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UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 6, 2016

Amanda Butler

Gainesville, Florida

AMANDA BUTLER: Very exciting day to be here and get a chance to talk to everybody about our team a little bit. But obviously a very serious day in our state, and we hope that everybody is taking the appropriate measures and takes care of themselves. We're certainly doing that with our team and our basketball family and taking cues from our leadership. So a really serious day, but excited to talk about Gators women's basketball today.

We started official practice on Monday morning at 6:00 a.m. had a defensive mini camp and are having our first official day of a little bit of offense today, so that's kind of exciting.

But I really enjoy this team. I love the way they love each other, how hard they work for each other. I think that they take themselves very seriously. There is a great deal of pride in the amount of work that's been invested going back from the summer all the way into the preseason, and it's showing up in the way that we practice and in the strength of our culture. So I think we've got some great things on the horizon.

A really, really tough, non-conference schedule. Not even adding in the fact that none of those games will actually be at home, but I think that's going to be a unique challenge that will really benefit us when we get to SEC play and we get the privilege of playing those first ballgames in that new O-Dome. It's going to be really fun.

Q. Last season the team did very well defensively, ranking in the top seven in steals, steals per game and turnovers forced, and a large part of that was the defensive play of Simone Westbrook who is unfortunately injured now with that ACL. How is the team looking to replace her production on the defensive end?
AMANDA BUTLER: Well, it's really difficult to actually replace a player who has the sort of impact that Simone does, so I think a lot of people will have an opportunity to step up and really consistently contribute on the defensive end more. I think it will definitely be a group effort. I had an individual meeting today with Eleanna Christinaki, and talked about how important it was for her to make her defensive presence known. So I expect her to shoulder some of that burden.

Then we have some fantastic freshmen who I think are on the defensive end in particular are going to have great seasons and try to replicate, if not better, some of those things that we were able to do as a defensive unit last year.

Q. Building off of that and speaking about the freshman, who stood out to you and the rest of the coaching staff, and how are they gelling with the team in terms of chemistry?
AMANDA BUTLER: The chemistry is amazing. I really credit our upperclassmen for that. I think our new players are eager and excited to be a part of something special and to contribute in their own unique ways. But I think our upperclassmen have done a fantastic job of leading and really setting the tone for how important chemistry is and they've worked really hard at it.

All of our freshmen have really already jumped in and kind of carved out their own niche from a personality standpoint in the way that they impact our culture, which we refer to as our TLC.

Sydney Morang hasn't been able to join us on the floor yet. She's been kept off the floor by concussion. But Sydney Searcy, Delicia Washington, and Elif Portakal have all made tremendous strides since they've gotten here and really have fit right in from a chemistry standpoint from the beginning. So it's been exciting to see.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Ronni? This is going to be her senior year. It's kind of hard to believe it's already here. But does she seem especially motivated to you here coming into this season?
AMANDA BUTLER: I tell you what, it's hard to put into words how motivated Ronni is, and the things that make me the most proud of her are the way that motivation is manifesting itself through her leadership, through the example that she's setting for our younger players and even our upperclassmen. She really understands what her presence has to be for us, aside from on the court.

She's just really grown into a very, very special woman, a strong leader. Someone who has a very specific vision for herself and also for our program. Then the way that she's expanded her game is something I'm also very proud of, and her teammates are proud of her as well. We've worked significantly over the summer in trying to build range and a little more confidence in the catch and shoot part of her game, extending her back behind the three-point line.

But Ronni is one of those type of competitors and the type of Gator that she just wants to play wherever she can and contribute however she can to us doing special things. So I'm really confident in the trajectory we're following right now with Ronni in the lead of that.

Q. As a follow-up, can you talk about the freshmen and who has stood out and what you expect from them this year?
AMANDA BUTLER: They've all made their even unique impressions so far, and all of those have been positives. And that's a good thing because sometimes you can make a unique impression and it's not always a positive thing. But all four of our freshmen, and our other newcomer in Funda Nakkasoglu -- I think I say her last name differently every single time, but that's my Tennessee accent of Turkish -- have all just come right in and made their presence known. I think their teammates have accepted them with open arms and really appreciate the coachable, teachable spirit and eagerness that they all possess.

