M. Golf Head Coach Buddy Alexander Met With Media On Monday
Monday, February 8, 2010 | Men's Golf
Men's golf head coach Buddy Alexander spoke with members of the media on Monday in preparation for the annual SunTrust Gator Invitational, which will be held at the Mark Bostick Golf Course on Feb. 13-14.
On this year's Gator Invitational:
“This year's Gator Invitational is a lot like our past tournaments. We don't have a lot of top-10 teams, although Florida State is ranked fifth and we're ranked third so we have a nice little rivalry going on there. I know they'd like nothing more than to come to Gainesville and put an end to our six-year winning streak. Our kids are working hard and preparing and we're hoping to come out this year with another win.”
On the team's success so far in 2009-10:
“Although we haven't won at all this year, we've been extremely consistent all year long and I'm real proud of that. Coming into the season we had a lot of unknowns. We had three seniors who participated in our top-five last year, including one of the best players in the nation in Billy Horschel. We played well and have had a good start to the spring so hopefully we can put it all together and get our first win of the year at the Gator Invitational.”
On how he selects the tournament field:
“I think everyone would like to have the best field possible, but I've never been huge on worrying about teams like Oklahoma State and Georgia wanting to come play Florida on our home course. We all do our schedules for different reasons. Coming to Florida to play in February is a good deal for a lot of teams. The Gator is kind of middle of the road. It's above average in field quality, but certainly we don't get a lot of the real big schools to come down here. I don't know whether they don't want to play the Gators at home in February, but I'm happy to get the teams that we get. Our tournament field is made up of predominately the better teams in the southeast and a lot of conference teams. As I said, Duke is coming this year, along with LSU so we have a good mix of some quality teams.”
On if being ranked No. 3 has any bearing on the coaches/golfers:
“I don't really pay much attention to polls in general, but I do feel that it was important this year for us to get off to a good start and gain some confidence. Golf is an individual sport and it's all about confidence. Had our team gotten off to a poor start, they may be second guessing themselves more than they might already. The nature of the game in golf is everyone second guesses themselves. So I think getting off to a good start was important because the team is realizing that we may be a little bit better than we thought. I know, and they know, that we are not the best team in the country and obviously we are working to be right up there when the season comes to an end, when it really matters. The conference this year is wide open, no one is really dominating. In terms of NCAA, I don't think anyone is really arguing that Oklahoma State is the best team in the country. However, I've had the best team in the country heading into the NCAA tournament and not won.”
On whether rankings affect a teams' confidence:
I think it might, especially when you're not really sure about the team going in. As I said, when we lost what we lost last year, I think a lot of people weren't really sure how well we were going to do. We were ranked No. 18 in the preseason and some of our guys may have thought that we were much better than that but that's pretty much what I expected. I think right now, my team feels like they're a top-five team. We'll find out in the next month or two.”
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