UF Men's Hoops Prepares For First Of Two Road Games
Monday, January 19, 2009 | Men's Basketball
University of Florida head coach Billy Donovan Press Conference- 1/19/09
On South Carolina
“Two out of our first three SEC game have been at home and this will be a game on the road against probably the best backcourt in our league. Their team is playing a lot different than a year ago in terms of causing turnovers, their press, and getting up on people. I do think that two players that have continued to improve for them, Dominique Archie and Mike Holmes, both have provided scoring, rebounding, and are very aggressive and physical. Brandis Raley-Ross is a guy last year who at one point was shooting in the SEC about 50 plus percent from the three-point line who has battled some injuries early on in the year but is back playing. So, they are a very hard team to guard because they have two very explosive three-point scorers and Evaldas Baniulis is also a very good three-point shooter. This is a completely different type of style of play and system than they played a year ago and they appear to be an energized and exciting team. They gave Tennessee a heck of a run there in the second half to really get back in the game and give them a chance. This will be another great test for our team on both ends of the floor, taking care of the ball, and obviously trying to guard and rebound. “
On Kenny Kadji's play
“There are two things he has to deal with. One is handling success as a young guy because when he plays well he gets attention and he has to be able to comeback and realize that the next day is new day and get better and improve from there. The other thing he has to deal with is his fatigue in practice when he does get tired. Players are supposed to get tired, it is not that you are tired but how you handle being tired and to see what kind of fight, push, and toughness he has mentally and physically when dealing with fatigue. I think Kenny wants to be a good player and I think he works at it.”
On Erving Walker's Toughness
“Erving's recruitment was a little bit different because his high school coach coached against my father when I was playing in elementary school. He didn't live to far from me growing up and there was a relationship there that he knew me well enough and I knew him well enough that he really thought that there was some intangible things that he really felt that Erving Walker brought to the table that I was really going to like. At the time, when Taurean Green left and Walter Hodge being somewhat small, Erving Walker committed to us and we had to get a point guard at that time. We were recruiting Jai Lucas and Jai made the decision to come here so now we had Walter, Jai, and now we had a junior who is committed so we had a really big, strong, physical, athletic backcourt with those three guys. (sarcastic) Sometimes you look at situations and think how you got caught in them. Because I talked to the high school coach after Jai signed, there were a lot of people telling Erving Walker that this was no longer a good fit for him. I told Erving, before he signed, 'I had to bring another point guard for this year's team because I can't play without a point guard and I understand because things have changed on our end, I did not anticipate losing Taurean Green at the time, and I told him if you really feel like you need to reopen your recruitment and make a decision that is best for you then I will understand'. He said, 'no coach, whenever I play I compete and I have no problem going in there and competing and this is where I want to go'. I really respected and admired that because I think that shows a lot in a player. A lot of times, when recruiting, there are players that want to create a situation dealing with how much they are going to play and what position they are going to play, how they are going to be used. The thing With Erving is, here this player has had the ball in his hands his entire life but he can function playing with Nick (Calathes). In recruiting, you can't see and evaluate those things unfortunately but Erving has a lot of those intangible things in recruiting that I know I want. He has a lot of those intangible things, for a little guy, where he has the ability to impact winning and that is what I talk about with a lot of the coaches when recruiting, whether or not the potential guy can impact the game. Many guys may be talented, but there are a lot of talented guys who have no impact on the game. Erving Walker is probably the smallest guy I have ever had and he impacts the game with his defense, making a couple of big shots, and just playing tough.”
On Erving Walker's lack of height
“If he was a guy who didn't have that toughness and only wanted to shoot, I would have doubt but here is a guy who physically mixes it up for me. I am not saying he is going to grab four or five rebounds a game but he is going to mix it up, throw his body in plays, he is going to pressure the ball, and he will do some things that will have impact and I think that his shift from high school to college has been a lot more of a shorter, smaller shift than other freshmen. There is always a shift and certain guys have big ones and his has been a pretty good, small shift on a couple of things. He fights through the fatigue when he gets tired, he has a toughness there, and he understands how to fit in. He understands that he is not necessarily going to be the leading scorer but there are other things he can do and how he can inject his game into this team to help this team win. He has figured out how to do that and there are certain guys who figure it out a lot earlier than others, and Erving's shift there has been a little smaller than some.”
