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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: ORLANDOMarch 17, 2017Mike WhiteOrlando, Florida THE MODERATOR: Coach, we'll just go straight to questions if that's all right with you. Q. In studying Virginia defensively, what makes it so difficult to score on them, and how important is discipline in offense going to be in this matchup? MIKE WHITE: It's a huge key to the game, Kevin. What makes them good? Everything. They're so sound. Year in and year out, they're in the top five in defensive efficiency in the country, which would put them in the argument to be the best defensive program in college basketball. They make you play differently. We're a team that has had success in transition offense in space, in the open floor, off of turnovers. They don't turn the ball over. And we're a team that struggled at times in the half-court, and we're going to have to score in the half-court. Obviously, we're going to try to score in transition. I don't know how many opportunities will be there. They're extremely physical. They're extremely sound and disciplined. They're a strong team. They're a quick-footed team. They move great laterally. They've got good length. They block shots at the rim. There's not a deficiency defensively. Q. Coach, how important is it to limit London early and really push them off of the three-point line, which is where the majority of their successful offense comes from? MIKE WHITE: I've got so many numbers in my head in trying to study them in a hurry here, you know, starting late last night. I don't believe they just take a ton of threes, but they shoot a good percentage, of course, and they've got a couple big-time shooters, of course, starting with Perrantes. Yeah, running him off the line, of course, but staying in front of him is very difficult. I think he's as good as they got at getting to the foul line as well. He's going to take and make big shots. It's a big challenge for us from the tip, of course, is being locked in on an all-ACC guy, a guy who's really versatile, a guy who can play the one or play them off the ball, run him off screens, comes off ball screens, hits big shots for them. Q. Just sort of piggy-backing on that, Mike, what are your major impressions of Perrantes and how dangerous he can be? MIKE WHITE: What's really impressive about him, really he's a microcosm of all of them, in my opinion, both offensively and defensively, in that they're just so sound. They just take good shots. They make good decisions. They don't break down defensively. And it's led by a guy -- I don't know that he's their leader, their captain, but he lets it come to him. I've watched games on TV where it seems like he's disappeared. He may have six points with ten minutes, and all of a sudden, he finishes the game with 18 and 8 assists and 7 rebounds or whatever. He just makes big plays, plays with a lot of confidence, with a lot of savvy. He did it last night. He made huge plays -- or yesterday afternoon -- down the stretch, getting to the rim. Q. Mike, obviously, this is something else that's new to you, a second-round game. MIKE WHITE: Yeah. Q. But just the difference in first and second rounds and how everything that happened in the first round, you kind of throw out because it's a totally different preparation. MIKE WHITE: Yeah, no question, especially with the two different scouts that we'll have. And also, Pat, with our unique situation, again, having come in here in sort of a slump, having come in here having lost two straight, very, very different feel. We were coming into the first-round game just searching for a win, period. I feel like our guys have regained a little bit of confidence. Of course, Virginia is an even better team. It's an even tougher scouting report. But we're at least on a one-game winning streak. Q. Obviously, a ton made about Virginia's defense. Your defense is top five in defensive efficiency ratings as well. What strides do you feel like your team has made on that side of the ball that's been most impressive and could help you tomorrow? MIKE WHITE: Probably the biggest improvements have been Devin Robinson. Kasey Hill this year becomes an All-SEC defensive player, has really been consistent all year. Chris Chiozza is an underrated defender. Arguably, our best defender right there with Kasey. Has been sound as anyone in some of the decision and lack of breakdowns, as we talk about with Virginia. Devin has become by far our most improved defender. Devin was a guy last year that at times I was taking out of the game. He wasn't too happy about it at times. And he's embraced that side of the basketball. He's become a better rebounder, but he's become a much, much better defender and really turning into a really good defender, utilizing his length. Really sitting down, containing penetration, altering shots. Those are probably the biggest factors. Q. Mike, when you were maybe even an assistant or at Louisiana Tech and it gets this time of year and jobs open up, I wonder what your thought process was and did you get consumed by, well, that's open, would I have a chance at