Elif, who comes to us also from Turkey is just a really athletic, dynamic, and smart point guard. I really expect her to make a great impact on our team and being the one who is running the offense and setting the tone on defense very often.

Sydney Searcy I think is going to be a dynamic defender for us the way we like to play defense especially in the full court.

Delicia Washington is going to end up being one of the most dynamic players I've ever coached with the ball in her hand. She's really special. Does a lot of things very naturally. Loves to be in the gym.

So it's a learning process for those three, but I love the way they're attacking the learning. They're really eager to know our terminology, our systems and figure out their own unique ways that they can contribute.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
AMANDA BUTLER: Yeah, the boxing, I love talking about that. We play in the best league in the country, and I think we have one of the best overall schedules in the country this year. Our strength of schedule, I think, is going to be ridiculous. So we have to find unique ways to create an edge. Everybody's in the gym working hard this week. Everyone spent their summers lifting and getting shots up and trying to perfect their game.

We really want to try to find every way that we can to expand and enhance our mental skills. And as physical as boxing sounds, it's something that puts us completely at a discomfort disadvantage. It's something no one on our team has ever done. So you have to embrace being uncomfortable. You have to be willing to get outside your comfort zone or you're going to fail miserably. You have to risk looking silly and not be afraid to make mistakes to be successful when you're doing something completely outside of your training. And we feel the benefits of that are the way it builds our mental toughness and our togetherness. So boxing is one of the ways that we do that.

Milk is our boxing coach, and he does a very enthusiastic job of teaching us the techniques of boxing. Which I think there is a lot of great carryover with timing, reaction time, foot work, a lot of those things that are good for basketball players. But his level of energy is also infectious. And our team, even though it was 6:30 in the morning every Friday, they really enjoyed being in there, and took pride in the fact they were doing things that other programs weren't.

Along those same lines, meditation is something our team is doing as well. We're just trying to equip ourselves with as many mental skills as we possibly can because everybody's working on their physical skills. How can we be different? That's what we're trying to find out.

Q. Are there any areas that you think the team really needs to improve on, especially off last season? Anything that you've been focusing on? And going into this year, are there any certain things that you can really improve on?
AMANDA BUTLER: Well, I think the mental aspects of the game are things that we think we have to continually be striving to improve. We did have a great year last year, but it came to an a bankrupt end. It ended way sooner than we had hoped, and it wasn't for any physical reasons. It wasn't for lack of talent or lack of skill. It was just some areas where we had some mental breakdowns.

So we want to feel like we're mentally prepared for the same type of situations in postseason. We're prepared for this really grueling schedule that we're going to have, from a mental standpoint. From a basketball standpoint, we've worked a lot on our shooting. We're trying to be a more accurate shooting team and see those field goal percentages go up. Be a little more threatening off the catch and not always off the dribble.

But we're always going to have our heels dug in on defense, and that will anchor our identity, and hopefully sets the tone for us to be another very fast team. I think this group's going to be very fast, very quick on their feet, and quick in between their ears and making those mental transitions from defense to offense, and hopefully scoring a lot of points in transition.

Q. You talked about the strength of schedule outside of the conference. What do you think of the strength of the conference this season?
AMANDA BUTLER: Well, it's the SEC, you know. It's what draws great players to this league. They want to play against other great players. They want to test themselves against the best. Last year was a ridiculous year of strength for our league. Just when you think it can't get any better, it does. So nine teams out of 14 going to the NCAA Tournament is pretty incredible, and I don't think there will be any change this year. If anything, I think it will be an extra measure tougher.

We've got great coaching, tremendous programs, the best student-athletes, I think, in the country. So we don't expect it to be a soft year by any means. We just want to be the best Florida Gators we can be. We feel like if we can do that, regardless if it's in conference or outside of conference, we've got a great chance to be successful.

