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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DALLASMarch 14, 2018Mike WhiteChris ChiozzaEgor KoulechovJalen HudsonDallas, Texas Q. Chris, what do you take from the matchup that you had with them last year in Lakeland, particularly in defending their guards who are both back this year, Mobley and Jaylen Adams? CHRIS CHIOZZA: We know those are their two main scorers, and they're great players. So we're going to try to contain them as much as we can and just play how we do, try not to let them get any open shots early and get going. Q. Chris, you just mentioned it's kind of a tough preparation thing since they played last night and you had to get ready for UCLA or St. Bonaventure. Do you think that gives you a little bit of an edge or is it easier getting ready for them rather than some team you hadn't played last year? CHRIS CHIOZZA: I don't think it'll be any easier, but we played them last year. We know kind of a little bit better what those guys want to do or what they're good at. So you know, we're just going to try to make them do things they're not as comfortable doing. As with UCLA, we haven't watched them play at all or haven't seen them play at all until last night, so it would have been probably a little bit tougher scout. Q. Chris, everybody called you Cheese before last year with the big shot against Wisconsin. How much did that take off your nickname last year? CHRIS CHIOZZA: I'm not sure. I felt like probably a lot of people called me that last year, but this year I feel like everybody calls me that. I'm sure that has something to do with it or just me being here so long that everybody started calling me that. I'm not really sure, but I'm sure that probably had a little bit to do with it. Q. Egor, I know that your first NCAA Tournament appearance was obviously a heartbreaker against Texas. Could you sort of talk about what you learned from that experience and how excited you are after starting at ASU, going to Rice and ending up at Florida in your last season? EGOR KOULECHOV: Yeah, sure. I think where I learned from it the most is probably -- not that the seeds don't matter, but every team in this field is very good, and you've got to respect every single opponent. And I mean, the margin of error is so small. That was a heartbreaker my freshman year against Texas. The guy just picked the ball up, just laid it up. I kind of learned from that, and it's been a journey since then. Obviously went to Rice, now finishing my year here at Florida, and it's been great. This is the time and this is why I came to Florida, this team, those guys. We worked really hard all year to be where we are right now, and now we've just got to take advantage of that. Q. You were both playing at a pretty high level towards the end of the regular season, then hit a little bit of a lull in the Arkansas game. What's the sense of urgency been like in practice to kind of bounce back for Thursday? JALEN HUDSON: We're just trying to hang our hat on defense. That's what our main emphasis is. We want to play really hard, make the shots really hard, and shock them in transition. Our main focus has been on St. Bonaventure. We kind of moved on to next thing. We made our mistake against Arkansas, but now we have a whole new focus, and it's all been on St. Bonaventure. EGOR KOULECHOV: Yeah, you know, same kind of thing, just, again, trying to take it one day at a time and trying to move on from the Arkansas game. We have a new opponent, really try to hang our hat on defense, like Jalen said. We know if we defend high level, it's going to give us a chance at every single game. That's what we're going to try and do tomorrow, just defend at a high level. Q. Jalen, you guys obviously got to spend more time in St. Louis not playing than you would have liked. What was that like for you guys, kind of being just stuck there and probably wanting to get home and having to find out on the plane who you're going to be playing, all that stuff? What was that whole experience like? JALEN HUDSON: Yeah. I feel like it made it a little bit worse for us. We had to sit there. We had to watch all the games there in St. Louis. I feel like it made the sting like a little bit longer. I like remember exactly how that feeling feels. I don't want to feel like that again, so I want to use that, know what I mean, to help push us forward. Q. Chris, I know you have some NCAA Tournament experience from last year and playing in that, but have you reached out to any of your older friends who have been in this experience before more times than you or maybe back out to Kasey Hill for some extra tips and pointers in terms of getting ready for the tournament? CHRIS CHIOZZA: I haven't been in contact with any people regarding my fellow teammates that's already been there. I'm going to try to use my experience to help these guys out. I'm sure Coach or somebody will have something set up for us when we get to the hotel or something with former players or just somebody to give us a little extra advice that I might not be able to provide. Q. Jalen, I know coming into the season and during your redshirt year, there's a lot of questions surrounding your defense and sort of how that was going to affect your playing time. How have you seen your game change from when you first came into