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UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 28, 2017Cameron NewbauerGainesville, Florida CAMERON NEWBAUER: Really appreciate everybody being here. Thanks for turning out. Just want to first and foremost, I'm blessed and highly favored to be here, and I want to thank God for the many blessings that he's bestowed upon me over the years. And I always got to thank you guys for being here today, because yesterday was Sarah's birthday and she didn't know that we were putting together this party for her, right? Happy birthday, my beautiful bride. So, nice little vacation for her birthday. And it's, I'm an emotional, passionate person. So, I might get a little emotional today, because this is truly a dream come true for me to be standing here in front of you, to be standing here as Scott Stricklin's first hire at the University of Florida. And to be the next women's basketball coach at the University of Florida. This is truly a dream come true. And I would be remiss if it I did not first and foremost thank Belmont University. They believed in me first. Mike Strickland hired me. The leadership of him and Doctor Bob Fisher at Belmont. Scott Corley, the AD that's there now believed in me. The mentorship I had from the men's coach Rick Byrd and Betty Wiseman was unparalleled to anything I could ever imagine. The staff that we had over the four years at Belmont, for us to build what we did and to win 21 straight games this year, the second longest winning streak in the nation. For us to have the second most road wins in the nation was a true testament to our team and our program and the staff. You hear about how it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to build a program. It takes a true village to build a program. You heard Scott mention that about what you have here at Florida. So, without our coaching staff, the last four years, without them the support staff, everybody at Belmont believing in the vision, believing in what we were building, there's no way that I would be here today. And to the three seniors that finished with us this year and the two other seniors that couldn't finish due to injuries, what they did, with what those five seniors did with buying in to me and believing in me and believing in the foundation that was being laid at Belmont. I thank them forever, because they helped me live my dream there and they have essentially pushed me on to live this dream here. So I just want to thank Belmont University and everybody there and all that they did for us and provided, so thank you so much. I want to thank my wife and my beautiful daughters for putting up with me and dealing with the craziness of this profession and being such an unbiased fan of our I don't think ladies every where we have been. My mom is here, my stepfather, Bill, my brother, my brother-in-law John, and my sister-in-law. And when you talk about living a dream, these people have lived the dream with me. They have helped me live this dream. They have supported me and they have built this with me and helped me when I went through tough times and thought I couldn't do it. They have given me the confidence to get there. So for them to be here today is an amazing special moment for us to share. To the University of Florida, to Doctor Fox, and his leadership on this amazing campus and his incredible city. To Scott Stricklin and Linda Tealer, to have the confidence in me and belief in me to bring me here for an interview first and foremost. For Jeremy Foley, to build the most revered athletics department in the entire nation. And now to have the opportunity to stand here before you and to get to lead one of the programs is amazing. So I couldn't be more thankful and proud, Scott, to be your first higher here at the University of Florida. And to lead the women's basketball program. And I want to thank all the administrators that are here and I'm sorry I can't name you all. The coaches that are here, the coaches I met with and understand that the legacy, you have built the legacy that you have built with the student-athletes, with the caliber of person, with the high quality of character and integrity that they stand for, you have created this. Jeremy Foley was the leader, but you did the leg work and took his vision and made it happen and it came to fruition. And to the young ladies I just met with earlier today, our team, how excited I am to be part of them. How excited I am to lead you. For us to go all in to see what we can do. That's an incredible honor for me to have shared that last hour with you guys and for you guys to show me around the facility and that was special. So thank you for your time and for embracing me. And we know we have got work to do and we know that we're going to work and we're going to get after it and we're looking forward to that. When you grow up in this profession or when you get in the coaching profession, have you ideas of what you think you want to aspire to do, you got visions, but you never are really sure what can ultimately happen. And I've always been a dreamer and a worker. I believed in having crazy foolish dreams that cannot come true without divine intervention. So basically trying to do the unthinkable and do whatever everybody says you can't do. And that's kind of been my life with this profession. With the amazing opportunities I've had. I want to thank all