this? Did you learn anything from your dad from the other side about how to handle that as a young coach and be able to concentrate on the moment without getting ahead of yourself? MIKE WHITE: Yeah, sure, great question. I went through it there for, what, three or four years. Even our first year, I was contacted a couple times just because we were picked at the bottom of the league, and we made a great run at the end of the year. Our freshmen made a huge jump, and we ended up playing in the championship game. The advice my father gave me is, "Keep your nose to the grindstone, obviously. Everything else will take care of itself. Louisiana Tech made a commitment to you. You owe a commitment to them." And I did. It was simple. I loved our guys, and it was about finishing as strong as possible, trying to get right here. I tuned all of that out. But I know that's probably going on with a dozen guys in our industry right now. There's a lot of good coaches out there, and there's always movement, of course. Q. Going back to the quick turnaround, what was your routine from the end of the game yesterday, and how much advanced scout did you have on UVA? How do you implement that to the players in this short window? MIKE WHITE: We've played a couple here where we've had a quick turn. This time of year, we're a little bit somewhat used to it. Of course, you wish you had a month to prepare for Virginia, but we jumped on it quickly last night. Watched film last night. Watched film this morning. Did a lot of talking about them. We'll jump out there and utilize our hour and a half on the floor today, but it's something that we've been through already. Q. Mike, obviously, the kids at the AAU level don't play a lot of defense. How tough is it to get them to -- MIKE WHITE: No comment. Q. -- sort of change the culture when you come to a place like Florida, where you not only expect defense, you demand great defense out of them? MIKE WHITE: I think there's a transition. There's a learning curve for all high school kids and AAU kids. There's a lot of really good AAU coaches out there and a lot of really good high school kids. But I'll use myself as an example, as an 18-year-old kid going to Ole Miss, when I could score a lot in high school and my high school coach needed me out there to score points, he would let some things slide defensively, where in the SEC playing at Ole Miss, I barely belonged on the floor. To compete with the Auburns and the Mississippi States of the world, you're going to be held a lot more accountable at this level, in my opinion. Again, there are definitely exceptions, but guys from 18 to 20, from 17 to 21, there's a transition that's made, especially in terms of defense and rebounding and intensity level, motor, all of those things. Skill level sometimes translates a little bit quicker, but in those regards, it takes time. Q. How much of Kasey's success this season can be attributed to the team's success as well? Kind of what he's been able to do. MIKE WHITE: No question. Kasey has become the leader of this team. We have other leaders as well. He's the strongest voice in the locker room. He's the strongest voice in the apartments. He's got a strong personality. When he's playing well, generally, we play well. He has embraced and bought in to our defensive schemes -- how important defense is, how much we emphasize defense -- as much as anyone. Late last year he really started defending at a high level. I called Devin the most improved defender, but Kasey, his entire senior year, he has sold out to just becoming a pest, utilizing his speed and quickness. I said it about Chris last night. Kasey's been a tough guy. This season he's become really tough. Really tough. And he's hard to screen. He fights through contact. He plays with a lot of energy. Other guys see that, and it spreads. Q. Two-part question: How late did you stay up last night checking out videotape, what did you see from UVA? What jumped out at you? Part two, if they come at you with a four, five-guard attack, what do you do in this chess match? Do you stay with the bigs or go small? MIKE WHITE: I'm going to need a reminder here. First one is how late was I up? I was up late. I was up late. I needed a little bit bigger of a Starbucks this morning to get myself going. Q. 3:00 a.m.? 4:00 a.m.? How late? MIKE WHITE: No, not that late. We've got to be sharp today, and we've got to be sharp tomorrow. At some point, you've got to make yourself go to sleep. I will say this, interestingly last night -- I was just talking to Evan Washburn about this, having not been in this opportunity before, I guess the positive of not making the NCAA Tournament is you get to watch the NCAA Tournament. Last night I had to turn the damn thing off. It was so frustrating. I wanted to watch Florida Gulf Coast and Florida State and Xavier-Maryland. I had to turn it off because I had to figure out how we're going to score 40 against Virginia. Studied them very, very quickly, of course. We had a guy -- I think I dodged your question earlier. Pre-scouting, circling back, we've had a guy for a week, one of my assistants, Dusty May, watching