Leonard Hamilton: "They Seem To Be More Connected"

Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton met with the media after the Wolfpack's 92-72 win over Florida State.

Opening Statement...
North Carolina State’s team seems to be getting better and better as the season is winding down. They seem to be more connected. They play with an extreme amount of confidence. Anytime you get a bunch of guys together that are older and more mature, a couple of grad students, fifth-year seniors, they don’t panic. They don’t have as many emotional highs and lows. They been to the wars.

One thing about basketball (is) you have to be able to handle the ups and the downs. Sometimes, older, more mature kids seem to understand that. It reminds me of my (former) team. We won the championship in 2012. I had six seniors. That’s what this team reminds me of. They’re going to be who they are. They’re going to be consistent with the game plan, and I thought they were a lot more consistent with their level of execution and playing to who they are than we were.

Florida State hasn’t had a game where they didn’t make a three since 2014, and that’s a long record. We had decent looks. I thought that they were so focused in the moment that I didn’t think they were ever going to miss.

Some of them almost didn’t miss. It wasn’t like we didn’t know who Sam Hunt was. We obviously knew he was an outstanding shooter. In transition, he had two baskets before we could ever set up to get to him. They had two tip outs on some long rebounds, and big guys tapped them out. My point is, he made us pay every time when we made an obvious mistake.

This team is going to create a lot of problems for the rest of the ACC in the tournament if you don’t go out and match at least part of what they’re doing. Sometimes, you don’t ever really know without going back and watching film, but I thought our effort was pretty good. It just seemed they had a little more energy. They were a little step quicker with their execution.

More than anything else, I thought they stuck with who they were and never panicked at all. We had several situations when they pressed us that we turned the ball over and kind of lost our composure. That’s a loss on the road to a team that’s playing very well.

On what to do when he sees his team losing composure...
You try to prepare for that before that moment comes. That’s all we talk about. This team has done that for the most part this year. I really have only one senior guy who’s been around for awhile. My team is made up mostly of first and second-year players.

Sometimes, we play like we’re a little inexperienced. I’m not using that as an excuse. I just think that it’s an advantage when you have a group, more mature guys, who have been in those moments. We had a couple of guys on our team that really were trying hard, and they were giving a good effort. But I thought that a mistake to them compounded itself because of a lack of experience.

On NC State defending the three...
I thought the defense was solid. We shot 63 percent in the second half, and most of it was going to the basket. We had uncontested, wide open threes that normally go in for us. I think that their guys are a little more confident about who they are. They are emotionally connected to the moment, and I thought that you are more successful when you have your focus on what the game plan is, and they’re extremely confident that they’re going to make this.

Sometimes, with a team like ours, we can lose that confidence quickly, and there lies a 20-point loss to a team on the road. The ACC is very unforgiving now. You can’t go on the road in the ACC and play okay and win. That’s not good enough. You’re going to have to play very well, especially on the road, against any team in our league.

I think that North Carolina State’s team, they’re playing for something. A couple of guys, they won’t be here next year. (It’s) their last go around. They’re connected with their coach. The coach has done a great job relating to them. He’s instituted a system that they relate to and they enjoy playing. You can just tell. It’s interesting that I don’t see any selfishness. I see ball movement and high-percentage shots being taken. That’s a compliment to him (Coach Keatts) and his ability to get kids to buy into what he’s doing.

We normally have four ball handlers on the floor, so we don’t normally turn the ball over against full-court pressure. Today, I saw our guys kind of panic a little bit once they got trapped, and I think that the size of the moment emotionally affected them.