If Gators Need It, Needles Provides It
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 | Women's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Her team had just shellacked Virginia Tech by 29 to win its third straight game. The Florida Gators shot 48 percent from the floor and a rip-roaring 54 from the 3-point line, so redshirt junior guard Carlie Needles wore a smile to her post-game media duties.
Then she was asked about her lack of productivity on the glass. Just four rebounds.
Her return glance was one of confusion.
“I don't even know what to say about that,” Needles said.
The question was delivered in jest. Needles, the bubbling 5-foot-6 package of boundless energy, entered the game leading the Gators in rebounds at 8.8 per game (including a career-high 14 in a win over Charleston Southern), good for fourth in the early Southeastern Conference statistical rankings. The outing against the Hokies padded her aggregate season's total to 48, which was no less than 15 more than 6-foot-plus post players Kayla Lewis, Ronni Williams, Haley Lorenzen or Brooke Copeland.
Needles didn't get any taller in the offseason. Her arms didn't grow. She did not suddenly start elevating over everyone.
So what happened?
“It's simple. We had a need for rebounding and Carlie wants to meet every need,” UF coach Amanda Butler said. “She has that kind of accountability in her. If we need a shot, she wants to take it. If we need a stop, she wants to guard the best player. If we need more rebounding, she's chasing balls and trying to get them. When we ask for something, she wants to provide it. That's the kind of competitor she is.”
And it's that kind of want-to that has helped Florida (4-1) string together three straight wins heading into a two-game road swing that starts Thursday night at Savannah State (3-1), then on to Florida State (7-1) on Sunday. After something of a slow start -- an 11-point home win over Jacksonville, a blowout of overmatched Longwood and a six-point road loss at St. John's -- the Gators have won their last three by an average margin of 21.6 points and this weekend get to measure up against an also-receiving-votes Seminoles' squad on the cusp of breaking into the Top 25.
Exactly what Needles, the fourth-year junior combo guard, will be asked to provide UF at Savannah, at FSU or wherever and whomever the Gators face down the road likely will depend, as Butler said, on what's needed.
Needles probably will deliver, also.
With the loss of All-Southeastern Conference guard and four-year stalwart Jaterra Bonds, along with the influx of five new players, the Gators came into the season with a significant veteran void. Someone had to step up and provide not only leadership, but a heavy dose of production and on-court guidance to a team counting on so many young faces. Enter Needles, a part-time starter with modest career statistics (6.5 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists per game), but loaded with passion and a willingness to take on the extra accountability.
That was what the Gators needed.
And now?
“She's not just the heart of the team,” strength and conditioning coordinator Tyler Stuart said, “She's the arms, legs, head and everything else.”
The second of four daughters, Needles was one of the tallest in her middle-school class growing up in Highlands Ranch, Colo., but her spurt stopped for good around the eighth grade. Intangibles took over from there.
“I've always been aggressive by nature,” Needles said. “I've tried to use my size to my advantage and play bigger than I am. Being lower to the ground, I can get on the floor for loose balls. I can see things down low where maybe taller players can't. I have that and I have my motor. I feel like a lot of players can't go as hard or as long as I can.”
Or with as much recklessness.
Her father, Corey Needles, recalled how he and his wife had to take extra caution with Carlie because of her ferocity; not just on the courts, either, but the ski slopes, jet skis, all-terrain vehicles, etc.
“She always was the kid who pushed the edge in whatever she was doing -- like a borderline daredevil,” Corey said. “For being as small as she was, she was always really tough and had that fearlessness kind of thing. You had to watch her with both eyes and make sure she didn't do something that might hurt her. She was like a boy in that regard.”
Then came basketball, which young Carlie took to immediately. From the fifth grade on, she loved, played it and worked on it to the point of becoming one of the most decorated players in Colorado state history. After erupting for 41 points in the Class 5A state quarterfinals and guiding ThunderRidge High to the Final Four, Needles' prep career tallied 1,809 career points -- ninth in state history -- and chose UF among more than 30 collegiate suitors, including Arizona State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.
“We loved her toughness, her grittiness and determination,” Butler said. “We knew she was a great shooter, but also knew she could run the point and do whatever we asked.”
Whatever was needed, actually.
Her UF career was stunted, however, when Needles suffered a season-ending knee injury in the 2011-12 exhibition game, just five days before the opener. She returned from a medical redshirt season in '12-13 to become a key freshman cog on the Gators team -- she hit a school-record nine 3-pointers in just the fourth game of her career -- that made a deep run into the WNIT. As a sophomore, she combined to shoot 36 percent from the floor and 34.5 from 3-point range, to go with 1.5 assists and nearly a steal per game.
Modest numbers, yes.
Now, check out these box score-stuffing 2014-15 digits: 10.7 points per game, 8.0 rebounds, 57 percent from 3-point range (16-for-28), 92.3 percent from the line (12-for-13), 3.3 assists and 2.0 steals per.
“I think she's probably unleashed a little something extra this year,” her father said. “She's always played with a lot of heart, and rebounding is one of those effort things that comes down to how much you try. She's always had that.”
Now more comfortable in her increased role, Needles has put more volume to her determined voice that has added a constant soundtrack for a team looking to carve an identity of a hard-nosed, 93-foot bunch that will defend from tip-off to final horn.
Needles is defining that identity.
“I've grown up a lot since last year and the year before that,” Needles said. “I knew coming in this season my role had to be different. I knew I had to lead by example, but I also had to try and execute my role perfectly and if we had a deficit somewhere, hopefully, I could pitch in with that. The way I look at it, if I'm doing it, then maybe everybody else will do it.”
Teammates see it working. That's infectious.
“We follow her,” said junior guard Carla Batchelor, a transfer by way of Northwest Florida State College. “Her defensive intensity gets us going. The integrity to work every day, the intensity to want to win all the time, she's the motivation for us to push harder.”
It all goes back to what her team needs.
Like being one of the smallest players on the court, yet cleaning up all those rebounds.
“[Coach] Butler said we had a deficit with perimeter rebounding and someone had to get in there and get more rebounds,” said Needles, who has a knack for positioning herself for the “fly-by” caroms. “That meant taking it upon myself to do something I hadn't done before. That's just how I play.”
Whatever it takes.
Got a need? Think Needles.
