On the importance of Saturday's game and how it's Mizzou's final game of 2015-16 due to a postseason ban...
“Yeah, we’ve addressed that with the guys that this is big for them. But it’s got to be equally big for us. It’s got to be. Our backs are against the wall. We’re going into it like it’s a must win game - that’s our mentality. To get us to .500 in league play. Hopefully it sparks a little bit of momentum to where now you’ve got a clean slate going into the SEC Tournament. We got to have the anything-can-happen mentality there. We know that probably outside of Kentucky, the way we’ve played to this point we’ve been, I shouldn’t say we’ve been competitive with every team because a couple teams got the best of us, as well, but I think going into the SEC Tournament I think we feel like other than those guys we can be really competitive with any other team. And then obviously you hope to make some strides within the next week that anything can happen regardless of who you play. But you got to have success at Missouri. We’ve got to find a way to get some consecutive stops, get a defensive rhythm, and then have some carryover from some of the thing we did offensively versus Kentucky.”
On what have been the Gators' biggest issues this year...
“The one word we can use that I think is a myriad of issues is just consistency. This team, from the first day of practice, we’ve had major consistency issues. Some nights we really shoot the ball well and some nights we can’t throw it in the ocean. Some nights free throw shooting wins us the game, and the next four games we can’t make a free throw. Some nights we have a ton of success doing this offensively, and then we can’t do that for three or four games. Then, all of the sudden, this becomes our strength. Defensively at times we’ve looked like a top five defensive team in the country, and then at times we’ve had defensive lapses. It’s just consistency. If you can get the offense we displayed against Kentucky with some made free throws and maybe a couple of more open 3s, that’s what you want. But then you want that every night. And then you want some of the defensive games you played at Georgia, at Michigan State, at Texas A&M, a couple of these home games where we’ve really defended at a high level, West Virginia, that this team for whatever reason has struggled to do it consistently."
On March Madness...
"It will be more exciting if we can have some success at Missouri and we’ll have to play well of course to win a road game against a team that knocked off South Carolina a couple of home games ago, a team that’s gonna finish their season, it’s their last game, they are going to play as hard as they can possibly play, I know it, that’s how we’ve got to play, knowing the SEC Tournament is right around the corner, where everyone gets a clean slate. We want to be a part of March Madness. This team has worked really hard. We haven’t done all the right things down the stretch. Some if it is we’ve played some good teams. And obviously we’re not a great team. We’re not. But can we make a push? We hope so. We hope we can make a push here and make it interesting and maybe have an opportunity to have some success here in the next week and be able to do something in the postseason.
On if he'll will look for an outside voice as far as free-throw shooting advice for the team this offseason...
“Absolutely. Right now, you’ve got such a quick turn when you’re in the middle of the season with everything that you do. We’re getting on the bus here in a little bit and you travel and you land and you go to film and you go to practice and you go to film again and you go to sleep and you wake up. It’s one thing after another. We’re going to do everything we can within our program to try to figure this thing out, to try to shoot free throws at a higher percentage. But in the spring, when the ball stops bouncing for this team, I’m open to whatever. Yeah, I’m open to any and all ideas. We’ll definitely a lot of the time this spring and summer with these guys in terms of shooting, as much as anything. As much as anything that we do, shooting free throws, shooting threes, player development. In these guys’ defense, it’s not like they’re playing five seniors that can’t make a shot. Some of these guys we’re relying on to score have room for development, have a high ceiling. We’ve just got to help them get there.”
On his evaluation of Missouri...
“I think Coach Anderson has done a really good job with the transition and the adversity – he’s had all kinds of adversity of course. They play really, really hard. They play together. They’ve got really good team speed. I think Rosburg is a load in the interior with his back to the basket, really good feet, really good hands, really skilled player. They’ve shooting woes like us, and I think they’re a team a lot like us in that when they’re making threes, they’ve very, very dangerous. Obviously, they’re very capable having beaten South Carolina pretty handily. Of course, when we finished the season up there last year, it wasn’t very fun from what I hear. It’s an opportunity to make up for that one, but it’ll be very difficult.”
