Leonard Hamilton Quotes (120 Quotes)


    You guys have heard me from the beginning of the year I've been consistent about this. This is going to be a different year from what you guys have been exposed to. This league will be -- with the exception of one team and maybe two, it's going to be rock 'em sock 'em, and you're not going to be able to determine how this thing is going to shape up until the latter part of the season.

    This team has shown ability to bounce back and I guess this is another opportunity for us to show our faith and courage.

    Once you understand the type of energy that it takes, the type of effort and communication it takes with your teammates, then it becomes fun when you're all on the same page.

    N.C. State is a team that seems as though they make adjustments to what they need to do to win a particular game. They do a good job of moving the ball and taking advantage of any defensive mistakes that opponents make.

    We're finally grasping the big picture. That's why this opportunity is so important for us now. If we can continue to keep playing with that focus, then we'll become more consistent and we'll be building on something that can sustain us regardless of who we're playing and hopefully into the future.


    We have to grow up. This is the type of situation that's going to test our courage, our faith and our maturity.

    I just thought our players found a way to bounce back from the disappointment. We haven't spent time dwelling on anything negative. Now we're in the NIT and we have to go about handling our business.

    If you go in every day with the idea that you have to be a certain place in March and don't take care of business that particular day, then you miss out on that day you could have gotten better.

    He's only scratched the surface of his potential. I knew he played the game with an extreme passion, he enjoyed playing and I knew that we needed those kind of players at Florida State because you knew they were going to get better.

    He has that drive, determination and focus. You see it in his eyes. He has that special something about him that you like to see in athletes.

    People were uncomfortable. They acted like we didn't know what we were doing. I was hoping that if you give this system an opportunity and the time that it takes, it will work.

    We thought we did good enough to be a tournament team, but when you really don't have a total knowledge of what criteria the committee is using, I guess you are somewhat in the dark. We need to look at finding a way for this process to be a little bit more out in the open.

    What we have to do is maintain hope, and hope that we've done enough during the season to give us an opportunity. There's not a whole lot more we can say.

    We'll miss those guys more than people want to accept. They gave us a lot of good leadership.

    Any comments that I make in relation to the technical foul, and the impact that it did or did not have on the game, I think would be seen as (taking) away from how outstanding I think Duke's players played. They made tough shots. They made the plays they had to make to win the game. We had equal opportunities, and we didn't come away with the points. We didn't get the stops that were necessary during the critical parts of the game, and we had maybe even some better looks than what they had they knocked theirs down and we didn't.

    This is the first game of the second third of our season. In the ACC every game will be similar to what we had today.

    I hope this was a sign of us growing up. We definitely needed this victory.

    Unfortunately for us, we allowed what little measure of success we've had in the season and we've become like most teams -- they lost their focus for whatever reason. Sometimes growing mentally is just as much of a skill as it is dribbling and passing. And for whatever reason, Clemson demonstrated that they had grown a little bit better in those areas than we have.

    They are entertainers and they're speaking from their heart and the information that they have, but at this particular time, none of that matters, because we still got games to play. I'm not gonna allow myself to get all caught up in all these things, because if you win enough games, it takes care of itself.

    We're the same team that most of the media picked to finish 11th in the preseason. We didn't have any double-figure scorers returning, we were picked to finish near the bottom. How foolish would it have been for me to go out and build a killer schedule when no one thought we were any good

    It's very difficult to throw over a (6-10) guy that close right on top of you like that. Most of the time the officials will tell you to move back a little bit, but that wasn't the case.

    We need to eliminate the mistakes that we're making that we can control. Unnecessary turnovers. We had two of them right there at the end of the first half that didn't have anything to do with (UNC).

    This team is very capable if we're playing up to our abilities. In other years, maybe we had to play above ourselves. Right now we need to play up to our abilities.

