Men's Basketball Meets The Media
Thursday, October 15, 2009 | Men's Basketball
University of Florida Basketball Media Day
October 15, 2009
Billy Donovan Quotes
Head Coach Billy Donovan (Watch Press Conference)
Opening Statement…
“This is obviously an exciting time for everyone who enjoys college basketball. I know that our guys are anxious to get started. I'm very pleased with the effort that the players put in during the summer and I think that we had a very good off-season. I think going into this year is that I can already tell that there is a big change in maturity. Now, how will that translate into wins and losses, I am not sure. I feel like the chemistry, unit and bond of the team has gotten better from what I have seen over the past few weeks. I think those are things you want to start off as building blocks for the season. We have some guys who have really made some great leaps. Ray Shipman has lost about 16 pounds and is in the best shape of his life. He has a much greater commitment to his body. Erving Walker has changed his body as well. Dan Werner and Chandler Parsons are also in great shape. Our freshman, Erik Murphy and Kenny Boynton, appear to be physically able to handle the things that we've thrown at them. I think it's interesting to watch freshman as they go through the first few weeks of conditioning and individual workouts because a lot of times you know that you're in bad shape when they can't even get through a workout. We've had that in years past and those two guys have really been able to handle the things we've asked of them and they've done it with intensity.”
On what the team needs to improve upon this season:
“If you look at the RPI, we have played 15 games against the teams ranked from first in the country to No. 50. Those generally are the best teams in the country and are NCAA Tournament teams. In those 15 games, we are 3-12. The thing that we break down and have realized is that those teams have shot way too high of a percentage against us, we did not defend the three-point line and the last problem was the rebounding. I think those were the things that prevented us from being an elite team. I do feel like our depth is in our front court so hopefully that's an area where we will be better. We do not have a lot of depth in our back court. So we need to figure out a way to play so that we give our back court guys time to be rested and have the opportunity to go in late in the game and help us out. I think that's critical. We also need to create a situation in which Walker and Boynton, who could potentially be two our leading scorers, are not worn down coming into the home stretch of the game when we need their support.”
On Vernon Macklin's potential impact:
“I think there's no question that physically Vernon gives us pressure going inside but I think that he does need to get better at rebounding the ball. When he is fresh, he is a tremendous runner and shot blocker, but he is not a guy that handles fatigue very well right now. I think he's a much better shooter now than he was a year ago and I do think he gives us some size defensively against some of our bigger opponents. Kenny Kadji is another guy that gives us core size and presence in our front court, but he is probably the one guy who has been the most inconsistent. His maturity needs to get better and he needs to become more consistent. If we handle the consistency, I feel like we will have a presence in size and strength at that spot. Alex Tyus will probably move toward a forward position and we have Werner there so I think we have some flexibility in those spots. So I think Vernon's size will give us a presence there but he has to learn to rebound and alter shots at the basket.”
On Adam Allen:
“Adam Allen has been frustrated. A week from this (coming) Saturday was a year to the day that he got hurt. He has had a couple surgeries and has been cleared to do some light running. Clearly, he is behind. I feel terrible for him because he has been trying to get himself back. He will not be practicing tomorrow. He is doing some light running but is having some discomfort. I think the doctors have determined that there isn't much more structural damage that he can do to his knee, it's just a matter of how much discomfort he will endure practicing.”
On the expectations of Kenny Boynton and Vernon Macklin:
“Anytime there are new players that join a team with a reputation already, there is always a different level of expectation. I think that the expectations should really be on the returning players. Boynton and Vernon have to be able to contribute and help this team. I think in Boynton's case, for a player who has come in with the reputation that he has, he has come in with a great level of humility. Sometimes when you have guys like that come in, they come in with an attitude and the idea that they already have all of the answers and have it all figured out. He is anything but that. He's a great teammate and I think he's made the chemistry on our team better. He's one guy on the team and I hope that our other players want to step up and provide more for him. But we are not going into this putting a lot of emphasis on him to make us productive. He's going to be a good player here, but I think that the expectation that he's going to be this total impact player is unfair to him.”
On his first impressions of the team:
“It's interesting because I think we have somewhat of a new team, but with the same players. For two years Alex has been at center and now he's going to make the shift to his more natural position at power forward. Erving has been more of a point guard his entire career but because Nick Calathes was so good with the ball in his hands, he was more of a shooting guard. I'm hoping that for a guy like Dan Werner, who I think absorbed way too many minutes last year, he will be able to have some time to rest and be fresher when we need him. I do think we have some guys we can plug into some spots. I only wish we had a little bit more depth in our back court in case we run into foul trouble or a sickness or injury.”
