UF Men's Basketball Prepares For Kentucky
Monday, February 9, 2009 | Men's Basketball
University of Florida Head Coach Billy Donovan Press Conference 2-9-09
On the upcoming game v. Kentucky
“Both teams have had a week off and I'm sure this time of year, from our perspective of trying to get back physically, just to heal some bumps and bruises… the last 15 days have been a very emotional 15 days getting to the half way point of our league and we got a chance to take a couple of days off. I thought we had some days in practice where we were able to improve and focus on some things and maybe add some new things in. The same could probably be said for Kentucky. Going into this off week they had an opportunity to certainly get healed, get healthier and also work and try to improve on some things. Going into this game on the road, it is always a tough place to play. It will be a great environment and a great challenge for our team.”
On how to handle Patrick Patterson
“I don't know if anyone per se has ever handled him down low. He is one of the better frontcourt players in our league. He is a tremendous tough guy who is very physical.
I don't think you can play him with one person. There are times when you can trap him and try to get the ball out of the post there, and there are other times with the way they run the offense, it is very difficult to trap because they put the ball in his hands where the whole weak side is cleared out so they take advantage of that. This is going to be a game where we will have to do a good job before he catches the ball. I would say that he is probably as good as anybody in our league at catching the ball in an area where he can just go score. There are certain guys that score before they ever catch the ball; he is one of those guys. He really understands how to seal in post and get angles and he knows how to work a guy up the lane. We are going to have to be very intelligent from knowing where our help is coming from to how we are actually playing him in the post. There are times when you are on the topside of him, he moves you up the lane and you realize that you have to change position. There are times when he gets you behind him and he has got you sealed in the paint and you have to walk around and get to the front.”
On Patrick Patterson not choosing to play for Florida
“I don't think there is any question that we had some challenges in the frontcourt and I do think Alex (Tyus) and Dan (Werner) are having good years playing and are giving me as much as they have each and every day. As a Coach, you are always trying to bring out more. I have always been one of those guys in recruiting that you are always going to have more people tell you no than tell you yes. I think with Patrick Patterson being at Kentucky, it is a great get for them. He has had a great career up to this point in time. I know he battled some injuries last year but I think for him he is in a good situation where they are really able to take advantage of the things he can do. If he was at Florida, Ole Miss, Georgia, Tennessee, or anybody it would be the same impact for those teams as it is for Kentucky. He was one of the best frontcourt players coming out, and he is really coming from day one and has been a real force in this league. I'm sure a lot of guys would have liked to have Lofton, I know a lot of guys would have liked to have Tayshaun Prince, a lot of guys would have liked to have Mike Miller. But when guys make decisions you move on, you take the guys you have, do the best job you can with them and hopefully all the younger guys can find a way to get better at the same time.”
On Kentucky losing their last three games
“I think our guys understand and there is always a lot of talk about that before the game starts and leading up to the game. Our guys are going to have to go in and understand that for us right now, I said this against Tennessee, I didn't think we played as well as we were capable of and I think Tennessee had a lot to do with that as they shot the ball very well in the game. One thing that happens for a team that has been losing a few in a row, what changes in a very quick time is guys making shots and I think that's been a big thing that has been talked about with Kentucky. Besides (Patrick) Patterson and (Jodie) Meeks, who will be the others guys to contribute and help. They have guys that are capable of scoring, (DeAndre) Liggins, and (Darius) Miller are capable scorers. (Michael) Porter can shoot the ball although he hasn't shot it great as of late. Like anything else, when you are going through games sometimes you see a shooting percentage go down, a player percentage, or some type of percentage change. You have to be a team that understands we really have to get this one. Hopefully our guys feel the same exact way their guys feel. We have to understand that we are going to get Kentucky's best effort tomorrow night and going into the game that they are going to play their best game of the year. That is the way you try to approach it. I don't look at it the other way that they have lost a couple in a row here. No, I look at it that Florida is coming in there and Florida is going to get Kentucky's best shot. That is how I try to prepare our team so they understand that and hopefully that says to us, we have to come play the same way to the very best of our ability.”
On the key to having a better result than the Tennessee game
“I don't think there is any question that Nick's (Calathes) fouls in the first half against Tennessee were definitely a problem and I think last year against Kentucky, Nick had some fouls in the first half. I think a year ago, we got into a pretty good start offensively and Kentucky really made some timely shots last year as the shot clock was winding down. In the Tennessee game, with Nick getting fouls, Tennessee played great, they shot the ball extremely well, we never really got off to a good start and we were never really able to get back in there. Like anything else, on the road, your ability to rebound the ball on missed shots is going to very important, and so is your ability to take care of the ball and take good quality, high percentage shots. When you are on the road, if the ball starts going in the basket early, that always fuels and feeds into a level of confidence for your team and not that we want to go in there and say the only chance we have is to shoot the ball well, no we have to rebound the ball well we have to take care of the basketball. I think that we have to go in and try to be aggressive, try to attack and we have to try and offensive rebound and do some of those things as well. How we handle the adversity in the game will be important. When I say adversity it could be fouls to our frontcourt, it could be fouls to our backcourt, it could be we are not shooting great, it could be they are shooting well and we are playing pretty good defense but they are still making shots. There are going to be some things that are going to go on during the game that you are going to have to overcome and those things can be a lot of different things. One of those things that we were never really able to overcome in the first half of Tennessee, we were never able to overcome Nick being out and we were never really able to overcome the primary and number reason, which was Tennessee played great. You have to give their kids credit because they stepped up and played very well.”
