	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: CHICAGO

March 20, 2011

Okaro White

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Florida State Â– 71
Notre Dame - 57

GREG GREENWELL: Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton and student-athletes Okaro White, Bernard James, and Derwin Kitchen. We'll start with an opening statement from the head coach and take questions from the student-athletes.
COACH HAMILTON: I can't say enough about how proud I am of our players and how focused they've been since we lost in the ACC Tournament. They've been extremely attentive, very focused.
I felt that through the ups and downs we've had this year this team has grown and matured in a lot of different ways. Even as of last night, we had a tremendous challenge -- and I didn't find out until this morning -- Bernard had been throwing up all night. He had three IVs today, and we didn't know whether or not he was going to even be able to perform at all.
The sacrifice he made by just going out and giving tremendous effort when he's a little upped the weather says a lot about this team. Even Chris Singleton coming back and wanting to be a part of helping us get to the next level has really, really meant an awful lot to this team.
In the locker room, one of their -- as they kind of huddled around, they called themselves brothers, and that's kind of the way things have gone with this team. So tonight just seeing it all come together. They were very focused on defensive end with their assignments.
Notre Dame was a much more difficult team for us to defend than any team we played this year because they're so diverse. Their motion offense, curl cuts and back cuts and back screens and slips -- it really challenged us. At the beginning of the game, they got some easy looks, but we made adjustments.
Offensively, we knew, if we were going to get the ball and get high percentage shots, we had to move the ball, reverse the ball a couple times, and attack inside. Tonight I thought we had a good balance, and that was just the players staying focused, sticking with the game plan, and encouraging and communicating with each other the entire game.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of something special. The good thing about this team, I still think that we -- our best basketball is ahead of us.
GREG GREENWELL: Take questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Question for Derwin. Do you guys have the feeling pretty early on when the shots were falling, it was going to be a pretty offensive night for you guys?
DERWIN KITCHEN: Yeah. We had enough guys step up offensively. That's something we've been struggling with. Even though we played great defense, we struggled so bad on offense, we just had enough guys step up on the offense, and like you said we made a few shots early, and the confidence just grew from there. And it spread throughout the whole team.

Q. Bernard, can you describe how you are feeling and what allowed you to then have the kind of game that you did today?
BERNARD JAMES: I'm still not feeling 100 percent. I actually felt like I had to vomit the entire game. I just felt like it was right there in my throat. But I knew I was feeling under the weather, so I tried to focus as much as I could and just really play as hard as I could.
I really didn't know how much I would be able to contribute tonight. I was just glad that I was able to give the minutes that I did.

Q. You guys are not traditionally a three-point team, and that ended up working out really well for you. What was the difference in that today, and how much did you think that that took Notre Dame by surprise?
BERNARD JAMES: I think we played a lot inside out. Our bigs on our team, we've kind of struggled this year as far as posting up and just being where we needed to be on the offense. I think we executed pretty well tonight, catching the ball and kicking out when they covered down. Our guys were getting spot up threes. They're pretty good at knocking those down.
Once they got on a roll it just kept going.

Q. Derwin, when you guys are making those shots and you're clicking on offense, how dangerous is this team, and how far do you think you can go?
DERWIN KITCHEN: Very dangerous. I mean, if we can stay consistent on the offensive end, I like our chances. I mean, we've just been so up and down and inconsistent on the offensive end, it allowed us to stumble a few times during the season and lose a few games.
But if we could stay consistent and execute how we did today on the offensive end, I like our chances because we play so well on the defensive end.

Q. Okaro, can you describe a little bit what makes this defense so good on a consistent basis? These guys have been here a couple years now. They've been in the system for a while. What have you noticed about this defense this first year that makes it so consistently good?
OKARO WHITE: Basically, the emphasis the coaches put on defense. When we first start the season off, that's the first thing we focus on is defense. We've been a great defensive team since Leonard Hamilton has been there.
I think the emphasis by the coaches, and that's why we're such a great defensive team.

Q. This is for Bernard. The region is kind of wide open now. Kansas is there, but it's 10, 11, and 12 seed. Does this kind of feel like it might be a little bit of destiny with how this region is shaken up?
BERNARD JAMES: Yeah, it does kind of feel that way. The teams we've played so far have been great matchups as far as our system and just exploiting their weaknesses. So I guess we'll see how the next game goes.
GREG GREENWELL: Thank you. Go ahead and take questions for Coach Hamilton.