Florida for your redshirt season up until now in the season? JALEN HUDSON: Yeah, my game has changed a lot, both ends of the floor. Still trying to continue to get better every day. Not exactly where I wanted to be. I feel like my ceiling is still pretty high, but it's about us right now, know what I mean. March Madness is always about everybody. It's not about individual things. It's going to take everybody tomorrow. So that's what I've been focusing on, giving as much as I can, being a servant. Q. Chris, could having some guys that have had experience that went through it last year be an advantage on your team? CHRIS CHIOZZA: Yeah, I think it could be an advantage, just the atmosphere we have here every game when you get into this tournament, people that haven't been here before, it might rattle them a little bit. But like you said, we have pieces that have been here, and I think that the guys that were here last year, I think we're trying to do as best a job as we can, getting everybody ready to prepare themselves mentally for this -- what we're about to face on this court out here. Q. I just want to follow up, you were talking about the sting. Were you talking about the loss to Arkansas and sitting around watching other teams play? Was that what you were referencing? JALEN HUDSON: Yeah, that was exactly what I was talking about. First and foremost, I don't think we feel like we played our best game. We didn't give ourselves a chance really against Arkansas. And then on top of that, we had to sit there in St. Louis and watch all the rest of the SEC games when we knew we should have been playing, know what I mean? It really stung. And for us to sit there and not have anything to do besides watch the rest of the games, it really stung. So that's what I was talking about. Q. Chris and Egor, not really a basketball question, but I've seen you guys are both big into Fortnite. Do you think even though it's a non-basketball thing it's brought you together, just creating that chemistry? EGOR KOULECHOV: Yeah, I mean, you could say that in a way. We just got a lot of similar interests. Having those always helps to kind of bring you together, maybe even on the court, who knows. But it's been great, just getting to know him. All my teammates really, Jalen and me, we all live together, and we feel like we're pretty close. A lot of times it shows on the court, too. CHRIS CHIOZZA: Like he said, any time you can find something that you can share interests with somebody else or a lot of people on the team, we all like to -- we all enjoy playing that game, so we try to play together as much as we can. I mean, it just -- I don't know, it's just a bond that we've got just from that, let alone everything else we do together, but just that. It definitely like brings us a little bit closer together. MIKE WHITE: Great to be here. Great to be back in the NCAA Tournament. I thought my guys did a really good job, three really good guys. Decent practice today. Coming off, obviously, a performance at the SEC tournament that we weren't overly pleased with, but at the same time understanding that we played a very good team. The SEC has had a great run, a great year. Hopefully our league can do some damage in this tournament. And obviously now it's about St. Bonaventure. I thought they were really good last night against the UCLA team that has terrific year. St. Bonaventure I thought played extremely hard, defended at a really, really high clip, and beat a good Pac-12 team without their best two players in my opinion, playing at their fullest potential. That shows you how dangerous they are. Q. You're aware of Mobley and Adams from last year and what they did to you in Lakeland, but what else about their team particularly kind of stood out on Tuesday night that's going to be really difficult for you guys to deal with going into Thursday? MIKE WHITE: Well, I think with those two guys, they're complemented by Stockard, who is a really underrated guy in my opinion and a mismatch nightmare. How do you guard him? Who do you guard him with? He was terrific last night and was the difference in the game in my opinion. Again, to complement, arguably, one of the best back courts in the country both offensively and defensively, and then they've got complementary pieces, too, that I think provide defense and rebounding, play within themselves, hard to block out, really good in zone, provide some physicality. Going back to last year's game, since you brought it up, one of the things that stuck out after the game was their talent level, how good they were offensively. They could really score. The way they executed, Coach Schmidt has done an amazing job there, of course, but just how tough they were and how hard they played, and I thought that that was shown again last night. Q. I was just curious about your preparation and scouting for this situation based on the fact that you're playing the play-in winner, so you had to kind of get ready for two teams, and I know you're usually at least laying groundwork for a possible second round. Can you kind of explain how you had to handle that whole situation? MIKE WHITE: Yeah, sure. For us moving forward, we won't discuss it, look at it, peak at it, nothing. We've never done that. It's just our philosophy. But your first question, it was a first-time deal for us leading into this