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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: HARTFORD

March 22, 2019

Leonard Hamilton

Hartford, Connecticut

Q. Coach, in watching tape on Murray State and particularly on Ja, what did you notice different -- have you had a chance to see any of them play last year and did you notice big differences in the team and Ja?
LEONARD HAMILTON: What I notice is he's one of the most exceptional players that I've had a chance to watch play. He's kind of a throwback to guys who have the ability to score points. But also has the passion and the excitement about creating opportunities for his teammates, guys like a Nate Archibald who can lead the NBA in scoring and lead in assists at the same time. A guy like Magic Johnson, who got so much joy making the game easy for his teammates. Even a player like Muggsy Bogues, who has an uncanny way of making things easy for his opponents.

My opinion is you have to be careful because he's not winning the games by himself. He's surrounding himself with good players who feed off of who he is and what he is about as a player. And I'm excited for him and for their team, because I enjoy watching guys play with such an unselfish spirit, that they actually get excited about it. You can just see the gleam and the joy in his eye. It motivates him.

Like some guys, they play harder and with more intensity when they make shots. Whenever he completes a pass and makes an assist, you can just see him glowing. That's an unusual player and you don't get a chance to play against people like that. And I have tremendous amount of respect for him.

Still at the end of the day, it's going to be Florida State against Murray State. It's not going to be one particular player against -- a player who probably is going to be very difficult to keep from doing what he does best because he's such a highly skilled, physical-skilled and mentally and emotionally savvy youngster. So we're pretty much going to be who we are. And I think the team that's going to be successful is the team that comes as close as they can to playing up to their potential. We have a defensive scheme and an offensive schemes. They have offensive schemes; they have defensive schemes.

I'm sure they're trying to minimize ours and play to their strengths and we plan to do the same thing. I think the team that's going to be successful is the team that comes closest to being who they are to the best of their abilities. I hope that answers your question.

Q. Leonard, what was it like to find out about Phil's father, and then how do you as his coach approach that and be with him and support him? I imagine it was a very incredible difficult night.
LEONARD HAMILTON: Of course, it was. Mike Cofer, Phil's father, was one of the most competitive human beings that has ever played in the NFL. Tremendous amount of character, loved and respected by everyone. Not only the guys who played with him, teammates, but anybody who's ever been around him after his playing career was over. He is a guy who had to endure an unbelievably challenging debilitating disease that mentally and emotionally was draining in itself, but the physical toll it took on his body is beyond anything that you possibly could explain. And he never complained. He always faced it every day with the heart of a lion, with tremendous amount of courage, and he passed that same mental and emotional aspect over to his son, Phil.

He always challenged Phil, and he always encouraged him to play with the heart of a lion, and without making any excuses for anything at all. And Phil's attitude has been as good as anyone that I've ever coached in my whole coaching career. He's always positive. He's always energetic. He's a fun guy to be around, a great teammate. He's a guy that uplifted other guys on the team when they were down. He's had to deal with a lot of injuries himself during his coaching career.

Yeah, it was very difficult for him and his teammates, and we spent a lot of time last night dealing with it in our own way. Our heart goes out to the Cofer family. They have been unbelievable Seminoles. We'll be there for Phil in every way possible. We have a culture of our basketball team, I think, that's healthy and we're going to do everything we can to minimize the effect. But you don't ever really know how challenging going through that experience would be on the individual.

But because of our culture and the love that these guys have for each other, they feel the same level of pain. But they also have the same love and compassion and care for him that they are going to do everything he can. He's going to know that his brothers are there with him. And prior to the news that he got yesterday, we had already dedicated the season and our play to his father. That meant a lot to Phil.

So it's challenging. It's never easy, but we're prepared to, and I think we've started doing everything we possibly could to let him know his basketball family is with him. And we can't do anything than pray for his family that they endure this tragedy as best they can.

Q. Leonard, one quick follow-up. Phil's status, is he going to try to play? Is he going to remain with the team? Do you know? Is that clarified at this point?
LEONARD HAMILTON: He's going to remain with the team. We've had several conversations was his family. And they want him to remain with the team, and he wants to remain with his team. And then we'll make whatever adjustments we have to from there. But he'll be with us during the game tomorrow. And then we'll make the decisions that are necessary as we move forward.

