and try to play as well as we can in the NCAA tournament and hopefully we can come away with a trophy. Now, I will say this: I think that maybe it would be‑‑ mentally it might be something else on our mind that we didn't think we had earned the right to go to the NCAA tournament, might be a little bit more anxiety and overly concerned. You just kind of feel that maybe you have to play your way into the NCAA tournament, and I'm sure that's a different mindset. But I'm not really sure your preparation is any different. Sometimes you worry about things you can't control, and our approach is let's just take care of business one day at a time. We're playing for the ACC tournament, and let's go in there and try to play well and see what we can do. I don't know whether or not we're going to give a whole lot of concern and conversation to the NCAA tournament. Obviously the better you play, you would think that maybe you might have an opportunity to have better seeding, but I'm not real sure I buy into the fact that the NCAA committee won't take your whole body of work into consideration a lot more than they will anything else. And I'm sure, though, that there are some teams that may be considered on that bubble, I guess, that maybe they might can play their way into the NCAA tournament. I'm sure that's happening.  But I think more than anything else, I'm not real sure that the whole body of work doesn't have as much to do with where you are as anything. Q. I was just wondering if Bernard James had gotten any response for the apology he issued. LEONARD HAMILTON: Well, obviously I think that he sent it on Friday. School is out, most people are on spring break. Not really. Not that I know of. But then here again, it was over the weekend, and today is Monday. Nobody is in the office, and if someone emails something or sends some response‑‑ I think I might have gotten a response from the ACC office in response to Bernard's letter, but we've been kind of‑‑ in terms of preparation and preparing for some other things, haven't necessarily checked a whole lot of correspondence this morning to see whether or not we've gotten any information back from anyone. I don't necessarily believe I expect to. I mean, I hadn't really thought about it that way. I don't think he did it to get a response from anyone. I think that his letter speaks for itself, but I'm not real sure we or anybody was expecting any type of response. I know I wasn't, but maybe someone might respond in some way. But that wasn't the reason for him doing the letter, I'm sure. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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