Coach Hamilton Quotes - Florida State
Syracuse Men’s Basketball
Syracuse vs. Florida State
January 28, 2017
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton
Opening Statement
“Obviously Jim (Boeheim) had his team ready to play in the first half. I thought we did a great job being extremely aggressive. We had a hard time defending them in the first half. I thought they did an amazing job making an extra pass. We couldn’t seem to get in an offensive rhythm. Obviously, we didn't make a lot of adjustments.
“One thing we did was do what we had in our game plan from the beginning. Our guys executed a lot better and defended a lot better, but we dug such a hole for ourselves. As a team, we were playing very good basketball today, but we just dug a hole that was just too big for us to overcome.
“I think we should give Syracuse a lot of credit. They probably deserved to win the game today. In the end, we had ourselves in a position where we had a chance to win. I thought we made some poor decisions in the last two to three minutes. I think long term, you have to give your opponent the credit because they really made us work to get back into the game.”
Why was it so difficult to contain John Gillon in the second half?
“There’s no doubt that he has jets in his feet. He is very quick and fast. He’ll attack the basket and get inside. That's kind of how they got some offensive rebounds. We had our post guys rotate over even when they missed. That was an excellent strategy in relation to that time of the game because we had to be aggressive. We couldn't back off because when we play as tight as we were, you can leave them because it’s difficult when they have a full spread. They had a lot of 3-point shooters on the floor.”
Would you agree with Coach Boeheim that you were better with a smaller lineup?
“(Tyler) Roberson is very mobile, quick and and athletic guy so for our seven-footers. It's a little challenging for them to chase him around. Syracuse’s offensive scheme kind of puts you in a situation where they force your to have to bring your big guys away from the basket because you have to respect (Tyler) Lydon because he is such a great shooter. So, it’s a challenging scheme so we went smaller with Jarquez (Smith) in the five position and we were able to defend a lot better.”