one in that you don't know who you're going to play, and that's a position we put ourselves in, and we were close to not having this type of situation. We try to combine as much tendency as possible offensively and defensively. Obviously what UCLA and St. Bonaventure, led by guards offensively, transition defensively, altering defense being huge. Isolation being defense. And then there's some differences there with speed and quickness versus athleticism and size and length. And then we went -- in terms of scout team, offense versus a dummy defense scout team, we went against their tandem 2-3 zone a bunch, St. Bonaventure I'm talking about, and unfortunately wasted a lot of time going against UCLA's 2-3 zone. Q. At this time of year, is it different than regular season preparation because of the time factor, so do you dial anything back even though the games are obviously very important? Does that factor into it at all? MIKE WHITE: No, I think there are a lot of similarities really, outside of the fact that we didn't know who to prep for, but once you find out last night late, it becomes pretty similar, a little bit quicker than most of our SEC games, but both Bonaventure and us have played Thursday-Saturdays this year and Tuesday-Thursdays or Saturday whatever, Sunday-Tuesday. We're all -- it's an even playing field from here on out, really everybody in the tournament, and whoever is fortunate to advance, again, it's the same prep. It's a two-day prep. Mostly mental compared to a three, four-day prep, but there's got to be some physicality involved, as well. Q. Does the experience of going through it last year play a factor at all? I know you don't have all the pieces, but obviously you have Chris Chiozza, Hayes, and -- MIKE WHITE: I don't know. We'll see. I just think we're such a different team. We're playing such a different team. I just think it's more about this year's Gators versus this year's Bonnies. This experience if you really look into it, there's probably some positives we can draw from, but there might be some negatives, as well. We think that we have a lot of positive, and we think that because of our experience, if we allow this to creep in, that we can just play well, and we're just going to move on because that's what happened last year, but that can be the negative side of it. We've got to play really, really well to win tomorrow, and our focus can't be on how far can we make it in the tournament, or it's going to be short-lived. Our experience here in the NCAA Tournament, it's got to be focused on the St. Bonaventure scouting report. Q. I know in the press conference before your team left for Dallas you talked about that there still wasn't that guy who was really stepping up being the absolute leader of the team and that sense of urgency because you have a shyer, quieter team. Have you noticed since you've been out here that attitude change just in the spirit of being out here for March Madness and being in the spirit of the team and seeing it in person? MIKE WHITE: No. And I want to be clear, too. We have some leadership, we do. Chris Chiozza has been a terrific leader in a lot of regards. Hayes has really stepped up. Egor Koulechov has provided some leadership for this team. This team, though, we've had an inconsistent level of edge and competitiveness and desire. And I was talking to somebody about it the other day, the fact that it's just really hard to tick these guys off. I'm going to give you an example. There's a bunch of stuff hits the media, whether it be social media or television media, that everyone is picking whoever wins this game, they're going to beat Florida, right? We all know it. Why would I not use it? Whether it works or not, who knows, with this group, we showed it, and we showed it this afternoon before practice because I thought it might lead to us having a bunch of edge in practice, and we got off to a horrible start in practice, quiet, had to tell my managers to stop cheering our guys on because it sounds like a library in there if they're not getting after it. It's just the personality of this team. I probably need to stop fighting it this time of year. It is what it is. But that said, I think that the positive occasionally that we can draw from that type of mentality is this team doesn't really get rattled, either. This team has got an ability to make plays late down the stretch with poise. Maybe our lack of emotion at times can be a positive. Q. You've discussed the wing defense against Arkansas. How imperative is that going to have to be to improve facing a team like this that has multiple wings that can score? MIKE WHITE: Huge. It's transition defense, ball screen defense, isolation defense, our guards defending their guards at a high level. Those things have to happen for us, or we might as well not show up. If we defend the way we did against Arkansas, we'll be a one-and-done in this tournament, and that's been explained to our guys several times leading into practice today and several times during practice today. These guys are really good, really good. Heck, at the 1, 2, 3, 4, catch and shoot threes, finishing in transition, drawing fouls, using ball screens, creating their own shot. In addition, they execute well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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