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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DES MOINESMarch 23, 2019Mike WhiteAndrew NembhardJalen HudsonKevarrius HayesDes Moines, Iowa Michigan 64, Florida 49 THE MODERATOR: We will take an opening statement from Coach Mike White and the Florida Gators. MIKE WHITE: Tough loss. I thought we did some good things, especially early second half. Got away from us. We didn't make the best of decisions offensively. I do think we played really hard in the second half. Left it out there on the floor. No regrets in that regard. Just playing from behind for the second 20 minutes I thought we expended a lot of energy, had some faulty rotations as we tried to turn those guys over and to run and jump situations they handled they the pressure really well. A big factor in playing from behind is that you're playing the top-ranked defensive efficiency team in the country. We saw firsthand how tough, physical, connected that defense is. They are terrific. I'm not going to sit here and say we played poorly. We did some good things, just didn't do enough. They guarded at a really high level as they do. We wish them the best. Tough to finish coaching of these three seniors, of course these two to my left, KeVaughn Allen is back in the locker room. He's done some big things in his career, been a part of a lot of wins, three NCAA Tournament, a lot of big shots. Jalen Hudson has scored a lot of points throughout his career, playing the best basketball of his career late this year, really rededicated himself, became more of a leader, played really, really hard in this past month, much improved defender and rebounder, in my opinion. I'm biased, of course. Kevarrius Hayes here to my left plays as hard as anybody in the SEC. We watched him progress to the tune of scoring at a much higher level than ever before in his career. Should have been an all-league defensive player, in my opinion, and these three guys have all had absolutely zero issues off the floor. They have represented the University of Florida in a first-class manner, and I hate to see their careers come to an end because they were playing very well. THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes? Q. Jalen and Andrew, can you speak to their defensive aggressiveness especially during that 14-0 run between the two halves? Couple things they made you do uncharacteristically, like Andrew, a couple of jump passes. Is that what they make you all do? ANDREW NEMBHARD: I think it was not that they made us go. I just made some bad decisions making jump passes, but it was more my bad decision for me, I think. JALEN HUDSON: I just thought they were super disruptive on the defensive end and they really played their principles and it was hard for us to get into the lane and shake them at all. You have to credit them for their defense tonight. Q. Can you guys expand on the perimeter? Was it anything specifically they did or cumulative for the whole game that was exhausting? ANDREW NEMBHARD: I think it was just how disciplined they were on defense, setting down driving angles and not letting us get our shots off easily, good ball screen coverage, but just overall their defense throughout the game was pretty consistent. JALEN HUDSON: I can see why they're No. 1 in college basketball for defense. They were super solid. Everything we tried to run or the mistakes they made they had to cover them so fast and they had the 7-footer and even when you did get in the paint it was tough and he was blocking them. And on the perimeter we had to take late shots that altered our shots, too. KEVARRIUS HAYES: Kind of what they said, defensively they were sound, didn't let up in any categories and when we made a mistake, they took advantage of that, 7-footer in the paint. Just hard to get around that especially when you work so hard to break through to get into the paint in the first place. Q. Kevarrius, through 20 minutes you guys were close. Did you feel like you were in a good place through the work you had done? KEVARRIUS HAYES: Yeah, I felt very confident with where we were. We were making some mistakes, but, again, we were still hanging around. Feel like if we fixed those mistakes and played a little harder on defense. We could possibly put ourselves in a better position, but unfortunately it wasn't the case. We were missing a lot of shots and then again, made some defensive mistakes that they capitalized on and made us pay for. Q. I know it's only been a couple of minutes for the two seniors but can you reflect on how you will remember this season and maybe the bigger picture how you remember your time at Florida? JALEN HUDSON: Just that we never gave up. We fought. At one point in the season there was a lot of uncertainty and we never laid done. We never sat down. We just found a way to win and we all came together. We all banded together. I will never forget the way we came together and how we were able to fight and how we maxed out when we decided to and I will never forget that. That was important to me. KEVARRIUS HAYES: This season has had a lot of highs and lows and there was a time where even being in the NCAA Tournament was not even in the question for us. But we managed to find a way, banded together and made it here. I would say my time at Florida as a whole, enjoyed about every moment, all the games, experiences that I've had, all the relationships that I've nurtured with my teammates and hope to continue that beyond this. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for Coach? Q. Mike, there was a sequence they went on that 14-0 run but then they went on a stretch where they went almost seven minutes without a field goal and the one that broke it although it wasn't a field goal was the late shot clock foul and the three-point shots. Can you expand? I think it happened three times? MIKE WHITE: That was our third one. You can't foul jump shooters. It's one of our defensive no's in our program. I would say in most programs, written up on the wall, talk about every day. It's stressed every day. We watched it on film and we talked about it several times in this quick prep that they draw fouls on jump shots, both Poole and Matthews. We got to be more disciplined in that. Q. Mike, at halftime how did you feel about what you had done through 20 minutes and what were the adjustments you wanted to make in the second half? MIKE WHITE: I told our guys going into the locker room at halftime if you were to have told me this morning that we would be down four and here your defense clips, I would have been thrilled. We watched our clips and watched some of the mistakes we made in the first half. It was too many. It was faulty ball screen coverage, faulty rotations, couple of missed block outs, lack of tracing of the ball a couple times and then there were probably a few more that I can't think of right now and we were down four against one of the best teams in the country. So that was a challenge to our guys. Let's wake up defensively. We came out early second half, gave up a basket immediately, gave up I don't know how many early second half, but never seemed to find a defensive rhythm there until three, four, five minutes into the second half and then we played them evenly for a while. We got into a rhythm there defensively and we were hovering around 6 or 7 from behind and had a couple of empty possessions and we freaked out a little bit offensively and they'll do that to you. We talked in the pregame and said there are going to be some dry stretches in this game and I'm just telling you that and I know you don't want to hear that. They're terrific and just like you guys talking to my team, just like you guys are terrific defensively, teams will go through dry spells. I don't know outside of Kentucky that we've seen a team that's this sound. We've got to maintain composure and continue plugging away, stay the course and we didn't do a very good job of that. I would say, what, midway through the second half, maybe seven, eight minutes left, where we had four possessions where we had a couple of shots blocked and a couple of turnovers just trying to do a little bit too much. As good as they are defensively, another thing that our guys can learn from Michigan, you know, every game, win or lose, we like to think that we've got a lot to learn from, and with these guys as good as they are defensively, offensively I thought they were very, very sound. They do what they do. Their roles are very well defined. I was incredibly impressed. It's hard to appreciate how good Zavier Simpson is on film. Incredibly impressed with his toughness, accountability, leadership, the way he barks at his teammates, the way they respond to him. The guy just doesn't make any mistakes. He is out there plugging away, playing the game, offensively and defensively, really, really good. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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