Hamiltons Monday Teleconference

Florida State's Leonard Hamilton participated in his regular weekly Monday teleconference with the media and talked about the Seminoles recent victory over Miami, the starting of Michael Snaer, and the emergence of Luke Loucks and Derwin Kitchen as scoring options.

Opening Comments:

"We had a very successful outing this weekend against Miami. They played very well, started a different lineup and really I thought executed very well. We had some different guys on our team stepping up now that they seem to be accepting their roles and finding better ways to utilize their talent in our system. We are hoping that at some point in time we get everybody playing well together, like most coaches. I feel like our team is growing up and maturing a little."

Q: This past weekend Michael Snaer made his first start for you, can you talk about his progression from the start of the season to now?

Hamilton: Michael has been a very, very pleasant to player to coach because he came in initially wanting to establish himself as a defender. He takes a lot of pride in his defense. Even though like most freshmen they have a lot of techniques they have to learn, he was very, very physical and a very good defender, and a very unselfish player trying to fit in and learn the entire system. Now that we have changed his role a little bit, there is another period of adjustment that he has to go through. He played a little tight in the Miami game, but hopefully he will settle down like most freshmen and first year players and be a little more relaxed before the Clemson game.

Q: You got 19 points from Luke Loucks against Miami, do you believe double figures may be coming from him a bit more consistently now and with a team that struggles with scoring at times, can't you use another weapon there?

Hamilton: We have challenged Luke and Derwin (Kitchen) to be much more aggressive on the offensive end. They are more than capable but as point guards they have accepted - the positive thing about them is they want to run the team, they want to be the coach on the floor, and make good decisions with the ball. They want to get their teammates involved. They realize their role as a point guard, but on this particular team it is obvious that we need them to be a little bit more involved offensively. I think they have accepted that and I like the fact that we tell them to be a little more aggressive and they stepped up and that is what they have done. We do need them to be a little bit more involved and little more aggressive offensively. I think that will definitely take the pressure off of our inside game, if we get these guys playing the way they have played the last couple of games.

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