Hamilton, Barnes discuss Florida State’s 69-67 OT win vs Indiana

On Wednesday night, Florida State topped Indiana 69-67 in overtime in the Civic Center. FSU moves to 2-0 on the season following the exciting win on national television. True freshman guard Scottie Barnes made a game-winning runner with 1.8 seconds left in overtime to win it for the Noles.

Following the game, Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton and Barnes joined the media for the post-game press conference. Here’s what they had to say about the win.

Hamilton:

“I just thought that we had some guys step up and make some plays, some effort plays toward the end. That kind of willed us to a victory. We are a work in progress. Our execution wasn’t nearly as good but I thought our effort was good.”

“Our execution was not nearly as good. Defensively, we had a hard time defending Jackson. That wasn’t in terms of effort, that was because of where we are in terms of development.”

“Hopefully, this level of competition will elevate our focus and concentration level, and that will be enough for us to get better.”

On Barnes: “I love his effort, his enthusiasm. He is still learning to adjust to this level of competition. He is probably making the biggest transition of any of the players. I am pleased with his progress. “

“Right now, we are still a developing team. We don’t have much room for error. Competition is fast and furious.”

On the game-winning shot: “We felt that we didn’t want to call a timeout, we wanted to go on the run and see if he [Barnes] could create. That says a lot about his confidence.”

“So many different things that we need to work on. Our systems, we were just a little slow on decisions, a little slow on execution. But that is understandable when we are facing this level of competition. We can’t shoot 57% from the free throw line.”

“We gotta have a full complement of all our players. We have to get Evans and Calhoun a little more involved. This is a game where we had to go with our most experienced players and I felt they did a good job of pulling this game out.”

Barnes:

On his game-winner: “I guess it feels good. I don’t really have no feelings about it to be honest, I am just glad we got the win as a collective group.”

“My teammates just kept telling me to be confident and go to the basket and keep attacking.”

“With this program we do a lot of things, we keep each other accountable and hold each other to a certain level.”

“It showed me that we have a lot of toughness and will to fight through that. This was a good game for us. They have a good system that they run very well.”

“As a point guard, I gotta have my own pace. I have to be patient. I have to run certain plays and certain sets, I have to give the offense a good flow. I have learned I just have to be patient, get others involved, and run the offense. Try to get everyone on the same level where are all connected.”

“I don’t think I was nervous at all. I felt very confident that we were gonna get that win.”

On his teammates: “This group of guys, they are just tough. They know what you need to do to win. Very encouraging. They helped me so much throughout this whole entire process. This team, they just know how to fight.”

“Trying to stay confident throughout the process. I am still learning how to play with this team. It is going to be a grind. We didn’t have as much time as they normally do.”

On his overtime three-pointer: “I missed my first one in this game, I probably got a little down on myself for missing that first one…I just stepped into it confidently, I was waiting for it to come.”