Donovan Looks At Schedule, Previews Upcoming Canada Trip
Monday, August 21, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Billy Donovan
Press Conference
August 21, 2006
Opening comments…
"I think this is a great opportunity for our basketball team starting on Wednesday to get back to practice, back to working and getting a head start on this season. My personal goal about this trip (to Canada) is that we have four new players coming in and I think it is time for us to try to reunite and get back to practicing and teaching the young guys a little more about our system and our style. I think it is an exciting thing for us, as a coaching staff, to get things started right away.
In regards to our schedule, one of the things that we try to do here is to make sure we have a balance, and we certainly have some tough tests. Last year, we had the opportunity to play in New York against Wake Forest and Syracuse in November and it really helped our basketball team. This year's schedule, we have the opportunity to play Western Kentucky and Kansas in November. Many people feel that Kansas is going to be a top-five team in the country this year so it will give us the opportunity to find out where we are going to be at in early November. We have some other good teams from quality conferences and we have a nice balance and blend there. Hopefully, it will get us prepared to move forward into our conference schedule. Those 16 games are always very difficult. We are hoping that our non-conference will get us ready going into January."
On signing an extended contract…
"(UF Athletics Director) Jeremy (Foley) and I have talked in parameters about doing a long-term extension and I am totally committed to doing that. I think one of the things for me right now, after coming off last season and everything that happened, was the way our team sacrificed. After we won the National Championship, one of the things I said was, 'It is not about me. It's about our program. It is a lot bigger than me.' I told Jeremy that I wanted to wait, and that is not a reflection on my feelings toward the University of Florida. I love this place. I am totally committed to this place and I want to be here.
There is a part of me that doesn't feel right when I see some of our players make sacrifices like they did, financially, to come back and play here and for me to take advantage of what happened to our basketball team. For me, I am going to sign a long-term contract, but I am going to do it at the right time. Those guys do not need to see me signing a long-term contract and basking in our team's success and that is what it was really about - our team's success.
For me, I felt like the best thing to do was get back to work and recruiting. I do love the University of Florida. I am very appreciative because this school has done great things for my family and me and has always been very proactive. I have talked to Jeremy and Dr. Machen and I talked about my feelings. I would love to be here at the University of Florida as long as this administration, Jeremy Foley and the school wants me here. I just felt a little uneasy, personally, to capitalize on what happened while the other players were sacrificing. We all need to move together, as one, to become the best basketball team that we can become. So, when would I sign something? I would probably do it over the next couple of months. Before, I did not think the time was right to have my name going across the headlines because of what happened to our team because it was a total team effort."
On expectations for the team upon traveling to Canada…
"Right now, with the conversations I have had with our team, I think they have done a very good job of getting back into the weight room and trying to become stronger and make their bodies better. They played a lot of pick-up basketball during the summer months. As a coaching staff, we are not allowed to do anything with these guys so we have not been able to work with them for a while. I don't think we need to go in on Wednesday like it is the first day of practice in October because they have not had practice time. The bottom line is that we are in August right now and this is a great opportunity for us to start implementing our system, for us to teach our young guys, an opportunity for our older guys to try to provide some leadership to help those guys along the way and slowly implement things. We are going to be ahead of the curve once we start on October 15 because we will have had 10 days together to put a lot of this stuff in."
On team motivation after the summer…
"I am not really concerned with people talking about the chances of repeating or not repeating (a National Championship). That has nothing to do with where we are at right now. The big thing for me is our basketball team improving and becoming a better team. I think there is a level of enthusiasm for them to get started, but I have not been with these guys since our season ended in April. I will be very interested to see their demeanor and reactions. All I am basing my opinions on is what I have heard from our strength coaches this summer about the way they worked out and what they have done in the weight room. They have been very motivated and worked very hard, and that is encouraging to me. These are the types of kids who like challenges. They like to compete and they like to play. I will address those things as we go along to find out how they can handle some other situations."
On the tight number of games before playing Kansas…
"You are always going to be put in the situation where you have to play some games in a short period of time. It is a situation that is very similar to last year when we had two games here against Albany and St. Peter's College and then we went to New York and played against Wake Forest and Syracuse. It is hard to space your schedule out as you would normally, when you want to have a few extra games. One situation that stands out is having to play Western Kentucky and Kansas back-to-back. In games like the SEC Tournament, you have already seen some of those teams at least once. Here is a situation where we are playing two teams back-to-back away from Gainesville and this will be the first time we have seen these teams."
"We wanted to get some good, quality opponents in November, like we did last year, to give us an idea of where we are at. In November and December, we want to give our fans the chance to have games at home where they can say, "Wow, here is a great opponent coming in that we recognize and has national recognition."
On expectations out of the upcoming 10 days…
"I think the big thing for our team is that we are a close team and very unselfish. The guys thought about the other guys before they thought about themselves. Although we have a lot of key people coming back from last year's team, we still are in the situation where we have four new faces and those new faces have to fit into our team. We have to work on our chemistry and our older guys dealing with our younger guys to help them out along the way. Those things are important. This year's team is not last year's team. Although it has a lot of key pieces returning, we are adding four new players that have to understand, accept and embrace their role.
I am not looking for us to be in playing shape, I am looking to implement, get things in and have us work on things in our offense, defense and press zones. I want to treat it like practice, but at the same point, I have to be somewhat sensitive that these guys have not really been in a full practice with the coaches since April. That is a long time for me to expect them to be in that kind of condition. We have to ease into this right now. I want the trip to be enjoyable and I want us to have a good time. At the same time, I think the big thing for us is our team chemistry and how we get along and bond over the next 10 days that is important."
