Leonard Hamilton Playing Quotations

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're still in a growing up stage. Last year we relied on a lot of freshmen and sophomores and we lost a lot of close games. One reason the sophomores from last year who are now juniors are playing better is because they're more experienced. A.J. (Johnson) and Al Thornton are giving us good leadership, and we're getting leadership from our three seniors. Todd Galloway has been in the program for four years, so has Andrew Wilson. We have some guys who are maturing a little bit and it's taking some pressure off of our new players.

We have to get out of the mode of playing good caliber teams good, but coming out a little short.

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.

He has worked very hard in practice. I think he has earned the respect of all his teammates. He has shown that he's more than capable of being a major contributor to our team. I think our players look forward to playing with him.

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.

It appears that we don't get very much credit for the quality of teams we are playing against in the ACC.

I thought they did a very good job of being patient on offense, moving the ball around and playing the shot clock.

I think, overall, our team is making progress, but we have to get out of that mode where we're playing games against good caliber teams and coming up a little short.

We don't get any credit for playing Nebraska. Everybody forgets we played Florida.

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.

There used to be a time when you felt there was a conscious effort to get the top teams. Now, it seems to be much more political than it used to be. It appears we we're not getting much credit for the quality of teams we're playing in ACC. There's a formula out there that seems to be flawed.

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.