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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: MEMPHISMarch 27, 2014Billy DonovanMichael Frazier, IIScottie WilbekinMEMPHIS, TENNESSEE Florida – 79 THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead with the post‑game press conference for Florida. Been joined by head coach Billy Donovan, along with student‑athletes Scottie Wilbekin and Michael Frazier, II. COACH DONOVAN: Coming in here, I thought we were playing a very, very unique team style play‑wise. It was just a team, I would say, was inverted. Their guards playing around the basket and the Wear twins playing on the perimeter. Probably a little different game for our team as it related to our guards having to play post defense more so than they ever had to do before, and our bigs having to guard really good perimeter shooters in both Wears. I thought that our guys were able to just stay the course. I didn't feel like Scottie in the first half, and even Patric Young, ever really got in the flow of the game and played a great game. I thought Scottie stepped up and made some great plays, especially late in the game. I thought Michael Frazier from start to finish played well. I got really good minutes from Kasey Hill coming off the bench. I thought Chris Walker gave us good minutes. Some of our older guys, even Casey Prather, got into some foul trouble. I thought it was a team effort at different points in time. Some different guys stepped up and helped in the win. Q. Scottie, can you talk about the little stretch you had there where I think you scored eight points, especially the last shot after they cut it to five. Looked like a similar shot to what you hit against Pittsburgh. SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: Just trying to keep attacking, stay aggressive, and take what they gave me. My shots weren't falling, like Coach was saying, in the first half, even in the beginning of the second half. So I just tried to stay the course and keep playing my game. Q. Michael, just talk about the difference tonight, the way you shot it after not really shooting the way you had all year the first two games of the tournament. MICHAEL FRAZIER, II: Yeah, well, Coach pulled me aside today in shoot‑around and just told me to shoot the ball with confidence. That's all I tried to do tonight, take good ones, and they were just able to fall tonight. Q. Scottie, how much do you relish kind of having the ball in your hands in those crunch time situations? SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: I like it. Those are the times of the game where the game's on the line. It's the funnest to play in those type of games. But I mean we just try to work the ball around, and if it gets to a late clock situation, we try to hit some pick‑and‑roll action or some way where I can try to get in the lane or create for myself or somebody else. So it's fun. It's definitely fun being in games like this. Q. Michael Frazier, II, how hard is it to get up? I mean, I know this is a tournament, lose one game and you're done, but you guys have won so many games in a row. Does it get complacent sometimes, or how do you get up every game? MICHAEL FRAZIER, II: Just talking from a team aspect, I think we've done a great job all year just staying in the moment and just trying to chase greatness. When you do that, you know, complacency isn't a factor. So I think we've done a great job all year of just staying in the moment and chasing greatness. Q. Scottie, with you being a senior, when Florida needs a point, you always have the ball in your hands. Is there a comfort zone, or sometimes you're kind of nervous with the ball in your hands because you know you're being held accountable if the shot falls and doesn't go in? SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: No, it's not a nervous factor. I know my teammates have confidence in me. If I'm going to take the shot, I have to have confidence in myself to take a good shot and take a good rep and have confidence that I can make the shot. If I'm going to take it, then I have to be confident. But it's just big moments in the game, it's just fun. And if I'm the one taking the shots, then I'm the one taking the shots, but it could easily be anybody else. Q. Scottie, how does it feel? I know it's just been a few minutes, but to be back in this situation where the season's ended the last three years, to have that opportunity one more time? SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: It feels great because our goal coming in tonight was to make it to the Elite Eight, and that's what we did. Right now we got to put this game behind us and get focused on Dayton. They're a good team. Everybody is at this point in the season. So we got to be locked in and ready because it's going to be a battle. Q. Scottie and Michael, do you guys have an opportunity to enjoy this run at all? It just seems like you take it week by week, and the minute you're done, you're moving on to the next one. Have you really had a chance to enjoy this? MICHAEL FRAZIER, II: Me personally, I don't feel like there's anything to enjoy. We're trying to keep advancing, and you can't take a breath because every team now is a good team. So we can enjoy what we've done after the season. Q. Scottie, what are just your thoughts on Kasey Hill's development in the tournament? He had 10 assists tonight. SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: Yeah, he played great tonight. It was fun to watch him out there. He did a great job getting in the lane and finishing himself or finding bigs to dump the ball off to. It's great to see him and his development. He's always been able to do that. He does it in practice all the time. It's great to see him translating that to the game. Q. It felt like you guys were pulling ahead, and they kept reeling you back in. What was kind of the flow of the game to you guys? SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: We knew it wasn't going to be