On the team's recent foul trouble
“The fouling has to do with two things. One is our guards getting beat off the dribble and our big guys having to step up. The other part is due to rotational blocking out. Dan (Werner) picked up an over the back foul in the first 13 seconds so he will have to make some better judgments on what balls to go after, what balls he can get, and what balls he can't get. We are always concerned about that with our team and I knew that fouls were going to be an issue in our game because Arkansas was going to the free-throw line 29 times a game. The thing that worked out at least for us was that (Michael) Sanchez and (Michael) Washington had to deal with foul trouble as Alex Tyus and Dan Werner did so they kind of offset each other.”
On whether or not Billy Donovan considers it to be Nick Calathes' team
“I don't know if I look at it that way. Walter (Hodge) and Dan (Werner) have invested a lot in this program and I think Nick is starting to figure out being a point guard and that there are other things he has to be concerned about to help our team and I really think he is trying to do that. I would never say that to one guy that it is their team. I always say it is more of a we thing and it is our team so to speak. I do agree that Nick has been a tremendous catalyst for our team. If you look at what he is going in the SEC right now with his assists, rebounds, scoring, field-goal percentage, making other guys better, and leading the league in assists, he is really helping our team greatly in these areas. What we really need right now, is for Dan Werner to keep himself on the floor and for Chandler Parsons to start being more aggressive physically and do some other things because his shooting percentage has been a little bit shocking to himself and I think to everybody but there are still things he can do to help our team. One of those things is to get in there and help rebound and do some more physical things. Everybody has got to do their part to contribute and to help.”
On the team's possibility of being ranked
“It would be terrific but in terms of impacting me, I would hope that our guys, with seeing so many guys go through being ranked, that it would be the expectation to be ranked. When talking about programs like Duke, North Carolina, and UCLA, I don't think they ever talk about their program being ranked as they think it is something that is supposed to happen. I think with our team right now, they should expect that and it should have no bearing on how we perform in games, practice and in what we do.”
On the room for growth on the defensive end
“During the games, there are some spots on the floor that we are really concerned about. Playing against Auburn, it was hard because we don't have a guy that can really shut somebody down. We have to do it collectively as a team and have to jam the lane up and try to overcome that. We can really get better at the things we can control. What I mean by that is we can control blocking out every single time and we can control being in position to be able to provide some help when a guy is matched up against someone he cant handle one on one. We can get better at the group and team things and being a more cohesive unit on the defensive end of the floor. We aren't changing their foot speed or their physicality or their quickness or their jumping ability but what we can try to change is our level of accountability and responsibility on the things that we need to do and that is without question an area that needs to get better. We need to keep bringing it up and keep exposing it and try to get them to understand what they have to do.”
On Erving Walker's competitiveness
“Erving Walker has an internal competitiveness about him but I have always said that you have to be able to share it and bring it out in other people too. So, his ability to be more of a verbal leader is going to be critical. One of the things I have tried to get him to do is try to lead our younger guys on the floor. He doesn't have to lead our team but certainly Kenny Kadji, Eloy Vargas, Allan Chaney, and Ray Shipman. That is going to be something that in uncomfortable for him but something we will try to pull out of him a little bit. I think he is a lot like, and I'm not comparing them as players or people, but he reminds me a lot of Al Horford in that I thought that Al was an extremely competitive guy but never really showed the emotion that Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, or even Udonis Haslem showed. You could see visual passion on them. Horford was one of those guys that was very composed and in a lot of ways, was mature and calmed down Noah and a lot of those guys. I would say that Al Horford was steady energy and I think Erving is the same way. He does not get raddled, does not lose composure, and is not way up here and then down there. He is pretty under control and has got a pretty good, wide perspective on what is going on which is the way Al was. We need Erving to be a little more vocal and maybe a little bit more like the way Taurean Green and Joakim Noah were in terms of how to lift up the team, because we don't have those types of guys on our team right now.”
