Q&A: Cam Newbauer Looks to Second Gators Season

Thursday, September 20, 2018 | Women's Basketball

By: Denver Parler

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida women's basketball team went 11-19 last season and won just three of 16 games in Southeastern Conference play, yet those numbers don't begin to illustrate the utter rebuild Cameron Newbauer inherited in his first season as Gators coach.

But some numbers regarding Newbauer's second UF team do.

When the Gators show up for their annual media day on Tuesday -- and begin fall practice Sept. 28 -- they will do so with six players who were on the roster last season, but even that figure is deceptive. Two of those players, guard Funda Nakkasoglu and wing Delicia Washington, were starters and finished as the first- and fourth-leading scorers on the squad. A third, Stephanie Brower, was a walk-on who totaled 45 minutes and two points on the season.

Those are the only ones who played at all.

Junior wing Delicia Washington was fourth on the team in scoring at 10.2 points per game, but second in rebounding at 8.7 an outing.

Two others were transfers, forward Zada Williams (Miami) and guard Danielle Rainey (TCU), who sat out the season per NCAA rules. Another, guard Corey Staples, transferred from Santa Fe as a walk-on, but spent the season rehabbing from a knee injury and was put on scholarship in the offseason.

So the current roster of 12 players — which is three below the 15 scholarships allotted — basically has two experienced players. The program, though, is 18 months into the Newbauer way after coming here, by way of Belmont in April of 2017, and basically tearing everything down to build it back up.

Now comes Year 2.

Newbauer sat down recently with FloridaGators.com to talk about the 2018-19 season.

Q: What will be some of the overarching themes for you and this team throughout this season?

A: "Continuing to build our culture of 'we over me.' Relentless effort and attitude in everything we do. Building each day to be better today than we were yesterday."

Q: There are a lot of new players on this year's team, but you have a couple familiar faces in Delicia Washington and Funda Nakkasoglu. What do expect out of the returners this season?

A: "I think Funda and Delicia are excited to be our main returners, and they're anxious to keep building. Funda had a big summer competing with the Australian national team. Delicia was here working hard. I think they're just excited about another chapter in their careers here at Florida."

Q: Fans may be less familiar with a few other returners. What can you tell us about them?

A: "Zada Williams, who had to sit out last season after transferring here, has done a great job in the last year during her redshirt year. Corey Staples, as well, recovering from her knee injury. I think they're just anxious to be able to play now, coming off that redshirt year and the injury. Stephanie Brower has done a tremendous job working on her game and continuing to improve. When Danielle Rainey is able to start playing, she is an athletic, aggressive guard with a very versatile skill set. I think she'll fit how we play very nicely and creates another scoring option at the guard position. Those six, in their time last year, did a great job trying to help make us be the best we could be last year. Now they're poised and ready to play this year and really contribute to the program."

Q: The team has newcomers from Brazil, England and Australia this year. What was it like constructing this recruiting class?

A: "It's always fun building relationships throughout the recruiting process. Showing them the 'Florida Way,' what Florida is about, what the brand means, was special. It was exciting for them and for us to see the possibilities of what we could do together."

Q: When you recruit internationally, what kind of awareness do people have of the Florida Gators brand?

A: "All of the players in this year's class were already playing here in the United States, but I think it's safe to say they all knew about the Florida Gators because of the notoriety of the university and the athletic department. There's an awareness of Florida because of the Gators and because of the climate. Even if people don't know a lot of states, they usually know New York, Hawaii, Florida, California, Texas."

Q: Any interesting stories from your recruiting travels?

A: "I actually got really sick on a nine-and-a-half hour flight to Rome and spent the whole flight throwing up. That was the first leg of an 11-day recruiting trip. When we got there, I had to ride in an ambulance and spent the night in a hospital in Rome. On the bright side, the ambulance had the cool Euro siren, and I can check being hospitalized in a foreign country off my bucket list. But on top of all that, my bag got lost or misplaced by the airline. So here I was at the start of an 11-day trip in a foreign country, had to fight off this sickness, and I only had the clothes on my back. Luckily, I was able to link up with another coach and borrow some clothes. I don't even want to think about how many days in a row I wore a borrowed t-shirt and shorts, but believe it or not I actually made it back to Gainesville before I ever got my bag. All told, it took 23 days from when I left Gainesville before I got my bag back."

Q: We heard the phrase "Chuck it from the cheap seats" a lot last year. Does that style of play continue?

A: "Absolutely. What we want to do here at Florida is, we want to spread the floor, share the ball and shoot it in the sunshine. We want to find players that are selfless and believe in the 'we over me' concept of building something greater than ourselves, and make the Gator brand and the Gator Nation stronger."

Q: That style of play led to a record-setting year in 3-point shooting for this team last year. How did you settle into that as your coaching philosophy?

A: "I grew up in Indiana and fancied myself a shooter. Part of it is looking at the analytics of basketball. Part of it is I like three more than I like two. Part of it is the versatility of forwards, being able to spread the floor out and create more space for attacking opportunities. It's a combination of different coaches I've worked for, along with some of my natural background growing up."

Q: How appealing is a system like that for a player to play in?

A: "Hopefully very appealing to the kids we're recruiting because we value shooting the ball. We value skill sets and believe that the system that we put in place will help us have success."

Q: The team has some really notable and tough non-conference games this season. What do you hope to learn from those?

A: "Indiana won the NIT championship. Mercer was in the NCAA Tournament and almost beat Georgia. Not just BCS-level road games, but NCAA Tournament team road games. You've got to be able to win at home and away. You've got to be able to compete in any environment no matter who the opponent is. So I think just continuing to build that in our program, that we're going to give the best attitude and effort no matter where we play, who we play, and have that same focus and determination every game. So we welcome the challenge of our schedule. We know it'll be a tough one, but the adversity and the obstacle is the way."

Q: Last year, the team played in some really close games against tough opponents. What do you see as the keys to getting some of those sort of games to fall your way?

A: "We have to play very unselfish basketball and stick together. The 'we over me' mantra that we echo needs to be in everything we do, especially on the basketball court. As individuals, we don't have enough. We need to play together, stick together and pick each other up when we're down, hold each other accountable and celebrate the small things together."

Q: How have you seen yourself learn and grow over the course of your first year at Florida?

A: "Having patience and continuing to trust the process myself because it is a process every day of trying to tackle the day's task at hand and to just make sure that we're improving every day and being as efficient as possible with our time, energy and attitude."

Q: A year in, how are you and your family adjusting to Gainesville?

A: "We love it. Gainesville is amazing. The people, our neighborhood, everyone here has been really great to us. We love living in Gainesville and are glad to be Gators."