“Yeah, we’ve addressed that with the guys that this is big for them. But it’s got to be equally big for us. It’s got to be. Our backs are against the wall. We’re going into it like it’s a must win game - that’s our mentality. To get us to .500 in league play. Hopefully it sparks a little bit of momentum to where now you’ve got a clean slate going into the SEC Tournament. We got to have the anything-can-happen mentality there. We know that probably outside of Kentucky, the way we’ve played to this point we’ve been, I shouldn’t say we’ve been competitive with every team because a couple teams got the best of us, as well, but I think going into the SEC Tournament I think we feel like other than those guys we can be really competitive with any other team. And then obviously you hope to make some strides within the next week that anything can happen regardless of who you play. But you got to have success at Missouri. We’ve got to find a way to get some consecutive stops, get a defensive rhythm, and then have some carryover from some of the thing we did offensively versus Kentucky.”
On what have been the Gators' biggest issues this year...
“The one word we can use that I think is a myriad of issues is just consistency. This team, from the first day of practice, we’ve had major consistency issues. Some nights we really shoot the ball well and some nights we can’t throw it in the ocean. Some nights free throw shooting wins us the game, and the next four games we can’t make a free throw. Some nights we have a ton of success doing this offensively, and then we can’t do that for three or four games. Then, all of the sudden, this becomes our strength. Defensively at times we’ve looked like a top five defensive team in the country, and then at times we’ve had defensive lapses. It’s just consistency. If you can get the offense we displayed against Kentucky with some made free throws and maybe a couple of more open 3s, that’s what you want. But then you want that every night. And then you want some of the defensive games you played at Georgia, at Michigan State, at Texas A&M, a couple of these home games where we’ve really defended at a high level, West Virginia, that this team for whatever reason has struggled to do it consistently."
On March Madness...
"It will be more exciting if we can have some success at Missouri and we’ll have to play well of course to win a road game against a team that knocked off South Carolina a couple of home games ago, a team that’s gonna finish their season, it’s their last game, they are going to play as hard as they can possibly play, I know it, that’s how we’ve got to play, knowing the SEC Tournament is right around the corner, where everyone gets a clean slate. We want to be a part of March Madness. This team has worked really hard. We haven’t done all the right things down the stretch. Some if it is we’ve played some good teams. And obviously we’re not a great team. We’re not. But can we make a push? We hope so. We hope we can make a push here and make it interesting and maybe have an opportunity to have some success here in the next week and be able to do something in the postseason.
On if he'll will look for an outside voice as far as free-throw shooting advice for the team this offseason...
“Absolutely. Right now, you’ve got such a quick turn when you’re in the middle of the season with everything that you do. We’re getting on the bus here in a little bit and you travel and you land and you go to film and you go to practice and you go to film again and you go to sleep and you wake up. It’s one thing after another. We’re going to do everything we can within our program to try to figure this thing out, to try to shoot free throws at a higher percentage. But in the spring, when the ball stops bouncing for this team, I’m open to whatever. Yeah, I’m open to any and all ideas. We’ll definitely a lot of the time this spring and summer with these guys in terms of shooting, as much as anything. As much as anything that we do, shooting free throws, shooting threes, player development. In these guys’ defense, it’s not like they’re playing five seniors that can’t make a shot. Some of these guys we’re relying on to score have room for development, have a high ceiling. We’ve just got to help them get there.”
On his evaluation of Missouri...
“I think Coach Anderson has done a really good job with the transition and the adversity – he’s had all kinds of adversity of course. They play really, really hard. They play together. They’ve got really good team speed. I think Rosburg is a load in the interior with his back to the basket, really good feet, really good hands, really skilled player. They’ve shooting woes like us, and I think they’re a team a lot like us in that when they’re making threes, they’ve very, very dangerous. Obviously, they’re very capable having beaten South Carolina pretty handily. Of course, when we finished the season up there last year, it wasn’t very fun from what I hear. It’s an opportunity to make up for that one, but it’ll be very difficult.”
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