those mentors I've had for my first mentor ever at Siena College, Rob Lanier who had the privilege to work for Billy Donovan for four years. He taught me, Scott taught me that every day's an interview. And as you heard Scott reference earlier, my interview was a tournament game in which he watched our team and he watched my presence on the court and he watched me conduct myself in our press conference. So, to our players, please understand that every day's an interview for us. With all the young people in this community, with all of the leaders in this community, they're watching us, pulling for us. And we have a responsibility with who we are in this community and what we wear on our jersey to up hold that. And to know that I performed and I passed the test of an interview and I didn't even know I was being interviewed makes me so proud. And I couldn't be more thankful for Rob Lanier for teaching me that. To Dennis Felton when I worked for him at the University of Georgia on the men's side for three years. Understand what that opportunity did for me that has to do with this place. I still to this day tell everybody, that when I worked for Dennis at Georgia, in our first year we swept a team that was number three in the country, that has a very large crowd, and it was an amazing atmosphere. But when we came here, when we came here during the era of the back-to-back national championships, I will tell you that everywhere I've been in this nation I have never ever seen anything like the atmosphere in the O Dome. We pulled up for a shoot around at 10 a.m. and the student body was lined up outside the O Dome waiting for tickets. And it was amazing. And it was one of my first tastes of the University of Florida in Gainesville and what this department means to this campus and this city. And so I need to thank Dennis Felton not only for tutoring me, mentoring me, teaching me how to coach, but for giving me the opportunity to see what Gainesville, Florida was all about. To Andy Landers my first ever mentor on the women's basketball side, for the opportunity to teach me about the women's game and how to recruit at this level and how to coach at this level and how to conduct myself as an assistant coach at the highest level. It's amazing what he's done for the game and it's amazing for what he did for me in my career and through working for coach Landers coming up here, once again, I always found myself whenever we would stay at the hotel down the road I would always go for a jog and I would jog down and I remember seeing when the lacrosse complex was being built, the student rec center I believe is on the left the softball and baseball fields. And one of the neatest moments was, two of the neatest moments on jogs before were when I got to see the bats one night. The bats come out of that house, I'm sorry I don't know the name of it. But that was just pretty amazing. To have something like that on campus and I'm so excited to take my daughters to see that. And then over at the little bridge that feeds into the pond there, there was three Gators over there. And then I ran through campus and just getting the feel for the campus and what this city is around the university. So it just has grown, it grew on me what type of place this was and how special the University of Florida was. And then I went to the University Of Louisville and worked for Jeff Walz. And had the opportunity to compete in the National Championship game, which you guys here at the University of Florida are used to that virtually in every sport. So for me to experience that as assistant coach was unrivaled. And to get to taste that and to see what it felt like and what it took to get there. So I thank Jeff for his opportunity that he gave me to believe in me as assistant coach and then I went on from there to Belmont. And I never thought I would leave. I loved that place. I love the people there. And the people are what made it so special. The people are what makes Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee so special. It's 7,700 students, small, and you always hear about the small college feel. And how important the people are and how important it is when these people embrace the students and the student-athletes in a big city like that. And then all of a sudden we have these ideas that we're going to stay there for a long time and really build something and come to find out we built something in a very short time that was just incredible. And put us on the map nationally. To being back-to-back NCAA tournaments to win 35 of 36 conference games, to have Scott witness last year at Mississippi State what we did with Michigan State and then two weeks ago, I'm sorry, a week ago last Friday, to play an SEC opponent on their home floor and have a shot to tie the game and to compete with them was just incredible. And that's where I really gained more confidence and belief in myself as a coach and a leader of a program. And when I received a phone call inquiring about my interest to the University of Florida, my jaw dropped. Because to get the phone call was amazing. A dream come true. To know that our young ladies had built our program to put me in a position to have an opportunity, to get to talk with the University of Florida, about a dream opportunity, a dream job. And not knowing how the process is going to play out, you never know if you're going to get a phone call back, you never