|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: HARTFORDMarch 21, 2019Leonard HamiltonTerance MannDavid NicholsMfiondu KabengeleHartford, Connecticut Florida State - 76, Vermont - 69 LEONARD HAMILTON: This game felt more like an ACC game than any game we've played outside of our conference. Nip and tuck. Team that's very focused. I thought they had a great team plan. They double- and triple-teamed our big guys inside in the first half. They were extremely well prepared. I thought they were shooting the ball well from the perimeter, but I didn't think they would make 16 threes. But that's why they call it March Madness. People going to step up and do some things that are extra in order to win games. I thought we did a much better job, I thought, defending the second half than we did the first half. I thought we got the ball inside a little more and attacked the basket and got the ball inside to Mfiondu and Christ a few times, and we were able to survive and advance. I'm not taking anyway from them. I thought Vermont was very well-prepared. I thought they did an excellent job of being patient this first half. As aggressive as we were trying to be, they only turned the ball over two times. Second half, I think they turned it over 13 or 14 times. We got more deflections and more steals and got some extra possessions and we were able to come away with a victory. I've got several guys -- I don't know what David Nichols, the extent of his injury is. Phil Cofer is he's kind of day-to-day. He doesn't have anything permanently that's keeping him from playing other than it was challenging for him to go three straight nights in the ACC tournament. We felt that he had swelling, but we had MRIs and CAT scans so we don't feel we have anything to keep him from playing other than he needs some rest. Hopefully, we'll get those kids back for the game on Saturday. Any questions? Q. Dave, when you were at Albany you had plenty of wars against those same guys wearing the green. How personal is it and how nice does it feel for you to beat them in the NCAA Tournament with FSU. DAVID NICHOLS: I mean, it's no secret. I played them seven times at Albany. I'm very familiar with them, they're familiar with me. They definitely had the upper hand in my last school, so it felt good to beat them with the help of these guys around me. This is just all credit to my teammates and coaches putting together a great game plan and going out and executing it. Q. Terance, you're back kind of in your home area here back in New England. What was that like for you to play here? I'm sure you had some fans here watching. Just how did your mentality change in the second half scoring wise? TERANCE MANN: It's amazing playing back at home especially to be doing it my senior year, my last year, kind of last run in front of everybody. So it was an amazing feeling. My mentality just changed, I didn't want to lose and go home, especially since it's my senior year. I just wanted to score the ball, keep my team involved and try to win. Q. Terance, talk about how playing in the tournament before experienced, being a senior as you mentioned, how that played into how you, you know, changed your mentality towards the end of the game. TERANCE MANN: I don't know if it had anything to do with before playing tournament games. I think that's just being older and a leader on my team, and these guys trust me to be able to do things like that. So having them and knowing they trust me, helped me do that. Q. This is for any of you gentlemen. Defensively in the second half, like were you starting to press more, you know, full court and press more using your length and athleticism? Talk about early in the game how come you didn't do that earlier. DAVID NICHOLS: I think we did pressure the ball all 40 minutes. That's what we do. They just did a great job of handling that pressure in the first half, executing our stuff. Then we had two turnovers. We forced them into 14 turnovers in the second half. That's just because we just keep coming at guys with our length and athleticism. We go deep into our bench and try to keep guys fresh, so I think that wore down on them. Q. Were you guys surprised at all in their confidence and shot-making ability especially in the first half? TERANCE MANN: Surprised, no. We knew they could shoot the ball and, you know, they did a great job of it. And it's March, so, you know, anything's going in. So they are a real good team and they can shoot the ball well. I don't think we were surprised that much by it. MFIONDU KABENGELE: Similar to Terance, going into film session and scouting them, we recognized they are a really talented team. Anytime you can win your conference, you much have a lot of talent. So the see the way they shot today to that degree, was somewhat surprising because I thought we played solid defense. But it's March, so it's understandable. Q. Talk about what Terance was able to give you in the second half there and what's it like to have a senior with that type of experience in crunch time like that? LEONARD HAMILTON: When Terance was a freshman, I dubbed him a stat-stuffer, because he affects all phases of the game. Offensively, he was getting tip-ins and put-backs and kind of a dirty work guy as a freshman. He's worked on his game. He has always had a high basketball IQ. Could defend, play multiple positions. He's one of those guys that a great, great teammate. Guys listen to him and they respect him, and he does what he's supposed to do on and off the court. So to see him -- he kind of gives us whatever we need in certain games. And the interesting thing about him, he's unselfish almost to the point that if we're winning and we have a margin that we're working on, he very seldom becomes that aggressive. But when we're behind, he takes it to another level, and this is something we've seen him do consistently night in and night out for us this year. Q. You now have 28 wins on the season, the most of any team in school history. What does that mean to you and the team as a whole? LEONARD HAMILTON: It just means that we need to go back and start preparing for the next game. That's what it means. This is part of the journey that we're on. I've been very fortunate in my career to have been on a lot of good teams. It means that we're making progress. I'm happy for our team and our staff and our school that we are trying to find a way to carve our little niche out in the hierarchy of college basketball. We're in a conference with the greatest assembly of basketball programs in the history of college basketball. So for us to be able to continue to keep advancing, we just kind of -- fitting in with the guys that we compete in night in, night out in the ACC. I feel good about it. Hopefully we can continue to keep moving forward and then we'll evaluate where we are at the end of the season. Q. Leonard, despite giving up about five or six inches, in height at almost every position, Vermont won the rebounding battle in the first half and it wasn't until the last seven, eight minutes in the game that your team was able to assert itself in that area. Why was Vermont so able to be so good on the game today? LEONARD HAMILTON: I think they're a good basketball team with talent. They box out real well, they are fundamentally sound. Sometimes in the game of basketball, size doesn't have a whole lot to do with the outcome of the games. Might help you if you're a Sumo wrestler, but in a basketball game, it's the person that's able to block out and do all the fundamental things. If you look back in the history of the NCAA, there will be a lot of teams winning games because they went out and did things correctly and put themselves in the best position to win. I think that's what Vermont did tonight. I think you have to give them credit. I thought they boxed out well. I thought they were extremely physical. They were smart. They put themselves in a position that the game could have gone either way. I thought we exercised physicality, the quality of our depth, our athleticism and strenght in the second half. Getting the ball to Mfiondu, I thought he was a little bigger, stronger, and taller. He made some plays. But we had the same guys trying to get the ball inside in the second half as we did in the first half. And they did a good job keeping us from getting to the spots on the floor we wanted to. You got to give them credit. Sometimes it's not what about what you don't do. You have to give the team the credit for doing things the right way. My hat tips off to them. Q. I know as you just mentioned you're going to be focused only on just trying to go out and get the next one. I'm wondering, you had so much success in different places. What would it mean to you to get to the Final Four as a head coach. LEONARD HAMILTON: Well, in order to get to the Final Four, you got to win the next game, and that's why I want to stay focused correctly. If I start looking too far ahead, then I won't take advantage of what I can control. And that's going back tonight and debrief from this game, try to analyze the strengths, the things that we did well, correct some of the things we didn't do well. And start preparing for -- whoever we play, it's going to be another game that if we don't play well, you could go home. So I'm trying to keep everything in proper perspective. But thank you anyway. 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
|