    Possibly -- possibly -- Duke, and maybe North Carolina State. I'm not sure that we all aren't fighting for positioning now. I said before the season started that this would be a year where you could throw predictions out the window. I'm not sure you could make calls. You've had a couple of wide margins, but most games could have gone either way. That's the way it is in the ACC.

    They did a very good job being patient on offense. Tech played a very solid defensive game. But even at that, as good a defense that they played, we still had open opportunities that we just didn't finish.

    He's had to make the biggest adjustment of anybody on our team. He's gone from playing on the block to now being a pure perimeter player. As opposed to standing behind people and trying to block shots, he's now breaking down (opponents) in a defensive stance, trying to contain people who have played guard all their lives.

    We knew with the quick turnaround and the emotion we spent and the letdown we received from Sunday's loss, we would need energy and consistent play from our nonstarters. They gave us a big lift.

    There are not very many mysteries through this process, and it will be clear as day as to what the right decisions are to be made.

    It seemed like they scored four, five or six possessions in a row there where we couldn't get a stop. We put ourselves in a very big hole there, but I thought we picked our defense up and put ourselves back in a position where we had a chance to win the game. I thought we dug too big a hole.

    Todd miraculously played rather well considering he hadn't practiced all week. We didn't know until game time if he was going to play.

    We had equal opportunity and we didn't come away with the points.

    I don't know whether you say he's unstoppable, but he is playing at a level that makes him one of the top one or two players in the country. The thing that you respect him for is he's gotten better every year.

    We totally recognize the fact that now it's time to move on and move toward preparing ourselves to play in the NIT. This is a challenge that I'm hopeful will motivate us and increase our level of concentration.

    We knew he was a good shooter, we just didn't think he'd be shooting them from the parking lot. I thought they did a very good job of finding him. Every time we lost him, he made us pay.

    There are opportunities for youngsters to come in and contribute. Rather than us try to establish a role, we like for them to come in and earn the right to play.

    You have the No. 1 team in the country coming in to play you and you want to realize some opportunities. So what better opportunity can you have

    That was one we really, really needed. It was obvious we have grown up a little bit.

    I think we're a little further along. We have a better understanding of our system. We're able to make adjustments we could not make then. We're a little more mature team than we were a few years ago.

    Any time you take over a program and you're building a program, ... you want to try and find a young man with athleticism and skills that you feel can come in and have an impact or at least be able to contribute early in his development.

    We have a clear understanding of the NCAA rules and understand how this process works. We will make sure that Alexander and his family have all of that information available to them during this process.

    The good thing about this team, though, is we've always seemed to bounce back when we've had a setback.

    At this point, I don't have any say. Me making speculation right now would only be just that speculation. All we have to do is maintain hope that we've done enough during the season to give us an opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament. Past that, there is not a whole lot more we can say.

    I think this is a unique and special opportunity for us because we know that we're going to get their very best shot.

    Getting beat on the boards seemed to be a very significant part of this game. You have to give them a lot of credit for pounding the glass. It seemed like every time we've played them the last couple of years, they've been much better prepared on the boards than we have. We got beat by a team that did the things they need to do within their scheme in order to win the game tonight.

    We knew he was a good shooter, but we didn't think he'd be shooting from the parking lot.

    We did not meet their style of ball with the type of enthusiasm that we should have. Maybe this is the type of game we needed to keep reality in front of us. We are not a team that can afford not to be at our very best mentally every time we step out.

    I thought our players really, really stayed focused. Even when (Butler) took the lead at the end, they had a very positive attitude.

    Unfortunately we have shown signs of not being mature enough sometimes. To climb we always seem to have to take a little step back before we take the next jump. Sometimes that's part of the development process you go through when you're building basketball programs.

    We've had more ups than downs. But more than anything else, I think we've had so many learning opportunities that I think now it's going to cause us to accelerate our growth process. Probably the most important thing is we've grown mentally.

    When you give up 16 offensive rebounds, there lies the culprit for us.


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