know who they're going to talk to, how it's going to I play out so you have to be patient. You have to be patient. And I was patient and I was afforded the opportunity to come down here. And in between the phone call and the opportunity to come down here, I did my research. And I talked to one of my mentors. And he talked about the University of Florida like everybody talks about and I talk about Belmont University. The people. The people. And I'm not going to lie, I thought he was crazy. Because you are talking about a campus of 54, 55,000 students. You get lost in the shuffle. Everybody goes their own way, everybody has their own agendas, and everybody has their own jobs. So I kind of scoffed at it. But I knew I was going to come down here and I came down here on my interview and I was blown away. Our players today referenced it when I asked them, what's the best part about here? And our players referenced it. The people. I'm sitting in one interview session and 26, 26, 26, 25, 23 years in the department. 12 years. You look at the coaches, you look what they have built, you look at the amount of time they have been here. People come here to stay. They come here to build something special, they come here to build something greater than themselves. And I felt that when I was here. And I never thought that I could feel it at a big school. At a BCS Power Five school. And thank God I was wrong and my eyes were opened that day. And I fell in love with this place. I fell in love with the challenge. To leave a footprint, to leave a legacy. And it just so happened that the opportunity got presented to me yesterday. I got the phone call and I basically didn't flinch, I just told Scott that it's Sarah's birthday, I need to go home and talk to her and I knew the answer and I think he knew the answer. And I couldn't be more grateful, more proud, or more appreciative of how I got here. And I couldn't be more excited about the journey and the work that lays ahead. I appreciate Coach Butler and what she's done here the last 10 years, what she did with her amazing playing career, who she is as a person, appreciate what she's done on her staff. Great people. I can't for a second tell anybody why this is the only sport that has not won a SEC championship. I'm not going to speak to that. I'm not going to pass judgment, because I cannot tell you the breaks that didn't go their way, the calls that didn't go their way, the injuries that plagued them. I don't know that. I'm here today to live in the present and the future. I'm here to tell you that you're going to see my passion. You're going to see my enthusiasm. You're going to see my love for this team. And I'm not saying you're going to see it through me, you're going to see it through them. You're going to see it with how they conduct themselves off the court, you're going to see them with the effort they put forth in the community to bring people to be part of this. To welcome people. Because this is the best college sports town in America. And these people embrace us. And we're going to welcome everybody with open arms to come be part of this and help us, because we need your help, we need your help. Referenced earlier, you cannot raise a program without a village. And the village of Gainesville is amazing. And the village on this campus, the village in this room is amazing. We have got all the resources, the people, the opportunity to do something incredibly special. And I told our team today that the biggest thing to me is that someone else's opinion of us does not have to become our reality. It doesn't matter what everybody said, it doesn't matter what hasn't happened. What matters is what we do today for tomorrow. What matters is how we move going forward. And I'm excited for the work that lays ahead and the time it's going to take. And I believe in this group and I believe in the work that they're going to do off the court with the community, in the classroom, in building the foundation for this program. The love they already have for each other, you can see it, you can see how much these kids care about each other. And I'm grateful to be part of it today. So, understand that this isn't my day, this isn't about me, it's about the next step for the women's basketball program here at Florida. And I'm blessed and grateful to be part of this and so excited for you guys to be part of this journey with us and to watch what happens and transpires. And I appreciate for the love and support that you've already given to this program. And I appreciate the love and support you're going to continue to give us. And I appreciate all the tough times you're going to go through with us and help us out of them. The encouraging words, text messages, Tweets, whatever it is that I know you're going to do, because it's been done here in every other sport. By you just being who you are and supporting these young ladies and to helping us. So for that I'm forever thankful to you and I cannot express the excitement that we have with our family to start here anew with you in such an amazing inspiring place. So, please join us, on this adventure. And know that we're going to faced adversity together and we're going to plow through it and we're going to learn from our mistakes and failures and we're going to grow to where the next time we're that much better. I don't believe in goals, I don't believe in benchmarks, I believe in