Q. You mentioned the way the season ended last year. Obviously, a sour note. Do you bury that or use that as some element of motivation when you talk about unfinished business? I know building on that, probably some of the upperclassmen would look back on that as a reference point or something to work on this year?
AMANDA BUTLER: Yeah, I think it's definitely a coin that has two sides. There is a lot of pride we take from the position we put ourselves in, and that can't be lost in the disappointment. At the same time, the only reason we look back is to figure out how we can improve and what are the things that can help us grow as a program, grow as individuals so that when we're in those situations again, we're in that double bye situation at the tournament, hopefully we can capitalize on that positioning and we can capitalize on a great NCAA Tournament seed and make significant runs.

But in terms of the sour taste in our mouth being our motivation or unfinished business, I think that's too much looking back. We just want to look forward. We have so much to look forward to.

So proud of this group of upperclassmen, and the way they're projecting and casting their vision for what we think they can be, and backing it up with the way they work.

I think it's motivation that we learned things about ourselves that we needed to know this year as a program and that's how we're approaching it.

Q. Last season you were consistently inconsistent down the stretch. So you would start out hot, and then third quarter you'd drop the ball a little bit. Have you all worked on that? Have you talked about it? Has it been addressed? Anything along those lines?
AMANDA BUTLER: I appreciate you guys bringing up all our weaknesses. That's just great reminders of things I need to incorporate into practice.

But not yet. Certainly when you talk about things like concepts, big, broad concepts like mental toughness, consistency falls underneath that umbrella. We're trying to address being the most mentally tough team that takes the court this season, and hopefully underneath that we'll see the ripple effect. We'll see a lot more consistent play. One of the things that was so special about last season's team And One of the things I learned as a coach is there are a lot of different ways to be successful. We turned the ball over way too much last year, but we still seemed to win some of those ballgames, so each team has a unique path to figuring out what makes them special. That's going to be a bit of a discovery process for us.

So while the team dictates that to us to a certain degree, we can't impose things on them that aren't part of their genuineness, their authenticity. So some of it we'll figure out. But obviously, do we want to be more consistent? No question.

Q. How has recruiting outside the country become more of a resource for you particularly in the SEC that's competitive and in the region to get players to get players from overseas, and what has the adjustment been for most players?
AMANDA BUTLER: It's really a national trend. This was an Olympic year, so a lot of people got to see maybe not so much on the women's side as much because the women did a fantastic job of just blowing everyone away, but you saw a lot more parity on the men's side. And that's kind of a reflection with the game catching up with the United States a little bit. So there are a lot of great players overseas.

For us, we want quality individuals. We want quality individuals who are talented enough to help us win championships but really will reinforce the culture that we've built, and we've been fortunate enough to find that in Eleanna and we've been fortunate to find that in Elif. And our other foreign player Funda who is actually Turkish decent but is Australian, so she has an awesome accent. Funda was a actually a transfer, so we didn't go to Australia to get her. I was hoping to do some recruiting down there, but that didn't work out in my favor. I had to go to Utah to get her.

But we want diversity on our team and a collection of individuals that come together in a really unique way that forms something special as a whole that's also unique and authentic. And we've been able to find some unique personalities and talents from those guys in different countries.

Q. Can you speak on last year, the game transition to quarters? Just how you liked that and how that worked out for you guys? And then just as it continues this year?
AMANDA BUTLER: Yeah, that's a great question. I really enjoyed the quarters. I thought for a team like us that we're always trying to press tempo and we're spending a lot of energy every single possession it gave us a good break at the half and a specific way to expect. We can go hard right here for two more minutes and then we know the quarter ends as opposed to when will the next media timeout come or will we have to call another timeout?

So I think it fits in really well with our style of play. I think it gives some good, natural breaks in the half that especially going into this season will be a great opportunity for our marketing staff to highlight our facility and create an environment in the O-Dome beyond the way that we're playing that will be really fun for our fans. So I think the quarter's a good deal all the way around. I really like it.

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