On Jodie Meeks
“In transition baskets and coming out of the press is going to be important because he really does a terrific job in letting the team find him in broken floor situations. The floor has opened up after a missed shot and coming out of the press they find him and he gets his three's off. They do a good job in what I would call their high-low motion screening action. They put him on the wing and they have Patterson posting up on one block and will have him come off the double screen, so you have a great low post player coming off and you have a really good shooter coming off at the same time. How do you navigate through those actions right there? If you give to much help on Patterson you will probably have a shot by Meeks and if you don't pay any attention to Patterson then it goes to him. They do some very good things to try and put you in a bind where they try to have Patterson isolate one-on-one in the post and they try to get Meeks coming off. Some teams like Ole Miss who athletically was able to handle some of those things by playing a certain way. Whether or not our personnel can do it we will have to see. South Carolina, the way they play with their frontcourt players, the three or four guys they have, and the way they create the environment of the game, I am not so sure we can do some of those things. A lot of times, it comes down to the matchups you have against their matchups and what you have to deal with. Certainly everybody is telling me that with the game against Kentucky, the focus is on Meeks and Patterson and how you go about trying to take them away may be different from one team to the next and that will be a challenge for us. Meeks will get his three in transition and on the screening action. The other thing that he does a really good job at is that he is a terrific driver. He is a hard, strong, physical driver. When he gets an angle and his body on you he is really good at getting some room and when he gets fouled he will finish with making free throws.”
On the Florida Kentucky rivalry
“Anytime you are playing anybody on your side (of the SEC) whether it be South Carolina, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, or Tennessee, I think there are always natural rivalries because you are playing them twice a year. There is always going to be a level of rivalry inside your league. Is the rivalry more important than Vanderbilt, Georgia, Tennessee, or South Carolina? I don't know, it is one game right now and it is a game on the road against a team on our side where both teams are a game apart in the win and loss column and I think it will be a big game for both teams. Is it bigger than another game? I don't want to say that right now but there is no question, with the league standings and where both teams are now, it is a big game.”
On Kentucky's expectations of Coach Billy Gillispie
“Fans are passionate all over the country. Billy (Gillispie) has done a terrific job there. It is his second year and he is recruiting guys and getting good players in there. He is trying to get the team to understand his style of play. Kentucky is a very unique place and is very passionate about basketball in a positive way. What they do look at is the fact that they are a tradition and what their program has done and meant to college basketball going all the way back to Adolf Rupp. It is an incredibly tradition enriched place that has enjoyed unbelievable success for such a long period of time. When you talk about the fact that Kentucky has more SEC league titles than the rest of the teams combined gives you an idea of their balance for so long. When you are there you realize the expectation to perform and that winning and competing for championships is very important. In probably someway, every college coach whether it be in the SEC, the ACC, or the Big East is trying to create that type of culture and that type of environment where you are building tradition and building expectation. So when you do have that there can be some good and there can be some bad. It is not always as great as it may appear and it is not always as bad as it may appear. They have a game against us tomorrow, they still have eight games left in the league and there is still a long way to go. How you manage and go through that is something that is important. There is no question that a lot of fans out there are passionate about Kentucky basketball.”
On Nick Calathes and Chandler Parsons
“Nick had a phenomenal year last year as a freshman. He has changed positions a little bit going from the wing spot for us to playing the point. I think he is adjusting and has done a great job understanding how to lead and understating the importance of getting everybody on the same page in transition form. He has really worked hard at that. For Chandler, it has kind of been a little bit of an up and down year. I think he is starting to figure out a little bit more of how hard he has got to play and the kind of mindset he has to have going into games. He has really grown and has gotten better also. The one thing people fail to realize a lot of the time because they haven't had the opportunity to play here, is that they are both only in their sophomore year. They are both going through a maturation process not only playing, but as people. You can see their growth and the progress in which they have made both on and off the floor.”
On the freshmen's last week of practice
“With Allan (Chaney) being hurt, that kind of hurt a little because he was doing very well. The freshmen I would say were ok but not as good as I would like them to have been. In relationship to the comment I made about them last week, there are still inconsistencies during the course of their practice. They need to be able to build up a trust with their coaches if they are going to be reliable with their effort, with how hard they play and compete, and with their responsibilities on both ends of the floor. They are young and they still have a lot of growing to do. There is no question, that when we can get maximum effort out of those guys, it makes practices a lot better.”