expectations and we talked about this today. I believe in the controllables and many of you might think it's counter cultural, but that's okay. I believe in giving the best we can every single moment, every single possession, every single drill, every day, to the best of our ability, the best attitude and effort that we can have. Because we cannot control the breaks in the game, we cannot control which way the ball rolls, the officials whistle. But we can control our attitude and effort. And we're not going to set a benchmark because often times things can happen on that way to that benchmark to where now all of a sudden, well, we didn't reach that so that means we didn't grow and mature and become better? Or all of a sudden if you hit that benchmark are you complacent and just, okay, because, oh, we have reached it. And that's how I have lived for the last 10 or so years and especially the last four years at Belmont. As we're just going to focus on the controllables and giving it everything we have, every day, every moment, to be better the next possession. And to play the next possession. And that's how I want our young ladies to live their lives, because we're going to make mistakes, we're going to stumble, but we're going to pick each other up and we're going to keep moving. And we're going to learn from what we did to be better the next moment. So please know that this is an exciting time for us. And I hop you're excited to be part of this, because you are part of this. And I know I don't know many of your names and I can't wait to meet you and to hear your story, to hear what you've done in Gainesville and how you've touched this place. And how you've made it so special. Because I've seen it numerous times. And I know that everybody in this room has played a part. So thank you for that. And if you're out and about this week, softball could use your support tomorrow night. Big time weekend for Coach Rowland, gymnastics regional. Hopefully we can help them compete for a National Championship, but they got to get out of this weekend one day at a time. Men's and women's track team will be out to the Pepsi, Pepsi Florida Relays. They will be out here. So please come out and support them. You don't need to worry about the weather, because as I'm learning the weather's amazing. But just know that this is everybody, all in, all sports, everybody, and just couldn't be more blessed to be here and thank you for being here and go Gators. (Applause.) Q. Could you just talk about how you and what went into your decision to go from men to women's sports in your career? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Andy Landers. If you watch Andy Landers on TV you see the personality. If you see him now doing all the commentary. He's amazing. I was on the men's staff and him and I just became friends. And my younger sister my dad, my sisters they're not here but they're a huge part of this, too. But my younger sister was being recruited, she ended up playing at Indiana University, so when she started to be recruited I took a role in that and started to learn and it part of my heart was part of that and so just getting to know coach and coaching's coaching, men's women's, whatever level. And to get to work for a Hall of Famer, at one of the best programs ever, was just an opportunity kind of like this one that you do not pass up. Chance of a lifetime. And that has made all the difference for me. Q. What kind of ways do you see, what kind of ways to you do you see to engage fans and to get more support for the program? CAMERON NEWBAUER: We have to show that it's a fan experience. By a fans experience I'm not talking about they come to the game, they get a blow up balloon, they get their face painted, they sit in the crowd, and go home. I'm talking about our student-athletes engaging, I'm talking about me engaging. Our NCAA Tournament game, I'm up in the crowd 30 minutes before the game and all these fans are looking at me like, what are you doing, you got a game to play. The hay's in the barn, we have done our work. Now it's time to get our fans excited about us and to know that they're part of this and that we need them. So the fan engagement piece, it's one thing on campus when they come to games, it's another thing in the community. I talk to everybody. I'm going to invite everybody I see wherever we are in town I'm going to challenge our players day in and day out to invite X amount of people and go out of your way today when you're on campus and say hi to somebody. Be, learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And that's something that's going to help them for the rest of their live, learning how to talk to people, communicate with people and invite people. Because I truly believe that when you invite people and when they come and they see what's going on, they're going to be more invested and they're going to come back and they're going to bring people. And you can speak to it stronger than I have, because you see it here in this city already. So, that's something that's going to be a target for myself and our staff and our program. Just keep inviting people. Until they come. I've already apologized you know Coach Spurrier called me today, talk about a jaw drop? No offense, Scott, yours was a jaw drop, but Coach Spurrier, head ball coach calls me, and we're talking, and I apologized to him, because he told me he's an avid women's basketball fan and him and his wife love to come to games and I apologized, I said, because when you meet my wife and daughters and our team, I'm going to invite you all the time and want you here. So I've already apologized to a number of people that I'm going to be a pain in your side because I'm just going to invite you, you can say in all you want but sooner or later I'm going to get you here. Q. You just mentioned as a target, what are some of your other targets, not ask for benchmarks, but what are some of the other areas that you want to put some of your energy immediately into? