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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: NEW YORK

March 24, 2017

New York, New York

Florida - 84, Wisconsin - 83

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student-athletes.

MIKE WHITE: I won't ramble for awhile, I know it's a little bit late. My goodness, just a huge win. What a wonderful college basketball game to be a part of. I'm so proud of our guys, I can't even put it into words the way that I would like to. I wish I had more thought, more time to put more thought into it. But I'm so proud of Chris Chiozza, so proud of KeVaughn Allen, and the rest of the guys. Anybody that played and wore a Gator uniform, especially those guys that fought in overtime. We got down five, they had all the momentum in the world. We couldn't hold on. Made a huge shot. It was deflating. It was a deflating shot. We kept composure, this team has grown so much in the last couple months, you guys remember, we talked about this in the locker room, but we didn't freak out. And we have had games like that where when we had a run against us you guys have seen it, where we kind of freak out. And we just matured so much.

For Chris to have the wherewithal to know that he can get all the way the length of the court in four seconds. He obviously utilized his speed and quickness and had tremendous composure, of course. Canyon Barry had a huge block in overtime. That put us in that position as well. KeVaughn Allen was unbelievable all game.

And now we're sitting here. We have got obviously an extremely quick turn with an opportunity to go to the Final Four. Wisconsin's a terrific, terrific team and hats off to those guys, especially their senior class that's been unbelievable and who have had an incredible run.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Chris, was there ever -- was that your plan the whole way? Were you thinking, if somebody's open I'm going to kick it or is it, I'm shooting a floater to win the game?
KEVAUGHN ALLEN: I just knew I had four seconds and I was trying to get down the court as fast as I could and if somebody was open I was going to pass it. But I was really trying to get to the rim, but they did a good job of bumping me and slowing me down and that was the only shot I had, so I had to take that one.

Q. Congratulations on an outstanding OT win and a career night. I know you have a strong relationship with your mom, I believe she was here tonight. How much did that mean to you?
KEVAUGHN ALLEN: It means a lot when she comes to the game, just knowing that she can't get to all the games when we're in Gainesville. And her coming tonight means a lot.

Q. How much credit do you give her for your career night?
KEVAUGHN ALLEN: She raised me the right way, so I give her all the credit for the night, just the way that she raised me and just the young man that I grew up to be.

Q. KeVaughn, you had some rough shooting nights in the first two tournament games. What made you come out tonight and really shoot the way did you and really score the way you did? And how did you feel about your performance?
KEVAUGHN ALLEN: I think nothing changes as far as me being aggressive and just continuing the shooting. And just my teammates just believing in me, just to keep shooting, whether I miss or hit.

Q. KeVaughn, you've seen buzzer beating shots in your lifetime on TV. What have you -- when the shot was going up, what were you thinking? And is this the wildest game you've ever been a part of?
KEVAUGHN ALLEN: I was, just when I seen Chris go down the court, when he had a shot at it, like, I didn't know whether it was a three or a two. Then, at the end, when the referee at the regulation, they said it was a three, and I was like very happy for him.

Q. Chris, can you -- your maturity in that situation, because as coach said a lot of people would panic four seconds to get off a lousy shot or do something a lot earlier. What made you know kind of where to shoot and when? How did you keep your witnesses about you?
CHRIS CHIOZZA: God just pleased me with incredible speed, so I just knew that I could use that and get to the other end of the court and have time left to either get somebody else a shot or take the shot myself.

Q. KeVaughn, can you describe the emotions of this game, particularly in the second half and overtime?
KEVAUGHN ALLEN: I think in the second half -- the first half we didn't play, starting didn't play great on defense. But in the second half, I think we just got things changed and started defending. And overall, I think we did a pretty good job on just staying together and staying poised and just coming together as a team and just to get this win.

Q. You blew an eight point lead with 1:44 to go. Was there any deer in the headlights going on with you guys in the huddle? How were you able to get yourself geared up after that?
CHRIS CHIOZZA: Zak Showalter hit a tough shot at the end of regulation to send it into overtime. Any time that happens, it takes a little, it takes the life out of you a little bit. But we came in the huddle, and we knew that if we played defense the way we played the second half, that we had a great chance of coming out with the win. And they got up five or six and we didn't lose our composure, we knew that we could still get stops and they were going to try to run some clock down. And we just knew if we rebounded the ball and got some stops, that we were going to have a chance to tie it up or take the lead and that's what we did. We had a great hustle play by Canyon when they had a chance to seal the game with about 20, 30 seconds left and he was able to chase the guy down and block it and we came down and tied it up. So we did what we had to do to win. We got a little bit of luck on our side.

