Amanda Butler's Press Conference Video and Transcription from Media Day
Thursday, October 9, 2014 | Women's Basketball
Amanda Butler, Florida Head Women's Basketball Coach
Opening Statement
“Hey everybody, it's great to be here again. As Kathy (Cafazzo, associate communications director) said, we started practice officially on Sunday (Oct. 5), but it is kind of nice to make (the start of the season) official and get a chance to talk about the team and all of the excitement that's surrounding the program after coming off of such a fun year last year. Great group of returners, awesome group of newcomers and just a bunch of women that really like each other, love being Gators and work very hard.
“Sunday was our first crack at it and then we took a day off and went into a three-day defensive training camp that our players named, 'Camp Hector' – you'll have to ask them about that, they'll have a great deal of insight to it, so I trust them. But, they worked really, really hard and are making great strides this year to be a much better defensive unit than we were last year – that's certainly an area that's an emphasis for us, but I like what I see. I like all of the things early on in the year that you really want to be important and that's how they get along, how hard they work, how serious they are about elevating the program – which is something you're going to hear a lot from us this year, trying to elevate in every way, on and off the court. I think this group really, really lives that out in the way they interact, the way they represent our university and the way they're going to compete and we'll get to see that this year.
“Another really tough schedule. Again, the (Southeastern Conference) is going to be incredible, so there's a lot of great things to look forward to. Today is a great and fun day also because so far we're perfect, we're perfect with that schedule, so we'll see what happens. It's a quick process and we'll be playing scrimmages and games before we know it and I know this group is really excited to actually show what they can be.
“From that, if there's any questions or anything in particular that (the media wants) to talk about. I can sit up here and tell you all day long about all the different ways that I'm excited about (the team) and the things they've shown and the ways that they want to improve and grow and grow the program and elevate, in particular on the court, and just take us places that we haven't been yet; that is our mission.”
Q: Viktorija (Dimaite, R-Jr. Center) coming back from injuries three-and-a-half years now – what do you expect from her, especially being the tallest player (6'4) and lone center on the team? What does she bring to the table if she's fully healthy?
“She brings exactly what you said, size – which we were in short supply of last year, so it's so awesome just to see her out there period, but to see her out there with the level of confidence that she's been working with, just makes our team instantly look different. She's not our lone center, Haley Lorenzen (Fr. Forward, 6'3”) will also be playing that position for us some, so we may have an opportunity in certain lineups to even have, maybe, some Twin Towers. That will be new for me to coach, I'll have to adjust, but I'm really excited for Vikta just to have the chance to be out there and compete. She's worked so hard every year and it's just one of those unfortunate parts of our game, but she's also handled it with a great deal of toughness and grace that is awesome. She's a leader in that regard and a great example and I just hope she gets what she deserves this season.”
Q: In terms of Haley (Lorenzen), she's a freshman coming in, expected to play some center and being a freshman forward is pretty difficult, what do you expect out of her? Does she have big shoes to fill coming into this season?
“Definitely. Every one of these freshmen, we expect them – as well as Carla Batchelor, our lone junior college player heading into that junior class – we really recruited those guys to make an impact. As all of you know, we weren't very big last year. So the opportunity for Haley to run out of the gates, just to make herself important, is a huge opportunity. She's worked exceptionally hard. I've been so proud of where she's been conditioning-wise – she's running with our guards. (She has) great size, great body, great work ethic and is an awesome kid who is just very eager to make her mark on the program. We expect a lot out of Haley.”
Q: Kayla Lewis (R-Sr. Guard) being the lone senior on the team, what have you seen from her progression-wise? Has she really stepped into that leadership role well?
“Definitely. Kayla is just an amazing young lady all the way around. You only have to talk to her for about five seconds to see how bright she is. She's a great, vocal leader. She gives us things, athletically, that no one else on our team can, so that gives her a unique and distinct position not only to play, but to lead from. When you can do things everyone else can't do, it kind of puts you in a position of importance and she handles and balances her voice with her skills. She's been rehabbing – she had surgery in the spring and is almost back full – and has really done a great job – certainly this year way better than any of the other years because she's been one that has battled injury as well – just making sure she's finding ways to be important, to stay engaged and to lead even when she wasn't able to be out on the court with them; I'm really proud of her for that. Expect great things from Kayla, certainly. It changes the way our team looks when she's out there on the floor.”