Virginia. He kind of gets me up to speed. We met last night, met again this morning. What jumps out? Just how sound and disciplined they are. Tony is one of the best in the business. He's done an amazing job up there. They're just extremely consistent. They play within themselves offensively. They're very, very skilled. And then defensively, it's a beautiful thing. They just don't make mistakes. They sit down in the stance and shut you out. Q. Tony says he expects a war of attrition, quote, unquote. Does that sound right? MIKE WHITE: I hope so. I hope so. It's going to be smash mouth. It's going to be, again, two good defenses. I'd like to credit our guys. Our guys have really defended well. We're a very, very good defensive team in our own right. Hopefully, it's a game down the stretch where we can find ways to score it against their prolific D a little better than they can score against ours. Q. If he goes small, do you stay small? MIKE WHITE: It would depend how we're playing. Just flow of the game, who's playing well. We've got a bunch of different guys. They're all a little bit different. You just don't know. Gorjok Gak is a factor last night. Who knew? Keith Stone hasn't had one of those games lately; he might be a one tomorrow. You just don't know with us. Q. Mike, KeVaughn has had shooting slumps before earlier in the season. How is he handling it now? And how much confidence do you have he'll snap out of it? MIKE WHITE: A lot of confidence. We'll call his number early and often, and I want him to let that thing fly. Again, your better scorers have got to step up against a defense like this. KeVaughn is going to have every opportunity of course. We're going to urge him to be aggressive. I'm sure he will be. I thought it spoke to our depth and the different ways that we can muster up points. I'm not sure we can do it that way against Virginia, but the fact that he goes 1-for-11, I do like that he stayed aggressive. And he was fine last night. He's hard to rattle. He's one of those unflappable guys. He's eating his post-game meal last night with a big grin on his face. He was happy we won. Q. Some of us from Virginia are intrigued by the fact that Devin Robinson's mother went to UVA. Have you known that for a while? Did you know that? MIKE WHITE: It's a reminder to me. It is. I've had other thoughts in my head here in terms of competing against those guys. Yeah, Virginia kid, and we've had other Virginia guys that have had a lot of success in the Gator program for whatever reason. Obviously, we're really proud to have Devin. He's one of the most improved players. Probably during the course of this season, he's got to be in the argument for one of the most improved players not only in our league but throughout the country. He's really playing his best basketball right now, and he's a wonderful kid as well. Q. Chris said last night he's playing with more confidence now than he ever has. How have you seen him come along even from the start of the season to now? MIKE WHITE: Chris, I think I told you guys this maybe a couple months ago, and I'll bring it back up because it's important. It's a great story: He comes into my office one day on his own accord, and it was after our home Vanderbilt loss. It was the day of that big meeting we talked about a bunch. He says, "Coach, I haven't been myself. I haven't been playing well. I don't know what's wrong. I'm focused on the wrong things." Again, here's a guy who's got a pretty good argument to play more minutes, and he's had some really big games, and he's not starting. But that's kind of been our biggest strength this year is we've utilized our depth. I think Chris was a little bit hung up on that early in the year. So he just made a big maturity decision, and he comes in and says, "Coach, I'm going to do whatever I have to do just to help this team win," and naturally, he starts playing his butt off. Since then, he's been the best version of Chris Chiozza, and certainly we hope that continues. I expect him to have a huge senior year and hopefully can have a really strong finish to this, his junior season. Q. I know it's a smaller story and I know you referenced it a little bit before. What did you think about Gorjok Gak's energized play last night? Really getting on the boards, had a putback dunk. Was playing with a lot of energy. MIKE WHITE: Yeah, definitely. He ran the floor. He's a guy sprinting up and down the court after sitting on the bench for about ten games. You think he'd be a little stiff. He was running up and down like a deer. He's a really talented guy. He's got good hands. He had a couple tough catches. Had a couple big finishes. He was a little rattled at the foul line naturally. He would have been rattled if it was a home game. Here he is in the NCAA Tournament without much experience, period. Really happy for him. It was needed. You never know. He might get the same opportunity or more tomorrow. Going to be a good player for us. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you and good luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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