On who will fill the leadership role:
“Although Nick Calathes did have the ball a lot and came up big for us in certain situations, if you look at the end of the year, Erving played a lot too. I would hope that Chandler, Dan and Vernon would step up as older players and get a little better at the free throw line. I don't know if we have a clear cut leader on the team. Even on the some other teams I've had, I don't think there's ever been a go-to guy. You always try to get a guy a shot from an area of the floor where a player has a good chance of making the shot, whoever it may be. There's no question that Nick was the only guy last year who was capable of making the big shot at the end of the game but I'm hoping this year we can spread the ball a round a little bit more.”
On what this year's team will bring:
“I think that there are a lot of people who have a lot of questions about who this team is and what they can become and to me, that's exciting and challenging. I think our guys are working toward that. There are things that I'm seeing that as a team makes me feel like we are moving in the right direction.”
On Ray Shipman:
“I think he's a huge factor for us because I think he's the one guy that can provide more depth into our back court. I think Ray came in with the totally wrong mindset and I don't think he bought into the things that we needed him to do to make our team better. He has a much better understanding of who he is and what we need him to do. I don't think he ever pushed himself to get into shape. He could not play through fatigue, like many of our players last year. When they got tired, they didn't have the talent to get through it. I think Ray saw that and he is working a lot harder to get himself into better shape. He is moving better and is more athletic than he was. Is he shooting and handling the ball better? I don't know. But I do know he's in better physical condition to be a better player for us. That's something he needed to address first. It would give us great versatility in our back court if he can fill his role of what we need him to do. He came in last year with too much focus on being a scorer and not enough on being a defender.”
On the addition of Nimrod Tishman:
“We were put in a tough position when Jai Lucas decided to move on and Nick Calathes decided to pursue a professional opportunity because we went from having two back court players who played a lot of minutes to having none. And now you lose Walter Hodge. So even in that late signing period, it was hard to find a guy late when you have no relationships already made. There were some guys we had tried to recruit but weren't interested because we had those two talented players. So that made it difficult to recruit, but once they left, we felt we needed to bring someone back in. Nimrod can handle the ball but I don't have a lot of expectations on him being a major contributor at all this year. I do feel like he can come in and play for a few minutes and provide us the relief we need.”
On returning to the NCAA Tournament:
“I think the challenge is always to build that back. My first two years here were losing seasons and you never really know what the future holds. I can remember being about as down and disappointed as I ever could be after losing to Manhattan in the NCAA Tournament and then two years later we won back-to-back National Championships. The thing for me is whether the players and coaches are working to get back to being as best as you can be. Certainly, the goal is to get to the tournament and compete for the SEC Championship, but I did realize the uphill battle that would be in front of us after 2007 when we had Jonathan Mitchell, Marreese Speights, Walter Hodge and Dan Werner as our only four guys. It's not like I didn't know that and would think we would go on like we were. I think its all part of the growth process. Competitively, of course that's where we want to be, but it's all a process. I made a comment about Kobe Bryant, where he won a championship and it was six-straight years before he ever got back to that point. I think in any program or even professional franchise, there are ups and downs. I don't think anyone is always at the top, every year for the rest of their lives. That's the exciting part and the challenge for me is to get back to that point.”
On Erving Walker and the expectations upon him this season:
“Erving has been doubted his entire life. He's a great competitor and I have a lot of trust in him. I told him that this season will be the most challenging of his career in basketball. I told him that what he was in store for this year would be like no other year he has experienced playing the game of basketball. I laid out for him what he needed to do. He needed to get stronger and get in much better shape. I think he took all of those things and really committed himself to getting better in those areas. He's doing everything that I have asked him to do to get prepared for this season. I think Nick made the game pretty easy for him and got him shots. There was a level of relief playing alongside Nick. I think Erving will embrace and take on the challenge that he has in front of himself. I'm excited to see how he does respond because I know he has worked hard and committed to improving on those things.”
University of Florida Basketball Media Day
October 15, 2009
Player Quotes
Junior forward Chandler Parsons
On identity of team
“This offseason we have definitely been focusing on conditioning. Coach wants us to be the best conditioned team in the country and I think we are as much as we have been running, so I think we're going to be a team that presses a lot, runs up and down the court and gets out on the break and makes open shots, takes open shots, takes good shots. I think we are just going to be like that and try to play great defense and try to limit as many second chance points as we can.”
