Showdown At The O'Dome: Gators Host No. 2 Kentucky On Tuesday Night
Monday, January 11, 2010 | Men's Basketball
A sell out crowd will be on hand for the Gators' SEC home opener on Tuesday night (9 p.m., ESPN) against No. 2 Kentucky. Florida is looking for its second defeat of a No. 2 ranked team this season, having beaten Michigan State on Nov. 27.
It is the first No. 2-ranked team to come to the O'Dome since Kentucky was ranked No. 2 on March 8, 2003. Florida has 10 wins over top five teams under Billy Donovan and is 3-3 against top five teams at the O'Connell Center under Donovan.
Take a first look at the Gators and the Wildcats (here).
BROADCAST INFORMATION
TV: ESPN
Streaming Video: ESPN360
Radio: Gator Radio Network (Affiliates)
XM Ch. 199 / Sirius Ch. 217 (must have Best of XM package)
Live Sports Radio (in O'Connell Center)
Streaming Audio: Listen Live
University of Florida Head Coach Billy Donovan
Press Conference Quotes
January 11, 2010
On the match-up with Kentucky:
“Obviously we are playing against a team that is undefeated up to this point in time. They are very gifted and talented - not only their incoming freshmen class, but their players from a year ago that are still there. They have great size, great length, great speed and quickness, which will be a tremendous challenge for our entire team.”
On what makes John Wall a special player:
“He has great speed and athleticism, and he's very long for a guard. He has the ability to rebound and be explosive on the open floor, has a terrific feel of how to play. He makes people around him better. He's a guy that's a special player all the way around.”
On dribble drive and how much he has studied it:
“Kentucky has great speed and quickness in every spot. When you are playing that way, you have the personnel that can really take you off the dribble and I think John Wall has got it off the dribble. When you have guys that can go off the dribble like that, shrinking the floor, cutting down gaps, those types of things become very important. Kentucky certainly thrives in a spread floor situation, where the floor is very open, they can use their one-on-one ability.”
On rebounding against Kentucky:
“Obviously it's going to be a challenge. Blocking out with us being man-on-man is going to be very important. They have a combination of all three things that make up a good rebounding team. They have length, they have strength and they have great pursuit of the ball. They have all three of those ingredients. Some of their guys rebound the ball with quickness, speed, and athleticism on the floor and it's hard to go around them. Some of them rebound where they carve out a way because they are physically strong. Then there are the other guys that have great pursuit of the ball. (Daniel) Orton, (DeMarcus) Cousins, Patrick (Patterson), obviously, even (Darnell) Dodson and (Darius) Miller, for their positions, have all three of those ingredients, which makes Kentucky a great rebounding team.”
On the game being nationally televised and emotion:
“I think a lot of these guys have probably played on more nationally televised games than I have in my entire career. When it comes to the TV part of it, a lot of our players have been exposed to that so much – it's at a different level than it was 15 or 20 years ago. Anytime you're playing a game there are emotions. I think our guys are excited about the opportunity to come home and play against a terrific team. The league is 16 games and every game you have to be emotionally ready to play. I think when you are not emotionally ready to play in this league, or any league for that matter, that ends up in a loss. We have work on some things to put ourselves in the best position. You can't let some of the stuff become a distraction - I don't think it will be. I think our guys will go out there and be ready to play.”
On Vanderbilt and fouls:
“Vanderbilt picked up several fouls on our guys by driving the ball out and using their bodies. I don't think we did a particularly good job of moving our feet and gaining better position. Macklin had five fouls and he played 14 minutes, Murphy had five fouls and played 13. So you have two full-court players that are combined for 27 minutes and 10 fouls. That's not productive defensively and we certainly need to get better. We have to move our feet and do some of those things better.”
On Vernon Macklin's 15 starts and his development as a player at UF:
“Vernon has done a really good job. I really like Vernon as a kid. I don't think a lot of people really, truly, understand emotionally what he had to go through after his first two years. I have all the respect for John Thompson and Georgetown's program. With Vernon's reputation I didn't spend much time recruiting him out of high school, I just saw him play a lot. I think when all of a sudden you get on a team with Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green, and a lot of really good players, you come here with the mentality that you are going to be one-and-done -you're just going to try to go to the NBA. It probably was a very humbling experience for him and I've tried to get Vernon to focus on going out and playing. He's started 15 games for us, but he's a senior in college and the last time he started a game was probably in high school. There are a lot of things he's got to get back confidence-wise and playing-wise, but he's done a good job for us. He's been a good addition to our team. Vernon has a really good basketball understanding, I think he's unselfish. The way Georgetown plays with the Princeton offense is a reason why Vernon has been asked to do some things that a lot of big guys have not been asked to do throughout their career. That has given him some assets that we can utilize and take advantage of. Vernon has done a nice job for us.”
On focusing on improvements:
“It is ironic because going into the Vanderbilt game, coming out of the N.C. State game, I really felt like it was important to go back and look at some of our guy's frustrations, like not shooting the ball well, and why. In talking to them and spending time with them, clearly they were able to see things on tape that gave them the confidence. It's very easy to tell a guy to stop shooting, but sometimes in games when guys are open, you don't want players second-guessing themselves, so we really focused on their minds there. This will be a game to watch. We need to play well offensively and we need to play well defensively.”
On Kentucky possibly being a championship team:
“They are in the mix. I've said this before. We won in 2006 and 2007 and if we had started the tournament all over again, I'm not so sure we would have won. Because anytime you are dealing with a tournament where it is a one-game situation, sometimes talent doesn't always prevail, sometimes foul trouble an injury or something crazy happens. I think without question that is Kentucky is in the mix. I think that it could happen for them this year and I would not be surprised. When we won in '06, people were surprised. If Kentucky won, people would not be surprised, because right now there is a tier of teams that maybe talent-wise above everybody else. But when you are above everybody else and it comes down to a one-shot game, anything can happen.”
On teams that could match Kentucky in the National Championship:
“I'm not so sure anyone matches up with them, just because they have a lot of different things. I don't know if there is a college point guard like John Wall. The fact that they are playing two point guards together makes them even that much more effective in transition and half-court offense. And then you look at the size of Daniel Orton, DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson, a first team All-American, you are probably dealing with three or four lottery picks on their team, so there are not a lot of teams that are going to be able to throw that at you. They are a team overwhelming with size and talent.”
On traps and the benefit for Florida:
“During the game against Vanderbilt I don't think we made good decisions on when we left to go trap. We allowed the ball to be moved on the floor too many times, which led to bad things. There are certain times in the press when teams are going to space you and create some long runs and sometimes you aren't going to get as many turnovers. I've always said if you get turnovers and traps, that's great, but if you don't, what you're still trying to do is be disruptive to a team's offensive flow. There have been some games, for example against Michigan State, where we turned the ball over a lot. Florida State we turned the ball over a lot. In games like Richmond and Vanderbilt, we didn't turn the ball over a lot, but the press can still have its effect. Rutgers, for example, is a team we didn't turn over a lot and after the game, Freddy Hill said the press didn't turn Rutgers over, but it did allow Florida to get a rhythm. That's what our guys need to understand – if we don't get a press or a steal, it doesn't mean its not effective, it still helps us focus.”