Q. I know it's been a little while but your ties to UT-Martin and Austin Peay as an assistant. Some people might not know Murray State, but you on the other hand might have a little bit of experience. Does this bring up fond memories from your yonder years?
LEONARD HAMILTON: When I was a student at the University of Tennessee at Martin, a couple of guys that played with me came from Paducah Junior College. Rick Leeper, I think was one of the guys that is still a friend of mine, I think we might have scrimmaged them. And whether you know it or not, Cal Luther, I believe was a head coach at Tennessee-Martin.

But to move on to Austin Peay, back in those days, we had some tremendous battles. If you go back and read the newspapers, you can see that with the team that Coach Luther had there and the team we had at Austin Peay, they were always packed houses, and they were very, very exciting games. And if I remember correctly, Murray State was probably the team to beat in the conference until we got at Austin Peay. And we had some tremendous, tremendous, exciting games against them in the two years, three years, I was at Austin Peay.

I got a lot of fond memories of the challenges and atmosphere that exist. Hector Blondet and some of the guys that played at Murray State, I think we had two, three guys from New York and we had a guy on our team from New York named Fly Williams that averaged 27 points and 9 rebounds in a game as a freshman. In a game we had to win to win the conference, I think he scored 36 points or something like that. It was an exciting era for me and it was a great way for me to start my coaching career.

Q. I guess without giving away any secrets, have you thought how your guys are doing to defend Morant and who might guard him at all?
LEONARD HAMILTON: I addressed that earlier. Florida State's defensive system will be playing against Murray State's offensive system. Now, you can spend all your time trying to figure out how to stop somebody who might be unstoppable, and you could end up not worrying about Murray State and give all your attention to the one particular player. He's outstanding. He's hard to watch unless you're coaching against him. We're not going to change very much from who we are. We can't in one day turn around all of a sudden and invent a whole new defensive system.

We play against a lot of outstanding players and schemes in the ACC. Hopefully, that has prepared us to play against another outstanding player. He's definitely one of the best players in the country. We'll make necessary adjustments out of who we are and the system we've used all along to be where we are now. We know it's a tremendous challenge when you play against a very special talent like him, but we can't lose sight of the fact that it's Florida State against Murray State, not necessarily one or two guys against a great player like Morant is.

Q. Coach, this is related to Morant but not necessarily about him. Seems nowadays with these one-and-dones, we sort of expect these guys to be stars immediately. These great players like Zion come in and already think oh, that's going to be a number one pick. Do we maybe underrate how much development there is in college basketball and how much guys can improve, like there's sort of room for guys who are ready-made stars and guys who can become stars?
LEONARD HAMILTON: I think what we've done in the sport of basketball, we created an unrealistic mindset. In the NBA, you got 400-some players, 150 of them come from probably Europe. Every year you only have maybe 20 college basketball players matriculate into the NBA, maybe 20, maybe 25. But that's all we talk about is one-and-dones. It's like they're everywhere. That doesn't exist. There's a lot of development that's needed. I think we have an opportunity for those elite players, maybe 20, maybe 25, that have an opportunity to go to the next level.

And you have about 7,000 kids playing basketball and all we talk about is one-and-done and this cliche that we have created a mindset that's available for any and everybody. I think it's good that this kid's been in school for a couple years. He's had a chance to hone his skills and obviously he's prepared but that that's not easy. You know, you talk about him, you talk about Zion, and probably two, three other players on Duke's team that we had to play against. I think having an opportunity for youngsters to be able to realize their dream and move on. But I think the one-and-done phrase is overused because there's just not that many. We act like they're growing on trees and dropping off like apples. That's not the case.

These guys are elite guys, and they come along few and far between, and then a lot of them that are drafted in the first round, even though they are one-and-dones, they are in the D-League by January. So, this is something I think you guys need to be careful about. This is just not as easy. But he's one of those special elite guys that it's obvious that he has that "it" factor that you can't really put your finger on that makes him special. But I do think that even as talented as he is, having the opportunity for a couple year of development, I think when he moves to the next level, he's still going to have a lot to learn, a lot to grow.

Those guys that are able to move in and be major contributors as first-year players are not as prominent as sometime we make it out to believe that this is what's going on in the basketball world.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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