On Kenny Boynton
“Huge talent. Really good player. He is going to come in here and really help us out. He can really shoot the ball and really score. He's got the potential to be a really good defender. So I mean, I think he's got a lot of parts to his game that can help us out this year in his position.”
On playing without Nick Calathes
“I have a lot of faith in the guards we have this year. I mean, Erving, Nimrod, Kenny; those are all great players. I am just as confident playing with those guys as I was with Nick.”
On replacing Nick Calathes
“Definitely. Losing a guy who averaged 17, 18 points, that's going to call for someone to step up or many people step up. I don't think anyone on our team is really looking out there like 'oh yeah, I am going to fill in Nicks points or I'm going to be the leading scorer.' We have such an unselfish group that I think whoever is open is going to get the ball and were just going to keep playing that way.”
Senior forward Dan Werner
On how he can help the team
“I am just looking forward to helping the team in any way I can, coming off the bench, whatever, it doesn't matter to me. I am just real excited to get this season started.”
On having more players on the front court
“How many guys do we have now that we can rotate in? Before we only had two or three that we could put in, and now you have extra guys that you can put in, that you can give one hundred percent. If you played more time, of course you wanted to give one hundred percent, but that was not realistic and now we can do that.”
On offseason talk
“Anyone can say whatever they want, you know, that's the bottom line. It's all about what you do on the court, and your actions. Everyone can talk a good game but it is what you can do out there. We're excited, we think we are better. Just do the same thing last year. That is just the truth. Hopefully we are better and can come together as a team that is what is most important.”
On how the Gators are a better team
“Yea, adding a guy who is 6-10 doesn't hurt, adding a McDonald's All-American, another guy who is 6-9. Obviously adding those pieces will help us a lot and is going to push everyone else. Last year we only had so many guys, coach's hands might have been tied, he had to play people. And now with so many bodies, if you are not producing you might not be playing and I think that is one thing that is going to be pushing everyone.”
Junior forward Alex Tyus
On decision to return to UF
“Just being able to get all the opportunities as a basketball player and to grow, but I realized that my best opportunity is right here and that was the main reason I wanted to come back.”
On having to play center his first two seasons
“It was tough, it was very tough, I can't say it was easy to bang all the time in the SEC, but I think everybody was a little frustrated because we didn't make the tournament. Just thinking back, this was the main place I wanted to be and this is where I am at.”
On having Vernon Macklin, another big body
“It helps a lot. I'm really excited that he gets to play this year and I think our whole team is. I think it is going to be a huge difference. It takes a lot of pressure off all of our guys. Last year whenever I was in foul trouble, Dan had to guard big guys. Vern this year will be able to guard other guys more his size, more his strength. A lot of mismatch problems now. Vern can run too so we will still have a fast paced game. I don't think were going to be losing anything, it's going to be a big gain.”
On Kenny Boynton
“He is a really good shooter, he knows how to score and he is just getting used to the way we play, the style we play, going up and down and I think he will be a good defender too.”
Junior center Vernon Macklin
On how tough it was having to sit out last year
On what changes in preparation he made from the previous stop to here
“A lot of things. I think I had to grow up a lot. I had to get bigger and stronger in the weight room. I had to change from the Princeton offense to Coach Donovan's offense. I had to change a lot of things. It worked for the better.”
On what fans can expect from him this season
“I'm just going to go out there and help the team the best I can, whatever we need to do to win. I'm going to help the team, help the frontcourt guys Alex Tyus and Kadji, the young freshmen, and Dan Werner. I'm just going to do everything I can.”
On how sitting out a year helped his game.
“It helped me out a lot. I watched a lot of games, I worked out with Coach Donovan and Coach (Rob) Lanier. So it helped me a lot like being a lot more mental, stronger, and physical. I honestly think last year that I wasn't ready to go out there and help the team out. I think this whole year sitting out really helped me do what I want to do.”
Sophomore guard Erving Walker
On his relationship with Kenny Boynton
“It's great, he's a great player. He comes in here with a lot of accolades. He just wants to learn and be the best player he can be. He's just a flat out scorer”
On his comfort level at playing the point guard position
“That was my natural position in high school. I'm not uncomfortable with that, I know that it is an adjustment at the college level and I haven't played the point guard position at this level yet, but that's what I'll do this year and I've been working hard with Coach D at it and I think I'll be OK.”