Q. Cassie Peoples (R-Jr. Guard, 5'6”), part of the evolution of her game has been the development of that 3-ball to make up for being a little bit undersized. What have you seen from her, being able to adapt to the physical shortcomings she might have?
“First off, Cassie doesn't know that she has any physical shortcomings, so don't tell her; she thinks she's just as big as anybody. But, she's just been really dominant this summer on her conditioning level, her body, her mental makeup, the way she's grown into more of a leadership role and really just embraced that; I've been so proud of those things. Then, it's fun to talk about where her game is and her consistency from the 3-point line. We do different things to challenge the players during the summer and we have a three-minute shooting drill – you just pick your favorite spot and see if you can wear it out from there – and she's led us in that and that speaks specifically to what you're mentioning from the 3-point line how dangerous she is. She's playing with a great deal of confidence. The team has a tremendous amount of confidence in her and I think a lot of that comes from the way she worked this summer, but also because she finished last season so strong. Everyone has great respect for her basketball IQ – she studies the game like no one else – and that elevates her in terms of being a leader; you've got that automatic respect. She's really put in the time and has done a great job of growing and developing into what you want from someone who is going to be on the floor a lot and that's certainly what she'll be.”
Q: You have six players back from last season and five of them played every game last year. How have you seen that experience transfer to them as players and as youth?
“There's certainly no guarantee when you have returning players that they're going to be better or different. Just being a year older – I've heard (head men's basketball coach) Billy Donovan say this before – doesn't mean you're a year better. His group has really taken that challenge of what they did last year – because they all played giant roles, they were all important in different ways – and were just motivated by that. They're not resting on their laurels or comfortable with all they were able to do with less, but motivated and inspired to do more and to know, 'Look at what we did with a bunch of short kids and no bench.' We've got depth now, we've got size now. We've still got to have that same sort of fight and spirited resilience and all the things they possessed last year, but we've got some of those other things that there was nothing we could do about last year. So, that returning group is really practicing and preparing with a great deal of purpose and a high sense of accountability for some of those holes being plugged now.”
Q: With the addition of size, it seems like maybe Ronni Williams (So. Guard/Forward, 6'0”) will benefit most of all, having the ability to play and utilize all of her assets and her skill set now that she won't have to be in the ring so much.
“With Haley and Vikta, we also have Brooke Copeland (Fr. Forward, 6'2) who's going to help in the paint and is another one of our freshmen. It's going to really free Ronni up to expand her game. She's, unfortunately, one of the ones that's not back on the court quite yet. The thing about Ronni, it's just not going to matter. If we say, 'We need you to be here,' just like last year and she anchored the five when she is not a five, then she'll do that if that's what it's going to take for her and the Gators to be successful. If we need her to run the point, I'm sure she would do it. It's good to have options, it's good to have flexibility. Some of those things – what's going to be the best way for Ronni to contribute to our success – some of that will be a discovery process as we get her out there with these new kids and just see what are going to be the ways we can enhance – because she's so special in so many ways, but it's always a blend. It's not just, 'Here's this great player we have in Ronni, now what can we do with her?' It's, 'What do the other four look like and how is that going to mesh together?' So, having that versatility is going to make us, maybe hard to guard, maybe hard to scout a little bit. It certainly gives us the option to be bigger if we can play Ronni at the three a little bit – some of those things that we didn't have the luxury of doing last year. Brooke also gives us that chance – shoots the ball great. So, we're excited to have so many options. We were coaching and the kids were competing last year with very few options – this is how we have to play to win, this is what we have to do. They're just excited about the chance to – we can try a little of this, we can do a little bit of that, we can explore some areas and not just be relegated to one way of playing.”
Q: You talk about elevating. Can you point to three areas, maybe statistically, that you would like to see elevate? I'm sure you would like to see everything elevate, but not necessarily personnel, but maybe something team-wise that you'd like to see.