Q. KeVaughn, you started out this tournament 5-31, but you can hear coach on the sidelines, and he talks about it in the press conferences, and he just wants you to keep hunting your shot. Was there anything specific he said to you after that poor start or you remember him telling you that got you to just keep shooting?
KEVAUGHN ALLEN: That's all he was really telling me, just to keep shooting it and just to be aggressive.

Q. Now that you're in the Elite 8, you're opponent's South Carolina, a team that you played twice, you've split home and home. What do you expect from this game? They're playing seemingly better than they have all season long. What do you expect Sunday?
CHRIS CHIOZZA: A battle. We're both two tough defensive teams and we take pride in the defensive end. We know each other well, so it's going to be a grind it out game, probably down to the wire just like this one. And it's just going to be what team's the toughest one and who can keep the composure and be disciplined the whole 40 minutes.

KEVAUGHN ALLEN: They're a physical team. We just know that we just can't make them, like, rush us on offense. We just got to stay calm and just keep moving the ball until we get wide open shots.

THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the student-athletes and take questions for coach.

Q. Does this makeup for Valpo?
MIKE WHITE: That is a great question. Hell yeah. Yeah. With an emphasis on the hell. Yeah. Absolutely. What a neat game to be a part of, especially when you're on the winning end. Yeah, you feel terrible -- I feel terrible shaking Greg's hand and it's heart breaking. It was heart breaking for us at the end of regulation. And they have had a incredible run. He's done an amazing job there and that senior class has been pretty special.

Q. A lot of talk in this game was about the maturity and experience and the situation that Wisconsin had. Did you kind of feel like your guys grew up a little bit in this game?
MIKE WHITE: Yeah, a little bit. Over the past probably six weeks or so we have talked about composure and poise and discipline as much as anything. Probably with John going out with the injury, knowing that we had to be a little tighter defensively. We had -- we couldn't afford to make a handful of mistakes, we had to try to limit those mistakes as much as possible.

And then offensively, we have been a group over the last couple years, again, probably up until recently, that we used the terminology earlier when the guys were here, they would freak out at times; that they would press a little bit offensively. I thought we did early in the game today or tonight. And late in this one we just, we made plays that we weren't making earlier in the season offensively, especially, and definitely not last year with these same guys. They have just grown. Like the -- KeVaughn getting to the rim in overtime, Chris Chiozza taking advantage and getting to the rim. Again, the play that canyon made, not the foul there, to come up with the big block. And, of course, the buzzer we beater by Chris. Just we're more experienced now and we're utilizing that experience. We looked like an experienced team in overtime to overcome the change in energy level. The change in emotion.

Q. Three SEC teams in the Elite 8. A lot of people are going to be surprised by this, I think. Is this no longer a football conference or how do you explain this to maybe people who might be surprised?
MIKE WHITE: I'll start by saying this: I don't know if Jeremy left or not, I know he was going to hydrate and he told me, but as a Florida Gator, sitting here as a proud Gator, it is a football conference. And it's a basketball conference, and it's a gymnastics conference, and a softball conference, and no one is more aware of that than the Florida Gators. There's excellence, throughout the conference in every sport. Men's and women's.

But SEC basketball, do we have some momentum? Yeah, I think so. I do. And I know that the, that there's been some negativity toward the SEC, potentially underachieving over these last couple years. Within our conference we know the potential and I think that our conference has, is full of good coaches, tremendous talent, a lot of young talent, recruiting classes continue to get stronger and stronger and we have three in the Elite 8. And who knows, I mean, I think the SEC's going to be better next year, I really do. With the guys that are coming back, and again the young talent that will continue to grow within our league.

Q. The final play, obviously, no timeout and how often, I mean, I don't know if you had --
MIKE WHITE: Thank goodness we didn't have a timeout, right?

Q. What was it like watching that play develop? And how often is Chris or someone like that practicing that kind of play?
MIKE WHITE: I'll be dead honest with you. As you know, perhaps we need to start practicing fouling when we're up three in regulation. That's been our mentality and we're always open to new things as coaches and it's something that we'll have to revisit this spring.

That said, with our speed and quickness, we play a bunch of four minute games in practices. Our guys have played hundreds of them all season. We're in that position a bunch, to try to get late clock offensive situations. And with Chris, KeVaughn, and Kasey, especially Chris and Kasey, we talk about, you have a dribble per second. That's the old coaches sayings. But with Chris and Kasey, they have elite speed, and so with four seconds Chris knows he has anywhere from four to six dribbles, not three or four like most guys. And boy, he utilized them and those -- both of those guys can cover a lot of ground in four seconds and he made an unbelievable play.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: NEW YORK

March 24, 2017

KeVaughn Allen

Chris Chiozza

Mike White