Leonard Hamilton shares how Florida State had offensive success

At 5-11 overall and 3-2 in ACC play, it’s been a difficult season for Leonard Hamilton and Florida State basketball. However, after beating Georgia Tech, Hamilton found his 600th career win (not counting wins the NCAA stripped), and the Seminoles found some offense as well.

After that game, Hamilton spoke about how Florida State had found success on the offensive side of the ball.

“Well, we tried to simplify the offense a little bit,” Leonard Hamilton said. “Because, you know, everyone has been challenged by their defensive schemes.”

“And I understand their schemes very well because Grant, that was his old defense and I got Fred Litzenberger was the assistant system coach on the staff and he wrote it up. I actually hired Fred when I was at Oklahoma State and I hired him again when I was at the University of Miami because I have so much respect for this type and style of defense, even though I’m–we’re a more man-to-man type of team,” Hamilton laughed.

“I always wanted to have this in my back pocket but it really takes a lot to teach it because there’s a lot of shifts and a lot of adjustments you have to make and they’ve mastered it. We got kind of bobbed up a little bit there in the first half of the game and then we changed our approach and I thought that gave us a little bit more freedom and I thought we were able to more high-percentage shots.”

Florida State’s next game will be on Wednesday night, against Wake Forest.

Leonard Hamilton praised Matthew Cleveland

One key player in the win over Georgia Tech was Matthew Cleveland, who Leonard Hamilton praised following the game.

“Matthew’s a warrior,” Hamilton said.

“There’s no doubt about that. You look in the dictionary and you see that word that says, ‘unconquered’ and you see his face right there. He’s just that kind of guy. He raises his level every game. He’s out there giving us the tip-ins, the fast breaks, the rebounds. His rebounds — is this his fifth straight game with a double-double? I’m not sure I’ve been around too many people who can do that five games in a row in my whole career. But that’s part of who he is. The ball will bounce over there and he goes and gets it from the other side of the floor”