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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 14, 2013Leonard HamiltonLEONARD HAMILTON: Well, we had a very disappointing loss against a very determined University of North Carolina basketball team on Saturday. I thought they just played with a little bit more intensity. They executed a little better than we did. The game was in doubt right down to the last four or five minutes, and they had‑‑ they got a lot of 50/50 hustle plays that we just didn't come away with, and our execution wasn't nearly in the first half what we hoped it would be, and we got dominated on the boards, which was something that we had worked on all week. North Carolina played so much better than we did on Saturday, and hopefully we'll learn from it and be a little bit better prepared as we move on through the remainder of the ACC race. Q. Is it disappointing to open the ACC with two road wins and then come home and not be able to extend it? LEONARD HAMILTON: Well, you have to give Carolina‑‑ Carolina is a very good basketball team. They played exceptionally well. They deserved the victory because they played better than us. You want to win all your home games, but in reality that's probably not going to happen, and they deserved the victory. So it's not as much about how poorly we played as much as how well they played. You've got to give them credit for that. But I think that we‑‑ with our team, we just have not grasped the fact that every ACC game is basically in doubt with five or six minutes to go, and what happens is that every possession the entire game is very, very important. So you have to be executing on offense, executing on defense, because when you have bad possessions, they come back to haunt you in closely fought games, and that's what happened in this game. I was disappointed we lost; yes, I am. But we are a team that's learning and growing. We've been a little inconsistent all year. But I think we'll learn from this game, and I think we'll be better prepared as we move into the other games. We'll have a good film session and we'll look at our shortcomings and look at the positive things that Carolina did and maybe learn some things that Carolina did that made it difficult for us and maybe improve in some of the areas where we need to improve. Q. I might be wrong, but can you talk about Okaro White? It seems like he's picked up his game lately. LEONARD HAMILTON: Well, I think Okaro, along with Michael, is trying to give us good leadership. Sometimes it's hard to lead when you're trying to lead seven first‑year players. We've had a difficult time everybody always being on the same page. It seems to build each possession. One guy is sometimes a little out of sorts. But Okaro is giving us some more hustle baskets, he's improved his perimeter game, so he's becoming more and more of a stretch 4 type player, and he seems to be becoming up big for us when we really need him. I think he is stepping his game up, but we need that. We don't have very many veterans on our team or guys who are healthy from that standpoint. We need him to lead by example, as well, off the court. Q. One of your veterans is Ian Miller. I know he was hobbled a little while. I'm sure your Florida guys know this, but for those of us up here, what's his physical condition? Is he all the way back? LEONARD HAMILTON: No, he is not. Ian didn't practice at all this week, maybe 10 to 15 minutes each practice. We set him down for about two or three weeks to let the inflammation get out of the‑‑ the little bruise that he had on his foot, and then he went out and practiced and somebody stepped back on‑‑ he got stepped on by one of his teammates in a practice, so it inflamed it again. It's not a fracture, not a stress reaction, but he's irritated as he was getting healthy and free from pain. He got stepped on, so he hasn't been able to practice. He's only been able to warm up here and there, get some shots up here and there, and then he's been a little out of rhythm when he's going into some of the games. Hopefully we just can manage it and it'll be a little better. Hopefully the time, we're going to try to rest him as much as we can this week and hopefully he'll be a little more prepared and more active toward the end of the week as we prepare for Virginia. Q. How important is Joe Harris to what they try to do offensively? He seems to be their big firepower guy. LEONARD HAMILTON: Well, Joe is a tremendous factor because their inside guys, Atkins, they seem to be improving and playing better. Now, if Joe will stress the defense on his side of the floor, you can't ever leave him, which gives them opportunities to drive and attack the basket inside because you cannot leave him, because if you do, he's like money. He knocks it down every time you leave him open. We've had a very difficult time with him the last couple years. We've played him well for sometimes 30 minutes of the game and then the last 10 minutes if you just give him two or three looks, he's ready to make you pay. He's one of the more accurate shooters. He's a smart, heady player. He never seems to stop. He moves well without the basketball, and if you give him a good look, more than likely he's going to knock it down. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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