“We'll be a better rebounding team this year – that's not specifically defensive – but it's going to be important, that we can be a better defensive team. That's one of the areas that we must elevate if we want to elevate in postseason. I think rebounding, and any of those stats on the defensive side of the ball, when you look at Vikta and you look at Haley and their size, Brooke's got great timing, still the athleticism of Kayla, the versatility of Ronni, we should be a team that once you get in the paint, it's really tough to score against us because we've got shot-blockers, we've got kids that are willing to step in and take charges, so hopefully we'll be forcing more turnovers than we were able to last year. I'd like to think at this point that we're going to be able to press a little more, which hopefully will lead to a more continuous full-court game for 40 minutes. The tips are really what we value in our defense, so hopefully we'll see a lot more opportunities to generate tips, which will hopefully lead to steals and transition which is so important for us going the other way.”
Q: With the five new players you have on the team, do you worry about chemistry?
“We just have such a great advantage here at Florida with an administration that allows us to have our players here that second summer session. It gives our freshmen a jump on being college students, not just college athletes, so that's a great advantage. But, what you just spoke of is maybe where they have the greatest advantage, that it gives everybody a chance to get in the weight room together, to get on the court together, to go to the movies together, to do all the different things that they're going to do together and to start to learn each other. When there's a little less pressure, a little less structure – I think our team, and, in particular our leaders, did a great job of really integrating the freshmen and Carla into the way we do things; they are definitely proof of women who are going to elevate our culture. We feel good about the way we do things and those kids absolutely add to that. Just on a personal level, they just like each other, they just really, really do. A lot of that credit goes to my staff in recruiting and bringing young ladies in that fit with the personalities that we already have.”
Q: You obviously lost a great leader in Jaterra (Bonds), one of the all-time greats. Obviously, you have experience coming back at the guard position in Carlie (Needles) and Cassie, but can you talk a little bit about the freshmen guards?
“Isis (Young) isn't on the floor for us yet, she's still rehabbing an ACL (injury), but just to be able to see her go through the rehab process and how much she's progressed since she's got here, it's a great indication of what we'll get when she's actually released. That's one of those things, wait and see a week, wait and see a week, but we hope to have her for the entire season. We just have to see how that knee and quad strength continue to develop, but a lot of quickness out of her. She is very vocal, just intuitively – it's very easy for her to speak – she gives us a lot of quickness and certainly depth to those guards so we can play fast and full court and things that we'd like to do.
“Dee (Dyandria) Anderson gives us length on the perimeter. We talk about height and how we were in short supply of that, but we weren't very long last year either. Dee is what we call our longest guard – she's got an amazing wingspan and is just a tremendous worker. She puts her nose down and goes, whatever it is we're doing, whether it's something that she feels like she's doing great or dominating or whether she feels she's behind everybody, she just comes out with the same energy, the same intent every single day. She's a great slasher as well, a really good athlete and fits into our offense and fits with those other guards really well.
“Carla is another one of those players that, she'll probably play primarily for us on the perimeter, but is really skilled, is a really tough matchup and also has the ability to do some things in the paint. She's sneaky, she's one of those sneaky players – she can sneak a rebound, she can put you in a position to foul her, but she'll give us another dimension in those perimeter players in terms of trying to increase their size – just like Dee will.”
Q. You talked about having more options since you'll have more bodies out there, does that increase your excitement level for the season, being able to tweak things more?
“That's a good question because it's very hard for me to think of my excitement level increasing because it stays pretty high most of the time and I know that's good for my blood pressure if it increases much more, but it does increase the excitement in a different sort of way. There's never been a season or group of kids that I've had the honor and privilege of coaching that I haven't been excited about going into the season with. It's just for different reasons. I and the staff have gotten a great indication of how these kids are going to work and that just inspires me – that pushes you as a coach to work harder and see how many wrinkles we can add in and see how we can maximize what they are as a group. I'm very excited.”
Q: Is the team confident? Do they prefer to play a three-guard rotation? With height being a new thing this year, are they more comfortable playing a three-guard rotation with the bigs being a new thing?
