NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - VIRGINIA TECH VS FLORIDA

March 19, 2021

Mike White

Florida Gators

Hinkle Fieldhouse

Postgame Media Conference

Florida 75, Virginia Tech 70

MIKE WHITE: Great win for us. Made it a little bit more interesting than we needed to, of course. Showed tremendous resilience to bounce back and find a way to win in overtime after giving up that lead there in the last minute without our point guard Tyree Appleby or obviously one of our two point guards.

Albeit Tre and Tyree play together, kind of interchangeable, of course. Without Omar Payne, of course. This team just continues to show character. No one has been through what they've been through. Really proud of our guys.

Virginia Tech is absolutely terrific. They had a great year. Whether it was a non-conference game, an MTE, NCAA Tournament, whatever, it would have been a big win to beat those guys. Obviously a little bit more special in this setting. Glad my guys are here having a chance to experience this.

We were great down the stretch second half. Defended at a high level. Really outside of turning the ball over offensively, I thought we were really good. Again, proud of the overcoming of adversity as these guys continue to show.

Q. Colin's performance, it's like the list of guys who have done what he did today is short and includes some amazing names. Can you discuss what you saw from him, the effort and determination from him to kind of help carry you guys when you needed it?

MIKE WHITE: Colin was terrific. Six of eight, just so efficient. 14 rebounds. He logged so many minutes. We tried some other guys. We had foul trouble, of course, with a couple front court guys. Omar wasn't there, and if Colin doesn't step up like he does, obviously we're going home. He's very talented.

I thought he showed more toughness, physical toughness today down the stretch. For the first time, in his defense, he's become more of a focal point with other teams' scouting reports. We have some of the best defenses in the country in the SEC, which again is the third ranked conference in the country, the best it's ever been.

Down the stretch I just thought that he was getting beat up a little bit. I didn't think we did a great job getting him the ball. I didn't think he was playing great, either. You know, it's all of us. I've got to do a better job with him trying to get him going.

Today he got going. His teammates were really good with some interior passing. I thought that he had a couple offensive rebounds, too, that helped him, and once he got his mojo going again from that point on, I saw a different player than we've seen the last couple weeks.

Q. How difficult was it to sit Omar Payne during such an important game and what did you tell him, and was this one of those teaching moments?

MIKE WHITE: Yeah, definitely a teaching moment. It's just -- it wasn't overly difficult. It's difficult that he can't play, obviously, but it was the right thing to do. That's it. Omar handled it like a champ. Omar is very remorseful. We all make mistakes. He's a great young man. We were able to overcome, fortunately, without him, who I thought could have obviously helped us in a lot of ways today.

Q. What is Omar's status for the next game and the rest of the tournament, and is there any sort of agreement with --

MIKE WHITE: Oh, we haven't got there yet. We didn't talk about it. It's an in-house situation leading into this game. I'm not going to talk about it leading into the next one.

Q. Is there any agreement with Tennessee that he will sit out as long as Fulkerson is out?

MIKE WHITE: No.

Q. After the Tennessee game and the SEC you talked afterwards about how this team, you weren't sure they had the emotional maturity on the court, not off the court but on the court. Then you turn around and look at this game today, Omar is out, you lose Appleby, and it wasn't -- and you lost him for a long, long stretch of time. You were trailing for about 30 minutes of the game. Would you say that today they did have the emotional maturity on the court?

MIKE WHITE: I thought we took a step in the right direction. I would just consider that more mental toughness and resiliency. There's still some immature moments, too much celebration early -- I thought we got a little bit tired -- five, ten minutes into the game we made some big plays early and we were so juiced up, and despite the fact that for the last 48 hours we talked about how in the NCAA Tournament when it's do-or-die, any high-level games obviously but especially the NCAA Tournament, we cannot be emotional. We've got to play with emotions. We make a big play, let's celebrate the play, let's have some poise, let's move on. We have to move on to the next play. There are a thousand plays in a basketball game, and I thought we got really emotional early on, a little bit too hyped up. I thought it made us a little bit tired, led to some poor decisions defensively, and then even late second half. I see smiles on faces as we should be in a huddle talking about what we should be doing the next play.

Did we take a step? Yes, for sure, but this team like all teams need to learn how to continue to be more consistent with their focus, with their poise, with their controlling of emotions, and obviously that'll help us moving forward.

Q. It was a long and hard-fought game. I just want to know how you're feeling after this win.

MIKE WHITE: I'm tired. Just being honest, I'm tired. I'm ready for a little postgame meal. I'm ready to go hang out with our guys a little bit and start talking about the next opponent. It'll be probably here in the next couple hours where we'll sit down and watch personnel for the first time, dive into it with our staff. But we all need to hydrate and find a way to get a lot of work done here in the next few hours, especially our guys. It really doesn't matter how I feel and how our staff feels. Our guys need to hydrate and we need to sleep.

Q. Two-part question: First, you talked about Appleby being out. Can you talk about his status right now, and have you heard anything? And then also, with the team coming back in the second half, what did you think started that run for you all?

MIKE WHITE: I think defensively we stepped up and got some stops, which allowed us to spread a little bit of a lead there mid-second half. I just thought we were more sharp defensively in the second half. Our press backfired on us a little bit less during the second half. We didn't get just great production from the bench, but I do think we got good minutes from the bench outside of Scottie Lewis, who I thought was really, really good, one of his better games all year, and I think that that had a little bit of a cumulative effect maybe a wearing-down effect. Hopefully, I like to think that. That was the game plan coming in, where again, our press, I think, didn't backfire on us, transition defense was a little bit better. We were just a little bit sharper where we got a few consecutive stops there, or rather consecutive stops a few different times there mid second half. When you're getting stops, sometimes it flows into positive things for you offensively and vice versa.

The first question with Tyree, I don't know. He's with our medical people right now. I haven't been told anything.

Q. I just wanted to ask, in having to play a round without Omar, when you got to the end and you had your second power forward foul out, what is your thought about how to cope with that situation since you can't reach for him?

MIKE WHITE: Right. The quick decision with myself and the two available assistant coaches, because Coach Nichols is in quarantine himself. He's been hanging out in the hotel room for a couple weeks. I don't know whether he's in Nashville or Indy right now. So which freshman wing do we put in there? We tried both Samson and Niels throughout the game and they both gave us some positivity, and Niels down the stretch -- in his defense, he's a freshman, this is the NCAA Tournament. Heck, he hasn't played much down the stretch of the season, let alone on this stage, and at that point it's like, hey, let's just mix in with the other guys and let's not make mistakes and you wouldn't have known it probably if you were a layperson just watching it on TV because he helped us a little bit down the stretch.