Gator Men's Hoops Prepares For South Carolina
Monday, January 21, 2008 | Men's Basketball
FLORIDA MEN'S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH BILLY DONOVAN
JANUARY 21, 2008
Opening Statement (On South Carolina head coach Dave Odom and the Gamecocks)
“Basketball is losing a great guy, a great man. The last two years at the Final Four and the National Coaches Convention, both years, he'd stop by with handwritten notes to myself and staff wishing us luck. Our relationship goes back when I was a high school player, a five star in the summer, going to five-star basketball camps and working there. I was a counselor there still playing. Probably the greatest complement I can give him is the fact that if any of my boys were ever good enough to play at this level, I'd want them to play for a guy like Dave Odom. He's involved in our rules committee and just different things. He's always gone out of his way for the betterment of our league. He's always tried to be a great ambassador to our league. He's been a great guy for college basketball. I just hope he's personally happy. I think with all that being said, with them winning at home and on the road at Arkansas and now having a week off to prepare for us and everything that has happened to Dave in his first game after this announcement, there is going to be a lot of emotion in the game. I think you can tell by the type of guy he is, just the way he handles himself. I got to believe and know his players love him dearly and disappointed that he will not be back next year. Having two terrific guards, (Devan) Downey and (Zam) Fredrick, their ability to shoot threes and playing at home with the win against Arkansas and how we respond after the win against Kentucky, it will be a difficult challenge for our guys.”
On how current South Carolina guard Devan Downey might compare to former guard Tre Kelly …
“Tre Kelly wasn't a guy to me that could really beat you with speed and quickness. He was a guy that would beat you with his body. He was a great driver and could make very acrobatic shots. Last year, they really solely relied on him. He put up some huge numbers and had some big, big scoring games. (Devan) Downey is different. I have great respect for Chris Warren's speed from Ole Miss. I think Downey might be the fastest guy in our league. Now you have a guy that can really, really shoot the three. I don't know if that was Tre Kelly's strength. He got in the lane and used his body to shield you off. Downey to me is a guy that gets steals. He disrupts defensively in the passing lanes. He's got really good three-point range. He's got a mid-range game. He can get to the basket. He's a hard guy to guard. He made a huge impact at Cincinnati his freshman year. Now having another year to sit out even though he's a sophomore eligibility wise, in reality he's a junior. Without question, he's one of the best guards in our league, and I think one of the best guards in the country.”
On guard Jai Lucas' status …
“He's considerably better. He's not going to practice today. They were worried a little bit about maybe a tear in his meniscus. They don't think that's the case. He didn't have any swelling, but he probably has some bruising on his bone. He hyper extended his knee. He feels better. Like all these guys, he only wants to play on Wednesday. We probably won't have a real true feel on whether or not he will be available until tomorrow's (Tuesday's) practice. Right now he's not going to practice today. We are sitting him out, which makes it hard for our team because now we are down to eight guys. We really need to do some things in practice to get prepared and do some different things to get these guys ready.”
Surprised at how often Nick gets to the foul line?
“Nick's a good driver, he's got good vision and he can finish strong to the basket. He creates a lot of help, he uses his body well, he's got a big frame at 6'6”. I think that the best scorers that I've seen are guys that can score with a low volume of shots. When you're scoring with a low volume of shots, that means you go to the free throw. Nick probably in our league is getting to the line nine or 10 times a game which is really great for a freshman, helps our team. Nick's always been good at driving the ball and getting good opportunities. Some of that too, we've been in some situations where teams have had to foul and he got some extra free throws. Kentucky had to foul at the end and he got some extra free throws. Alabama fouled, and he probably got some extra free throws. Sometimes that can offset it. I don't know what his total number of free throws in the lead, in the heart of the game, but he's still doing a good job of getting to the basket. When you get to the basket and get fouled and putting up points, not affecting the shooting percentage and not taking as many shots.”
On how the crowd treatment on the road has been
“I haven't really seen a whole lot of difference. I really don't notice that much. I think our league has done a pretty good job of creating awareness in crowd control. There's a right way and a wrong way to do that but I think for the most part what we've addressed in the SEC spring meetings have been those issues. I can't say that's been a problem for us on the road. I really think that most of the administration understands that these are kids and it's just part of being a college student. If you want to root for you team I think that's fine but sometimes it crosses the line when you get into personal stuff. If you went to Ohio State, their fans were great. They rooted for Ohio State, cheered really hard for them, I think that's part of the college environment.
Some things have happened over the years, where I just thought it crossed the line sometimes. Most of the time there's police officers around the bench or people around. They've got a pretty good feel of what's tolerated and what's not tolerated. Matt Walsh was in a situation where I thought maybe it was unfair, but I understand those things. J.J. Redick, I saw that thing on him about what he went through. They're not doing it to bad players. I think you have to keep it in perspective of the player. If they're doing that then chances are you're pretty good.”
Chandler doing little things at the end of games to help the team
“He's trying. He and Nick and Jai, Marreese, all the young guys are trying. There's some areas that Chandler can really get better in and his team thinks that he can do physically. There's some things I see that he can do physically and things I've seen him not do physically. He can screen better. He had one drive on a fast break in the second half where he floated away from the basket and he tried to dunk one back in and he missed. All those things I think he can get better at. Are they where they need to be? No. They're not consistent enough. There's times you see glimpses. (Marreese) Speights for us. Who's going to show up for us on Wednesday? Who knows? That's the thing right now, part of being a good player. You know, how do you handle those situations and how do you come back and for Chandler it's the same thing. Things you see them do, part of being a good player on the college level.”