“As opposed to having four guards? (Yes.) I don't think they even think of it that way. We really don't dwell on things like that as much. What we ask them to do is play really, really, really hard, and if you play really, really, really hard, you're going to have to come out of the game and that's going to get someone else on the floor and then she's going to play really, really, really hard and then she's going to need a break. So, I think they like the idea of being bigger. I think they understand the way we want them to play and that there's still going to be great opportunity – we're going to be playing a lot of people. Even though we have more people this year, we're still going to be playing a lot of people because that's a reflection of the style of play that we have. They just really trust their coaches that we're going to do whatever it takes to win, and if it's four or five guards, we'll put four or five guards out there. If we're playing a four at the three and we've got Carlie and Cassie so we're really tiny at the guards, I think they're just going to go in whatever direction we head them in. It is very exciting – speaking to the previous question – just to think of all the different directions we can go in. But, they're just excited, period. I don't think they think of it in categories like, 'Because we get to have two traditional bigs,' I just think they're excited. Really excited.”
Q: What is your philosophy on your non-conference schedule, knowing what you face when you get into conference play?
“We just want to challenge (our players). We just want to challenge them in the non-conference. Every team at our level is certainly playing with the postseason in mind, so we've got to be responsible, as the keepers of the program, to schedule in a way that we're giving our kids the best chance to not just be in the postseason, but get the seed that you want. As great as our conference is, and I think it's going to be amazing again this year – I don't want to think about it quite yet to be honest with you – but as strong as it's going to be, you can't just rely on how many SEC wins you're able to rack up to be able to move into that place in postseason that you want. I don't think it would be fair for me to expect great performance in SEC play if we had not challenged them in November and December with great opponents like we do. We want them to feel, when we hit the floor in January going toe-to-toe SEC-wise, that we've seen a lot of similar teams already, that it's not going to be a shock to our system, it's not going to be something brand new, it's going to be a level that we're ready to compete at because of what we've already done.”
Q: Cassie has some large shoes to fill, so how do you expect her to make up for some of that lost production and how do you think the team is going to change with her in the lineup?
“Cassie was a big part of what we did last year and that is sometimes overshadowed because Jaterra's personality was so big and her presence –she had an amazing presence – and it sometimes probably seemed to people on the outside like it was just Jaterra and then everybody else, and that's just not the way it was on the inside at all. Cassie played a big role for us last year and was the one primarily running the point last year and Jaterra most of the time was on the wing. From that standpoint, it won't be a big transition, but when you lose a player like Jaterra, you have to contribute. When you have a player like that, that you're shoulder-to-shoulder with, you knew what Jaterra was going to do all the time and it was OK for you to have a great night and that was going to work if we're playing really well, but there wasn't as much pressure on you to deliver because you knew what you were going to get out of her. Some of those roles, not just for Cassie, but for a lot of our players, especially that big junior class, they know that, they know that it's on them now to be that presence and fill those roles whether they be statistical or the intangibles.”
Q: There was an expectation on Ronni last year, being the most decorated player to ever come here, and she ended up playing most of the season in foul trouble. What's on her this year as far as not getting that third foul in the first half? Does she have to play smarter to be on the floor more?
“Definitely. She's definitely got to be smart; she knows that. She completely understands that the game is not going to change, the way the officials see the game is not going to change, she's got to play like someone who's got experience under her belt and I know that she'll do that – we've already had conversations about that. She understands how important she is to us, she understands that on both ends of the floor, for us to accomplish that elevating that we want to, that she's got to be a big part of that. That's one of those instances where you do hope that a year of experience, being a year older, will lend to some better decision making in some instances – just a little bit extra measure of discipline here and there, that makes the difference in playing 10 minutes in a game or 20 minutes in a game and you just never want that to be dictated to you. Ronni really grew through that last year, really grew through that adversity. There was a lot of frustration, a lot of things that I think are typical for freshmen, but she was not a typical freshman in any way. There was so much that was expected of her, from the outside pushing in, being such a highly-decorated player, and she handled that really well. That part of the game was tough for her and I expect her to whip it this year and I know she will.”