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Recruiting. Recruiting, relationships, the first single most important step is right here, these young ladies. The relationship with them. There's some things that need to be men dead, change is tough, this is tough on me, it's tough on them. So just building the relationships. And that's the No. 1 most important priority for any team on any campus is the people that are on campus. So first and foremost, we need to get to know each other. We need to build the relationship. We need to build trust. With open ears and open mind and an open heart. And then obviously recruiting relationships. This is a national brand. We all know that. You look at our roster, you can see that it's an international brand as well I'm sure many of the other teams on campus as well. But I think that it all goes back to relationships. And the community. It's relationships. So for me the No. 1 most important aspect of everything we're doing in the time being is the relationship piece. Q. You mentioned meeting with the players for the first time today. Can you just talk about what you think the potential is of this current roster and how good do you think the team can be more next season? CAMERON NEWBAUER: What I think the potential is is they could be special. There's a lot of good pieces sitting over there. There's a lot of good pieces that know how to play. I've watched film on them, I know some of the deficiencies, some of the strengths, and I'm excited to get in the gym and work with them. Because I think they're hungry. They came here with a purpose. They came here to do something special. That will not change no matter who their leader is. I believe they still have that inside of them, to be great and to do something special. And that's what excites me the most about them. And that's why I say, if they're going to have the best attitude and best effort every single day, that we will get people to notice us and great things will happen. That will happen. If they will go all in for each other. Not all in for me, all in for us. Q. What are the technical aspects of the game that you think need to be improved on? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Technical aspects? I would say this for any team in the country, skill development. You can never be too good of a shooting team. You can never be too good of a passing team. Defensively, you can always be better. So just continuing to work, continuing to fine tune some deficiencies, continuing to find ways to build confidence, to expand your skill set. I think it's a combination of all that. This isn't, it's not rocket science, I think sometimes things, people think that you have to change everything when it's a matter of just little details and helping them focus on one or two things. And then once they graduate from those one or two things you go to the next step. So just building the confidence with the repetition, and I think that these young ladies are willing to do that. I think that you are hungry to do that. I really do. Q. Have you touched base with any of the incoming freshmen yet and any feedback from them? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Yeah, you know, most of the conversation so far have just been introductory. They, I appreciate how much they respected that last night was my wife's birthday. So they understood the whirl wind of the day and they understood that that was a big deal to spend dinner with my wife and I talked on the phone briefly, texted with some of them and told them that we need to really get to talk and we'll touch base tonight with some as well. So just once again with the relationship piece. Seeing where their head and heart is. And what they want to do going forward. Because I think we all understand they didn't choose me. They didn't choose me. But at the same time we all understand that they chose Florida. And they chose us and what makes us so special. So just trying to show them my vision, and who I am as a person and what I'm going to bring to them and what I can do for them with them joining us. Q. Are you familiar with any of them? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Yeah. Yeah. A number of them, I was at a different level the last four years but you still saw them play in the summer. And then some of them we had on campus, so, yeah, it's a good group. Some really good I mean just good pieces that they can fit in nicely. Yeah, the most important thing is I think they're the right people. I think they're definitely the right type of people that fit the culture with what we're building here. Q. How would you describe your style of play? