Postgame Press Conference vs. Vanderbilt

Florida's postgame press conference following Sunday's Senior Day win against Vanderbilt.

Coach Cam's Mother on her son (Pre-conference)
He's chasing a dream and he's got a hold of it, and he's in a wonderful place. I couldn't be prouder to be his mom. I'm just going miss these guys here (Haley, Paulina).

Coach Cam Opening Statement:
Great job by our seniors today, 50 points for our seniors, they did a really good job of setting the tone early. Haley, Paulina got the ball inside and made some plays. Really controlled the glass. Haley with a double double, another double double. Four four from the line. They did a really good job, I kind of swapped them at the end there a little bit. Overall, I felt it was a very good effort from us. Hit 12 three's. Funda did a great job keeping her eyes on the rim. Dria hit some big shots. I'm just excited for our seniors to be able to go out like this, they deserve it, special young ladies that I think have done so much for Florida in a number of areas, not just the basketball court but they do things the right way; the Florida way. They want Florida to be great, so I couldn't be more grateful to coach them this year.

We thought Delicia Washington was hurt, and she almost had a triple double. So I think Delicia is okay. Yeah, but really proud of these three. Well, sorry Funda. These two and Dria.

Funda: I am too!

Haley on how much today meant and summarizing the day:
Senior night is special, there's a lot of emotions going on. My family was here, it was a pink game, there was a lot going on. As a collegiate athlete you always think about this, you always know it's coming up, it's going towards you. Technically, it's your last home game, not really, but it is, so it's a special night and I was just trying to enjoy it as much as possible when I was out there on the court and embrace what was going on. Embrace the crowd and everything. It was a great night tonight and I'm so happy and proud of this team.

On what it was like walking off the court with Paulina to a standing ovation:
The Gator Nation has just always shown up for us. Through all kinds of weather, it doesn't matter. And that's the really cool part, to be able to go out with my two senior buddies and Funda, who is kinda technically a senior, but she still has one more year. It's amazing to be able to do that with this team and to be able to have that feeling one more time and just try to rake it all in before it's all over. The days are getting shorter but it seems like they days are longer at the same time because you're just absorbing all the moments that come with it. I couldn't be more grateful to be battling with these girls every single day and with this coaching staff we have. I'm very grateful and very blessed to be a Gator.

On her double-double and taking advantage of Vanderbilt's size and rebounding:
I would say so, it was more so just a game plan just to play like us and to do our thing and to come out and have our defensive principals, same thing with our offense, and just executing our plays. To the credit of my teammates we shot the ball really, really well and I think that's what helped open up the inside a lot. We've gotten really good at passing the ball inside and my teammates just delivered the ball in great spots at the right moments. It just lead to us scoring on the inside and I think we just tried to emphasize that as much as possible.

You know, I think the offense is all about effort. So I think for us we just knew that we were going to come out and just be relentless on the court and on the offensive end, and defense is about discipline. That's one of our keys that we always try to be. We always try to fight, and we always try to be together and we always try to be disciplined.

Funda on how she felt today went and what has been going right for her:
I think it's just our training but most of all it's my teammates and my coaches. They gave me so much confidence today. I personally couldn't get it going in the first half but they were on my back, through thick and thin, they do it every game. They tell me, "If you don't shoot that, I'm going to come do something bad" or something like that. But no, they're so supportive and they motivate me every day and so I just want to thank them for that. I also think it was our inside-out game as well because we were doing so well on the inside, Haley and Paulina especially. They were attracting all the defenders on the inside, and us perimeter players had the chance to shoot those threes because we were so open once the ball was skipped from the other side. So I give credit to them for that.

Coach on the first nine points being from seniors:
That's indicative of our season and the leaders that they are. We've endured so much with a multitude of things from personnel obstacles to a brand new coaching staff, and if there's any team in the country that has a reason to not fight, to have an excuse, its us. And they don't do that. They buy in and its because of those seniors. They're the ones who have carried us through this, they're the ones that have kept the locker room together and build the foundation for what we're doing going forward. But more importantly, they've done it the right way. With no compromise of any integrity or character. That's what makes it so cool.

On how the last six games helped for this one:
Coach: I'll let them answer that.

Paulina: Well first of all, I feel like it gives us confidence. Yeah, we lost two games and some really close games but we bounce back every game. It's not fun to lose but its really been helping us because we can see when we play against good opponents and every single game has been a close game. It's the confidence part that we can conquer, and we can beat a lot of really good teams. I feel like that really helped us build and get our minds right.

Haley: To build off of what Paulina was saying, we never hang our heads after any single loss that we've had against these ranked opponents because a lot of people think we shouldn't even be in those games. We shouldn't even be within ten points of them, and so the fact that we're even proving those people wrong by just being in the game and fighting until the very end has helped not only us grow as a team this year but its going to help this program in the future and I think that with playing in these games very close and down to the wire, we've learned from those mistakes and that its helped us to execute even more so against unranked teams, ranked teams, doesn't matter. Its just helping us get better each and every day.

Funda: Lastly, I want to congratulate them and I think it shows the character that our team has finally put upon ourselves and that comes from our leadership, these three seniors -and Dria- she's not here but yeah I think that really comes from them and they put that upon us younger kids and that's we want to keep moving forward with.

Paulina on today's success for her personally:
As we mentioned earlier, it just all comes together. We started getting the ball in the paint, they've got to go in, and then we get open shots. We know that if we execute we can get any open shots. Like coach keeps telling us, don't be surprised if you're wide open on the shot. We've practiced plays and we know we can get shots. They really work well, so sometimes we get open shots. We know what kind of shots we like taking and my team has done a great job of putting me at the spot where I like to shoot for, and overall we have shared the ball well and we all set it up for each other.

Coach on Delicia and coming off of her injury:
I thought she was terrific. We're talking about a young lady who has never had an ankle sprain before. First time you sprain your ankle you hear all kinds of noises and feel all kinds of pain, and you have no idea how you could ever recover from that, and that's just her emotional and mental maturity I think. Her being able to come out and no really practice much these past couple days and to play at a great pace today for us, make some big shots early, and to have nine points, nine rebounds and eight assists on a first sprained ankle. We weren't sure if she was going to play, I did not think she was going to play but that's just the mind over matter that she's grown to have. The maturity level for her this year has been fantastic, and were just all proud of her.

On how this game can springboard them onto Tennessee on Thursday:
It builds confidence for a number of different people. Seeing the ball go through the basket, playing at home. Its what basketball is, you know? We've got a great team coming in here on Thursday but we've played a lot of great teams this year and we've fought tooth and nail and I can tell you this, I know that's what our group can do.

On when he knew Delicia would play today:
I like to ask them what they want to do, we made a group decision, she wanted to. It was probably 20 minutes on the clock?

On if this team is better than what the record book shows:
Without a doubt. You look at what we do on the road versus top 20 teams, top 10 teams, and the final score is not indicative at all of what the score actually is for the first 35 or whatever minutes of that game, maybe more. So I think without a doubt we know that and that's what's most important to us, we talk about having our blinders on. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks or says. That's the confidence that they have with themselves and with each other and that's why were able to persevere and do with what we have because they know that what's most important is where we're going, not right now.

Paulina: Couldn't agree more.

Haley: It's all about the toughness that we've played with. The record definitely did not show how much we fought and how many of those games were decided by less than 10 points.

Gators Calendar

Postgame Press Conference vs. Vanderbilt

Players Mentioned

Delicia Washington

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