Gators Prepare For Volunteers Tuesday Night; Donovan, Players Address The Media
Monday, January 10, 2011 | Men's Basketball
University of Florida Head Coach Billy Donavan
Monday January 10, 2011
Thoughts on Tennessee:
“We're playing against a team that is very-very deep, very talented, very athletic a team that's had some great, great wins this year I think like we have and maybe you've had some games where people look at some games they should of won but didn't the same thing is said about us but I think anytime that you go on the road and playing in a game like this its always a challenge I think we have had a couple games this year where we have gone into some difficult environments in Tallahassee (Florida State) and Xavier and I think our guys have an understanding of what playing on the road is all about. But we have to play well and play better than we did when we played against Ole Miss and I thought Ole Miss on Saturday played a terrific game they made some real timely sharp shots, I think warrens performance in the first half was terrific. I thought our guys responded to that and we were able to come away with the win. But now we get into an eastern conference opponent, we have two this week, quick turn around for us as it is for them going Saturday (then) Tuesday and try and get our guys prepared as we possibly can going into Knoxville tomorrow night. “
On Tennessee associate head coach Tony Jones filling in for head coach Bruce Pearl:
“I don't know all the inner workings of their staff or how they're handling the situation but I would say this when I had John Pelphrey and Anthony Grant and guys that had been with me for long periods of time I think you all start to think alike and prepare alike and certainly there staff at Tennessee has been together for a long period of time and it's a difficult situation for them and what kind of impact that has on their team and games. They are probably more equipped to handle that then I would be because I don't know how they game plan or what they are trying to do with Bruce not being there on the bench, but they do have a pretty cohesive group that has been together for a while that knows the system and what Bruce wants inside and out.”
On offense resurgence:
“I think our guys are always willing to make the extra pass I think when things happen inside a game and plays happen very, very quickly and you have to react. I felt like earlier in the year we were not taking advantage of each others strengths and talents and nothing more than the lack of awareness or understanding of what open or what's available and what they should be looking at and I think as time has gone on they have gotten better at seeing some of those things. Like Alex Tyus has went through a period there where I didn't think he was involved offensively and it had nothing to do with him because he was open several times and we kind of missed him and the same could be said for Vernon Macklin in the post, he went through some stretches where he didn't touch the ball in the post but it wasn't that Vernon Macklin wasn't demanding the ball or that our guys didn't want to throw it to him- we missed him and I think that we missed a lot of that stuff early in the year when we needed to do a better job of taking advantage of each other's skill set. I think there is a better understanding and they are starting to see little bit more of that and I hopefully we can continue to get better because I think that as you start to play teams are going to take away different things and you are going to have to adjust and adapt to counters and different things, scouting and preparation wise as you begin to add different things offensively they have an understanding of where the ball needs to be.”
About comments on defense after Ole Miss Game:
“I think really more than anything else, I thought we were not aggressive enough, I thought Ole Miss really drove us hard, we got caught below the 3-point line which enabled (Chris) Warren and (Trevor) Gaskins and a couple of those guys to knock down 3's and we needed to be up higher on the floor than we were. One of the things that we didn't want to do against them is get out and pressure at the half court because of their speed in the back court allowing them to create penetration down the lane and we wanted to try and shrink the court and play in an area that we eliminated some of that penetration but I felt we got too deep with our defense to and too consumed with the drive that we gave up too many 3-point shots in the second half. and the shots that Warren made in the second half were there in the first half and he had a couple of good looks that didn't go in- he went 0-4 and then he took a lot more of them in the second half obviously they went down for him. But we needed to be up above the 3-point line and I thought a couple times we got caught below the three-point line.”
On UF's success when Walker and Boynton consistently hit 3s:
“I think one of the things that happens is when the ball goes in the basket it helps our team and gives the appearance that your playing better but if you think about this Kenny Boynton takes 12-13 shots in a game and Irving Walker about 12-13 shots in a game we take 60-70 shots in a game, shooting the ball takes about 1 second. After you shoot the ball, we take 70 shots, there is probably going to be about 38 minutes and 10 seconds in the game when there is absolutely no one shooting the ball and we are going to have to screen, run offense, transition defense, and those things. I think my job is what I try to do and that is get those guys to understand is, there is no question that when the ball goes into the basket it helps that team but it can get to a point that when we are not shooting the ball well it bleeds into and affects the other things that they are doing on the floor.
Kenny Boynton takes 12 shots he plays 33 minutes. So for 32 minutes and 48 seconds he's never shooting the ball in the game. If those shots not going in starts to affect those other 32 minutes and 48 seconds he's playing that now bleeds into hurting our team and we can't be a team that when the balls not going into the basket it affects those minutes that we are not shooting the ball. And that's been something I have been trying- we all know that we shot the ball well against Ole Miss, Boynton, Walker ,Chandler all shot it well and that no question helps our team, because now we have inside, we have outside and we've become a lot more difficult to guard but as well as we shot the ball, we didn't defend like we needed to in the second half and we had a 11 point lead or 12 point lead at one point and they took the lead by 2 and we made some key timely shots but we got to focus more on the things we have control over, that we can do, through scouting, through our principals, philosophies those things and I think we are trying to get better at it.”
Is it a battle to get them to understand that?
