Posted by BillFromTampa

Jeff Cameron of 1270 AM did his show today from the FSU basketball facility. Cameron had a chance to sit down for a lengthy chat with Leonard Hamilton as well as some short interviews with some of the team.

 

Here are some highlights of those interviews.

 

Hamilton looks for his team to be a little more uptempo this year. Not necessarily to shoot the ball however. In the past that was the goal of the transition game particularly in out of bounds plays where scoring right out of that was the objective. This season while they will look to shoot quicker and not milk the shot clock as much we should expect to see a team more focused on the primary and secondary breaks strictly to force the tempo of the game in the Seminoles’ favor.

 

Once the ball is up the floor Hamilton will want his team to move the ball more than last season where FSU utilized far more set plays that the coach likes to use. “We run a system that is difficult for us to defend in practice”, said Hamilton. Translation: it will be difficult for opponents to defend as well. To run that motion offense expect a rotation of at least nine players.

 

Hamilton believes his team is buying into the concept of “if I create for you, you create for me”. Using that concept his hopes are that FSU can have a team of possibly five players averaging 10 to 15 ppg.

 

Right now he feels the team is a good catch and shoot team but not as efficient shooting off the dribble. That’s where new assistant coach Corey Williams comes in. He has been working exclusively with the players in learning to shoot the ball off movement. Williams also brings knowledge of the Macon GA area a location where Hamilton would like to strengthen recruiting ties. Williams came to FSU from Oklahoma State, played for the Chicago Bulls earning a ring. He was also drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs despite never playing football. His 4.2 forty speed was a factor in attracting the Chiefs attention.

 

Andy Enfield meanwhile works with the team in shooting off the catch.

 

As has been the case since coming to FSU Stan Jones works with the post players.

 

The head coach feels his team has improved in many areas including shooting and turnovers. And while improved Hamilton thinks the team could do a little better in finding the open man. The understanding of the principles appears to be there in his estimation. It just lacks the execution Hamilton desires.

 

Practices also include installing various other systems such as presses, various zone defenses, and of course his favorite defense, the man to man. To assist in the learning process each scrimmage is filmed, broken down, and shown to the players for review with the coaches.

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Starting Wednesday night October 31, FSU begins Hamilton’s sixth season in tipping off in an exhibition game against the University of West Florida. Even though it is an exhibition game Hamilton will ask his team to treat it as a practice but with the goal of winning as well. Tip off at the Civic Center is at 7:00 PM.

 

Touching on this season’s schedule the staff scheduled teams they felt would give them a chance at making the NCAA tournament. While it may not appear to be the toughest schedule there are various obstacles on it. But to address the weakness issue Hamilton explained that there were no returning scorers over 10 ppg. His thought was that the team did not yet deserve or had earned a schedule of that caliber.

 

Looking ahead to the 2008-2009 season Hamilton mentioned the Seminoles will have home games against Pittsburgh, Providence, and of course that team from Gainesville. Some of the road schedule will feature games at California and at Cincinnati.

 

As for this squad he likes the senior leadership of Toney Douglas, Isaiah Swann, Jason Rich, and Ralph Mims. Add to that the returning players of Uche Echefu who you can expect to see used at the perimeter again on offense and Casaan Breeden. Breeden will see his role expanded and be used at the three spot unlike last season where he backed up Al Thornton. It was not a position suited for Breeden. According to the coach, Breeden will see time mostly coming off the bench.

 

As for the freshmen, Solomon Alibi, Julian Vaughn, and Jordan DeMercy should be expected to make significant contributions. The other freshman, Chris Blake, the coach is not quite ready yet and will be brought along slowly.

 

Speaking on Alabi for some minutes Hamilton mentioned that in addition to the stress fracture in Alabi’s leg, the Nigerian center also had a case of malaria. That was actually a blessing in disguise as the fracture was not known at the time. Recovering from malaria actually helped the leg heal to the point it was well on its way upon entering school. An x-ray the other day confirmed it is almost entirely healed. Conditioning though will be an issue for Solomon. In the meantime they were able to work with his shot; all sorts of shots. And Alabi has responded well in developing a better shot. Free throw shooting apparently is very good as well as Hamilton said “he almost never misses a free throw”. But even a lack of practice time has not inhibited Alabi’s learning curve as he has absorbed what he has seen the team practice well enough to walk through it perfectly.

 

All three players interview, Breeden, Swann, and Douglas, were all upbeat about the upcoming season as you would expect. Breeden is excited about his role. Swann was his usual confident demeanor. And Douglas who knows he can shoot will look to get everyone involved in the offense. One comment made by Cameron was actually from Mims who noted in pick up games over the summer how much harder Douglas is to defend now.

 

As FSU fans know when Douglas went down with an injury last season that greatly impacted the ‘Noles chances of making the NCAA. Backing up Toney will again be Mims. But after that you may see Swann who Hamilton says his ball handling is greatly improved over the failed experiment of a couple of seasons ago with Zeke was utilized at the point guard spot.

 

Lastly, Hamilton understands the fans frustration with not making the NCAA since 1998. Not using it as an excuse Hamilton admitted that they just were not prepared for the departure of two players to the NBA and one player who never made it to Tallahassee. The program just unfortunately was not in a position to absorb those kinds of personnel losses like say a UNC could. But they are working to avoid that kind of situation in the future.