Donovan and Gators Prepare For Surging Georgia Wednesday Night
Monday, January 25, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Billy Donovan
Press Conference Quotes
January 25, 2010
On Georgia:
“We had a pretty emotional week as a team with a late game on Thursday at Arkansas and then having to turn around and play on South Carolina on Saturday. We have two days to prepare for what I consider to be a very good Georgia team. I've seen this situation before when there's been a coaching change and there are some new players and then some returners who are adjusting to a new coach. Mark (Fox) has done a great job with this Georgia team. I definitely don't think their record is indicative of how they've played since the SEC season started. They've had some good non-conference wins – they beat Georgia Tech and Illinois. They probably played Kentucky on the road as well as any team in our league, then obviously had a great win over Tennessee over this past weekend. They rebound the ball exceptionally well and they have tremendous size in their frontcourt with (Chris) Barnes, (Albert) Jackson, (Trey) Thompkins and (Jeremy) Price. (Travis) Leslie on the perimeter has evolved from his freshman to sophomore year. He's a very athletic player, they have great perimeter shooting and (Dustin) Ware is great. They have very good pieces and they're efficient on offense. This will be a great challenge for our team on Wednesday.”
On the team's improvement on little things with the past two wins:
“In our game with Arkansas, I thought we rebounded the ball well down the stretch and made some key shots. Really, if Chandler's shot doesn't go in, then we have a different feeling in the locker room. You want to put yourself in the position to win. In the SEC, there are a lot of games like that. In the Arkansas and South Carolina games, we did some things to try to be able to win the game. I've always talked about the little things that Dan Werner does. His awareness – that's a little thing to have the experience to get the ball out of bounds so quickly and get it up the floor. On that particular play, (Devan) Downey fell on the floor and there was a certain awareness there by Dan. Even in the loss to South Alabama, Chandler tried to step up and take charge. I think they're trying to get better. Their focus is in the right place and they want to win.”
On practicing for a potential buzzer beater play:
“There are certain things you do – there are actually a lot of things you do, but one of the things we try to do is put a minute on the clock in practice and play it out. We try to get that stuff in at least a couple times a week between preparation, scouting reports and doing what we need to do to get better. Sometimes things occur in a game that spontaneously happen. We try to create as many of those situations as we can for our team, so at least they know what they're supposed to do as far as the execution part. Sometimes it goes your way, other times it doesn't. That's really one thing you want to do as a coach is give your guys a chance and an opportunity. Our guys put themselves into position when Chandler (Parsons) hit that shot against South Carolina.”
On the odds of hitting the shot on spontaneity or a designed play:
“It's a great question, because sometimes you look at it as a coach and you say to a player, 'I've got this great last-second play and you're going to be wide open and get the shot.' Then the guy is walking out of the huddle wondering if he's going to make the shot or miss, if he's going to be open or not. Sometimes it's easier on the spontaneity of a play to make a shot. When Devan Downey made that shot and Dan Werner go the ball out of bounds, Chandler (Parsons) did not know what was going to happen, but he put himself in a position to face the floor. (Erving) Walker could have tried to take it up the floor and make a play, but he didn't. Sometimes it's a little bit easier taking a shot like that when there's not a clear-cut decision on who's going to take it. On that play, it was huge that (Kenny) Boynton ran through towards the basket and the South Carolina defender had to take him going to the basket, which freed up Chandler on the wing.”
On starting 0-2 in conference play and having evolved to 3-2 in the SEC:
“As a coach, every day you want to go into it having the guys' focus on the right things. Certainly there is a little lack of depth on our team and a lack of depth in our backcourt, but we try to go out there and play to the very best of our ability with the hand we're dealt – we try to have everyone on the same page. I think our guys have their focus on the right things. This team is a really great team when it comes to paying attention to scouting reports and knowing what we need to do offensively. They're really a good listening team and I feel like they try. A lot of times the goal and the result you want is to win in the end, but there's a lot that goes into that. To get yourself in the position, your team has to be in the right frame of mind to try to get wins. I think they're doing it the best they can in those areas. As a coach, you want to try to help them get into that. We've showed some good resiliency. We have a lot more games left to play and a lot more things can happen. If Chandler's shot hadn't gone in against South Carolina, the mistakes we made in that game would be a lot more magnified. We did make some poor choices and we need to get better at them. The maturity part, which we'll see today, is if they can put that excitement aside and find a way to get better from it.”