“It's always a battle. I don't see a lot on ESPN of guys doing a good block out or a guy stepping out and taking a charge. They show high flying dunks, this guy scored 40, and what happens is sometimes instinctively people will say well how did you do or how many points did you score and a lot of times it has nothing to do with that. I made a comment last year about Dan Warner who had a difficult time shooting the ball but he did so many other things for our team that really if you look at the stat sheet were really not there. I wish he would of made more shots I wish every time these guys shot the ball it went in. (battling the human element?) I think in competition as a coach you are always battling the human element, there is always a human element you are battling and the human element that you are battling you have to get them to see that they have to change their focus. How many times you see a team have a great-great win but then next game come back and have a let down because there is a human element you are battling and you are always dealing with that as a coach and I trying to make sure- and I think our guys see it and understand it but it takes a mental resolve and a mental toughness to be able to move past that and have a very short term memory because if you loose the ball and you miss a shot and now all of a sudden you are living in that play and your coming down the floor on the next play and it affects something else, now that play has beat you twice and there is a level of toughness mentally that you have to have that you have to have short term memory when in competition that you have to be able to move forward to the next play and really be able to play.
I think in a game we can do all the things that we are talking about doing and controlling and we can control them really well and the ball doesn't go in the basket we could be in the position that we could loose but I know that if we don't shoot the ball well and we don't do the things we are talking about doing we have NO shot at winning and I don't think any team has a shot at winning. So what you really try to do as a coach is control the things that you have control over as a team and then what you try to do is unselfishness, extra pass, high assist total, guys taking shots if they have the chance and an opportunity to make it. When you do that you have to let the results fall where they are but you can't let that bleed into other things. But if you don't shoot the ball well you still want to give yourself a chance to win a game. And it can't be a situation where if we shoot the ball well we win and if we don't we loose, we have to offset some of that stuff because not every team every game is going to shoot great, there is no team that's going to go through the year and every night they are going to shoot the ball great. Your going to have an off night shooting the basketball and with our team sometimes we have more off night shooting than we do. But we can still do things to put ourselves- not saying that we will win all the games- but we are giving ourselves a chance.”
On the maturity of the team:
We have great maturity we have a group of guys who are older guys and that's something that every-one thing I love about competition is regardless of what happened yesterday or 5 min ago or two day ago or an hour ago has nothing to do with what's going on right now. It's the one thing in life that you do where there is no prejudice. Because we beat ole miss we don't start the game in Knoxville up 10 or up 5, it's a totally new day, new set of circumstances, new team, new opportunities, new challenge and I think they are guys that really thrive in that kind of situation and when you talk about guys that are great competitors its that next challenge that in front of them that they get excited about because it's a challenge and sometimes dealing with the human nature element of it is sometimes to want to catch your breath and have a let down you can do. But that's the one thing that I enjoy about competition is that it has nothing to do with what happened the other day
Tennessee rankings
They are very-very long and very, very athletic and very-very deep they play a lot of different people probably one of the deepest teams we play against. Familiar names (Cameron) Tatum, (Scottie )Hopson, (Melvin) Goins and Brian Williams they added a terrific freshman Tobias Harris who is as good as any forward in America or the best forward in America is having a freshman year for them. But they can come off the bench with a lot of athleticism and speed and quickness. So they are a team that can overwhelm you with athleticism, size and length. They are an explosive offensive team they can get out and transition and really-really score in transition, they have the ability to throw the ball inside to Williams and Tobias to score, and they obviously have guys like Tatum, Hopson and Goins who can shoot from the perimeter and trey golden shoots really well as a freshman so they are a team that presents and poses a lot of challenges defensively for you and offensively for us long, quick, lot of steals very active with their hands and us taking care of the ball on the road is always very important on the road regardless of who you are playing and will be important against Tennessee.
On importance of Parsons being at the top of his game for SEC play
“The one thing I think that happens when people talk about Chandler (Parsons) these last couple of games is- that's over with right now, just because something happened negatively or positively last game for him doesn't mean its going to happen again and the last two games he's played well but I think the thing for chandler is there has been so much talk about his perimeter shooting and free throw shooting and he's made some of those shots but other things are getting loss-against Xavier he only took 4 shots but he got 11 rebounds and 5 assist. He's doing other things to help our team he is working hard defensively and there is no question that when he's shooting the ball well and Boynton and Walker are shooting well it adds a different element to our team and he made a couple of key shots for us against ole miss and hopefully its something he can build on.”
Senior Center Vernon Macklin
On UF's play the last few games:
"I think we're more worried about defense and just letting the offense come into play. That's the main thing Coach Donovan said – 'Worry about defense and everything else will come into play.' We can't control the ball going into the hole; we can only control step-ups, taking charges and all those other things. That's been working out for us. We're making shots and using each other better.”
On Billy Donovan and Bruce Pearl:
“Those guys are very strong. When you look at the sidelines, they help you out a lot. Tennessee is going to come out and play hard no matter who is coaching.”
On Tennessee:
“They're physical guys. We watched their games vs. Pittsburgh and Villanova and those were great matchups for those guys (Tennessee). Tennessee plays great defense; they're long. A lot of those guys are quick and they can play one-on-one very well. They can drive and kick and make great plays with great defense. It's a very tough place to play.”
Freshman Forward/Center Patric Young
On Tennessee:
“Their defense is probably one of the best in the country. They like to get the ball in the post so I should be prepared for that. I'm going to try and treat it as a normal game, but there are some nerves in there because I really want to come out with a win.”
On progressing as a freshman:
“I feel like I am learning a lot. I'm trusting the coaches a lot more and buying into what they're telling me. It's been showing the last few games. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to perform, which was the worst thing I could do.”
On Vernon Macklin:
“I definitely do admire him. He's a warrior; one of my favorite people I have ever played basketball with. I learn from him and he's a good role model for me. He's just a warrior.”