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Style of play? I was fortunate to my first, my first 11 or 12 years work under Rick Barnes disciples in Andy Landers that were defense and rebounding. So I learned a lot of defense and rebounding techniques. And then working for Jeff Walz, more offense. And then at Belmont, more offense. So I learned a multitude of different styles and it's tailored more towards -- you got to be smart. I can't come in here and tell you that we're going to press for 40 minutes, I can't come in here and tell you we're going to pound the ball inside. We have to do our homework right now. We have to get in the gym and see what we want to do. But I want us to play fast and free. But understand what the freedom and we talked about this, with the freedom comes discipline. Where now all of a sudden if it breaks down you don't just put your head down and keep attacking, you got to go to the next option. So there's structure involved to where now they know what their get out of jail free card is when they get in trouble on the court, that they can kick back out to a teammate where they're at and just to keep playing. So it's a combination of -- and that's part of the excitement about this is trying to figure out what we're going to become through this process together. And figuring out the strengths and weaknesses with what we can do and that's where I'm blessed to have had the opportunity to work under so many different coaches and learn different styles of play. And we even talked, you look in our conference, every team pretty much place a different styles you got some teams great defensively, offensively, great full-court pressing, so we have to learn from a skill standpoint, how to win and play different styles if we want to be successful here. Q. Then I know you want to live in the present and the future, but were you stunned to learn that this was the only program on campus that doesn't have a conference title? CAMERON NEWBAUER: I don't know if stunned's the word. I was kind of surprised. Just didn't relays that. But at the same time, this is the best women's college basketball conference in the country. I worked for Andy Landers, and he went head to head with Pat Summit at Tennessee for a long time, so you have to understand that for a long time this, the SEC has been the SEC. And we just didn't join it a couple days ago. So I think that all that comes into part of that and it's taken a process to build it and coaches before me have done a good job and been very close and one shot away from Final Four in '97, I believe. Coach Ross. I mean and that's what I'm talking about the breaks of the game, you just it's so close, we saw it Friday night the break went our way. So, it's one of those. Q. You said your jaw dropped when Scott called. When you hung up the phone. Can you run through the emotions at that point? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Proud. Because you aspire to -- you aspire to build something and you never know if people notice what's happening. And you put in the blood, sweat and tears and you never know if people are noticing. And you never know what's going to happen with it. But at the same time you have to understand that you do it because you love it. You don't do it to get the phone call. And I've always been a person that works an as hard as I can where I'm at right now. And let the chips fall where they may. And because I've been diligent with doing the work and committed that I got that phone call. And to have the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament last year where he was able to see us and to see our young ladies compete, and then for that just to, so just proud and shocked because I'm the least of these, you know. Q. Did you play high school ball? CAMERON NEWBAUER: I'm from Indiana, I played in high school and you know I thought I was pretty good, but guards my size in Indiana that can shoot jumpers are a dime a dozen. So I played in high school, I thought I was pretty good, but I really wasn't that good. But that's what fueled this burning passion and desire to become a great coach, the dreams that I did not fulfill with all my hard work and dedication as a player, it's transpired into a coach. Q. Was there a highlight as a player? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Do I have a highlight as a player? I sure do. I got one of the best half court game winners anybody's ever seen. Q. You saw a pretty good shot the other night. So what do you got? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Well, that was a runner from the three-point line. I actually, we're down -- this is kind of ridiculous, I'll show you guys the film one day. I actually, we're, they're shooting free throws, they hit a free throw, we're down two. I get the ball cutting across the lane, should have been a blocking foul, ref doesn't call it. I literally get knocked down, I'm dribbling on my knees on the ground at the half court line, I jump up, heave it and perfect swish. High school half court is not quite ours. Q. To win the game? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Yes, by one and the ensuing pileup was amazing. I had to scrape and claw and breathe to get out. Thanks for that question. It made me feel pretty good. Thank you. I appreciate that. Q. So how important is your high school coach to you? CAMERON NEWBAUER: That's, the irony in that he question, he lived in Gainesville. You know Phil? Phil? Yeah. Yeah. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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