Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton and players Devon Bookert and Montay Brandon talk with reporters after the Seminoles’ 58-44 loss to UVA in the 2015 ACC Tournament.
COACH HAMILTON: I think you’ve got to give University of Virginia a lot of credit. I thought they came out initially in the game. They were extremely well prepared defensively and offensively. They made us work on defense. Shot a very high percentage in the first half.
I could just tell that they were mentally really engaged in the game because we dug a hole for ourselves and came back in the second half and played much better. But whenever you give a team of that caliber that working margin, obviously, you put yourself in a very difficult situation to have to overcome.
So I just think that we lost to a team today that was a little bit‑‑ that played extremely well, and really, really was very well‑prepared, somewhat rested and played with a tremendous amount of energy.
I was proud of our guys that we were able to fight back. Defensively I thought we did a very good job for the majority of the second half. We had the game within a couple of possessions, and obviously they made a couple plays that really, really put us back on our heels.
So I’ve just got to say congratulations to them. But I was very proud of my guys. I thought they came back in the second half and made the adjustment more mentally and emotionally as well as physically, and gave us a chance. But we came up a little short.
Q. You were assessed a technical foul with a little over five minutes left. Your team was coming back. Can you talk about that?
COACH HAMILTON: Are you saying that the technical foul affected the game?
Q. I’m asking your thoughts on it.
COACH HAMILTON: Well, we lost by 14. Hit both of their free throws. I don’t normally get technicals. I think I may have gotten two technicals in six, seven, eight, nine years, so I think my record speaks for itself when it comes down to getting technicals. But I feel fortunate that it didn’t affect the game, if that answers your question.
Q. Montay, they scored on their first seven trips of the game, and then after that it seemed that they had a hard time doing much of anything against you guys. What was the difference in the beginning of the game and over the last 30 minutes?
MONTAY BRANDON: At the beginning of the game we weren’t prepared for their adjustments. We came out kind of sluggish. The foul there on the floor, we were letting them catch the ball in spots where they were comfortable in their scoring options. When we finally picked up our defensive pressure and stopped what we were supposed to be stopping which is them and their scoring operations, that helped us guard them a little better.
Q. Bit of a transition for you this year. Do you all hope to play in a postseason and kind of how do you assess the way the year has gone?
COACH HAMILTON: Obviously, we’ve had some challenges that we had to overcome this year. But I think anytime you’re faced with those types of things, you lose a player and you have some injuries, and we had some moving parts going on especially early in the season, it can make or break you.
I think what’s happened with this team, we made the adjustments. We’ve gotten strong in character, and we’ve learned how to do more with maybe less depth than what we’ve been accustomed to. Which I think, as we move through the remaining of this season into the future we can be a better basketball team, as a result of going through the challenges that we’ve had.
The true test of your character is how do you handle yourself when you’re under adversity, and I think this team has improved as we moved through the year. They’ve handled the adversity that we’ve had to deal with this year. Not having our leading scorer, having injuries, and trying to play with not quite as much depth as we’ve had in the position, I think our guys have adjusted. I think that was evident in the second half. Our three guards played all 40 minutes. We didn’t have a substitute there in the second half on the perimeter because of the depth and the experience that we are lacking this particular year.
But that’s okay. I think we’re growing, and I think our guys have gotten tougher. I think the future is going to be pretty bright for our program. We only have one senior on our team. We have a pretty decent recruiting year coming in. So I think our guys will be able to bring‑‑ when the young kids come in, they’ll be able to share the experience, give them the wisdom that they’ve gained from going through the challenges that we’ve had this year, and hopefully we’ll be better as we move through.
Q. (No Microphone)?
COACH HAMILTON: Yes, we hope to play in postseason. We’re looking forward to playing in one of the tournaments, hopefully, whichever one we have the opportunity to play in.
Q. Montay and DeVon, same question. What do you take from this year to build into next year. That’s going to be your last season. What do you take from this year moving forward?
MONTAY BRANDON: The one thing we take is I guess we can take the way we played early in the year, knowing that every game matters. We lost a lot of games earlier in the year that we could have won, and that would have put us in a better position later in the season, and it kind of came back to bite us in the butt towards the end. So that is probably the main thing. When the new guys come, to take no game for granted because it will hurt you at the end of the season.
DEVON BOOKERT: What I’m mostly going to take from it is a lesson because we went through a lot of adversity, and I think our team kept on improving through the year even to now. So I think we’ll take it as a lesson and try to teach the incoming class the things that we messed up on so they don’t have to go through those type of things.
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