By: Larry Vaught
DANVILLE, Ky. - Learning lessons are not always easy but sometimes they are needed.
Centre College freshman
Landen Hamilton recently was named Southern Athletic Association Player of the Week after his play against Hendrix and Rhodes — he had a career-high 10 assists and had the winning three-point play with four seconds left — but admits it was a 94-45 loss to Berry that changed his journey.
"Once Berry beat us we learned that is the standard we've got to be at to win a championship," Hamilton said. "I think all our confidence is up. I know mine is. We have learned to make extra passes and that everything starts on defense. We've been getting in more shots, getting in the weight room more, watching more film, maybe even practicing harder. It was just a learning and eye-opening experience for us to lose like that."
He is averaging 9.6 points, 1.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 24.6 minutes per game for Centre this season after 17 games.
Hamilton played at Conner High School and helped his team win a 9th Region championship. He was used to facing a rugged regular season schedule but says the competition level at Centre has been "a lot harder" than he expected.
"The biggest difference is the physicality and speed of the game. It's nothing crazy that I cannot adapt to but it has been harder than I maybe thought it would be," he said.
He's used to competition, though, because his younger sister, Anna, is a star basketball player. She's a senior at Conner now and will play her college basketball at Division I Northern Kentucky University.
"A lot of people actually thought we were twins. We've always played basketball. We would go outside and play shooting games when we were young and also play one on one. I think it led to where we both got more successful."
The two both went over the 1,000-point mark the same week during the 2022-23 season.
"That was a pretty big deal because we were the only siblings in Conner history to have done that and then we did it the same week," the Centre freshman said. "I was hoping she would come here, too, but she committed to Northern Kentucky.
"It's always fun to see your younger sister be successful and going to have a chance to play Division I basketball. We used to get in the gym a lot together and shoot. I think we both helped motivate each other whether it was shooting in the gym or lifting weights together."
He knows his parents, Jennifer and Jeff Hamilton, often had to make difficult decisions about how to watch them both play.
"It was hard on them. One might have to go to one game and the other one to another game and then the next time we played at the same time they would switch who went to each game," he said. "It helps that most games are live streamed but they try to go to all our games that they can."
Hamilton is not sure about his career path but knows he'll major in either business or economics.
"I really like the academics at Centre and will figure out which major I want to focus on," he said.
For now he's focused on becoming a more consistent player and putting good games together rather than being up and down like he has at times.
"I will be up one weekend and down the next. I need to be more consistent," he said.
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He is shooting 40 percent overall but only 28 percent from 3-point range. He knows both percentages should be higher and need to be better.
"I have been getting more shots up and trying to stay confident," Hamilton said. "One weekend I shot close to 50 percent and the next weekend I was like 3-for-19. I need to figure that out. I have always been a good shooter and I'm confident if I just keep focusing on improving that I will get it fixed."