Q. Coach, Derwin obviously talked about the offensive struggles that you guys have had. Did you feel a game like this coming, and were you surprised at how successful you were from three-point range today?
COACH HAMILTON: Today we got the kind of looks because of offensive execution that we're capable of making. When we're in practice and we're going through shooting drills, we shoot that way all the time.
I think, though, we've had so many new players. Bernard is trying to adjust to learning at this level. Jon Kreft, Terrence Shannon, Ian Miller, Okaro White. We've had injuries to guys coming and going that we've been sputtering. We've not been consistent throughout the year for a lot of reasons. And then on top of that, sometimes we've just had shooting slumps. Deividas is a tremendous shooter, but he hasn't shot the ball as well as he's capable of.
I think a lot is maturing and growing, but I also think a lot of it is focus. Today since we lost in the ACC, we've been getting a lot of shots up. Guys have been getting it up themselves. The more you teach and shoot and see the ball going in through repetition, you just gain more confidence.
We had a very relaxed attitude tonight in that we moved the ball, made the extra pass, the ball didn't stick, and we were able to get better looks. We went inside. We kicked it back out. We were extremely patient. And I do think that a lot of being consistent from a shooting standpoint is confidence. When they start falling and keep moving the ball and keep doing it, you feel better about yourselves. That's one of the reasons we shot the ball so well tonight.
I hope now we'll find it in ourselves and keep playing good solid basketball. Sometimes when you're dealing with youngsters that are trying to find themselves, there's a moment there where they finally get it and they start believing in themselves and believing in the system, and I think that's growing with this team. As late as it is in the season.

Q. Just the nature of making the Sweet 16, it hasn't happened in this program for 18 years, I think. What does it mean to you, and what do you think it means to Florida State?
COACH HAMILTON: It means that the progress that we have been making will obviously receive a certain level of recognition, and I also feel that our players will feel better about themselves and that their hard work is paying off.
For me personally as a coach, I felt all along that we could get to this point, but I also feel that we can be a lot farther along than we are. And our goals are to be a program of significance in the ACC and on a national basis. As much as we're enjoying where we are at this particular point, I'm still anxious to continue the climb.

Q. A lot has been said about the length and athleticism of your team and that's part of the reason why your defense is consistently good. Obviously, you're not a good defense because of length and athleticism. What are some of the fundamentals and principles of defense that you practice that have been the reason why this defense has been so consistently good?
COACH HAMILTON: We have a whole list of principles and fundamentals that we feel are very important for us to be consistent with our defense regardless of what type of system that we're playing against, and we try to work on those things every day.
They're just certain fundamental things that I think most coaches would like to see their players execute. We just hold our kids accountable, and I think they believe in what we're teaching because it works.
Because our philosophy has always been, especially when you're building programs, you have to win with what you have, and we try to have our players understand that defense is something that everyone can participate in. It doesn't have anything to do with your quickness, your speed, your athleticism. It's your ability to stay focused and be consistent each time the ball moves to a certain place. It doesn't have anything to do with how tall you are and how fast you are. You're just consistent with supporting your team and executing the things we have in our game plan and our defensive principles and our fundamentals.
And then now you have a team defense. We try to have a defensive system that is always five guys against the ball. And our principles will allow the ball to lead us where we're supposed to be on the floor. And we're consistent with that, and then we can be pretty effective.

Q. Certainly the first half for most of the game, you guys really did a good job on Hansbrough when you seemed to switch off four or five different guys on him during the course of the game. What was the thinking going on? Do you think you got in his head a little bit?
COACH HAMILTON: I'm not sure we got in his head, but I do believe, though, out of respect for him, that we gave him a lot of attention because he's the player of the year in the Big East. I mean, obviously, and they lost only four games in their league all year. So he had our attention. When you're playing against the player of the year in a major conference, that means that we have to have a lot of respect for him.
And so we made sure that we -- our players understood his tendencies and the entire team's tendencies. We all have tendencies. And I thought our players really played with a lot of defensive intellect. We anticipated. We fought the screens properly. We closed out with our hands up and took away vision and contested shots. We did some things that we felt we had to do against a team of Notre Dame's caliber.
They were the fifth ranked team in the country, so it didn't take a lot more for us to realize that we had to be at our very best in order to be successful.

Q. First thoughts on VCU.
COACH HAMILTON: Well, in watching them play the few minutes I did tonight, they're playing, I guess what you call the eye of the tiger. They're playing with such passion and desire and unity. It's like they're representing a lot; their school, their conference.
But more than anything else, they seem to have bonded with such a strong determination, that they just seem to be all in sync defensively and offensively. I've never seen a team play with that type of focus.
I think they play with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. I think people didn't particularly think that they should be in the tournament, and some of the guys made some comments that gave them what you call bulletin board material, and they responded like they have something they want to prove.
We have a lot of respect for them. We go back, and we're going to prepare with that level of respect.
GREG GREENWELL: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297