easy. They're capable of going on runs, just like we are. I think there was runs by both teams in the game. We knew it wasn't going to be easy. So we just tried to stay the course, weather their runs and get good possessions every time. MICHAEL FRAZIER, II: Yeah, what Scottie said. We knew it was going to be a grind coming in, and we just have to stay to the process the whole entire game. No matter what happened, no matter if they made a run or we made a run, we had to stay locked in on every possession. I think we did a good job of that. Q. Scottie, your parents, I don't think, were at the last two Sweet 16s because they were so far away, and I think they were here tonight. Is that correct? SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: Yes. Q. And what was it like to have them finally see you play a Sweet 16 game? SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: I don't know. I'm glad they were here. They got to see it. I was especially glad for my little brother. He was here. And he hadn't got to see a tournament game this season. So I was happy for him. Q. Scottie, just take me through what was going through your head during your hook shot over Travis Wear with the score down to seven with just two minutes remaining. What was going through your head? SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: I was just trying to get a shot up on the backboard and at least give the bigs a chance to rebound, but it ended up going in. Q. Scottie, you're a senior this year. In the past three years, you guys have lost in the Elite Eight. Does that kind of haunt you guys as it's coming up. Like you have to get over that hump? SCOTTIE WILBEKIN: No. Maybe if it was the same team that we had last year and we were playing the same Michigan team, maybe then I'd be a little worried. But it's a new team that we have, and we're playing a new team. So it's a totally different situation. We're just excited to get this win and move on to the next game, and we're totally focused on that. The past has no impact. Q. How much of an advantage does it give you to have two guys like Kasey and Scottie, who you can play at the same time, who can handle the ball like they do? COACH DONOVAN: Yeah, I think the one thing that's really great is Scottie has been tremendous for Kasey's development. You know, Scottie, for the most part, when Kasey's off the floor, the ball's in his hands. It takes a pretty mature player to say I'm going to slide off the ball. I'm going to give the ball to a freshman. And Scottie's been great for Kasey, and I think you could even hear him say today that he was really happy for him. Scottie's invested a lot of time with Kasey, just trying to help him. Scottie's fine. He wants to win. He's going to do what we need to to win. He's going to play any role he's got to play. But he could easily say to me, Move Kasey to the two. Put the ball in my hands. I'm a senior. But he never does that. And he knows for our team to be better those two guys playing together was going to be important. The hard part for us was the first part of the season. Because of Scottie's suspension, those guys didn't play a lot until end of December, beginning of January. Then Kasey had a high ankle sprain. Scottie has been great for Kasey. As a coach I never had to battle or deal with any jealousies or anything inside of who wants the ball in their hands. Scottie's been great with that. Q. Billy, I know sometimes you like, in a late ball situation, just to get the ball up on the rim like Scottie was saying. When he lets that go, are you thinking, somebody get that rebound? COACH DONOVAN: Actually, when he shot it, I initially thought it had no chance of going in. Then the way it kind of went up towards the backboard, it looked pretty soft, and I thought it would have a chance. He got kind of put into a difficult situation. Wear did a good job on him a couple plays before that. We put four guys on the baseline when Wear got switched on Scottie and drove around him and got a layup. That possession, I thought he did a really nice job, Wear did, of keeping him in front, not fouling him, staying down. Wear really did his job. Scottie made a really difficult shot, and Wear did a good job of making him take a tough shot. Q. You guys had 22 assists, they had 12. They're the number 5 assist team in the country. Can you speak to the ball movement tonight. COACH DONOVAN: I thought we moved the ball well, got it down the lane against their defense. They do a good job positionally, trying to shut off the lane. I think, when you can get the ball down against the teeth of their defense, or any defense for that matter, it's helpful. I thought the biggest thing for us was I thought UCLA did a really, really nice job moving the ball in the second half. But in the first half, they only had three assists and seven turnovers. As you mentioned, for a team that is as good of a passing team and as unselfish as they are, I don't know if it was our defense or maybe they didn't have the ball movement they wanted, but that was a factor in the first half of us having a six‑point lead. Q. Can you characterize Wilbekin's development as a crunch‑time player who you can really rely on? COACH DONOVAN: You know, I think certain guys, just for whatever reason, feel comfortable in those situations. I think he's one of those guys. There are certain guys that they, ego‑wise, want to take the last shot, and they don't take the right shot. They may not understand what's available. Scottie's done a pretty good job this year not only of making some shots, but he's also found some people where he's gotten some open looks for some guys as well. So coming down the stretch, it's not always making the shot because there's times where you can drive in there, and you can sit there and say, ego‑wise, I want to be the guy. And you've got a guy like Michael Frazier or somebody that's wide open and you've got to give it to him, you've got to make that play too. I think Scottie's done a pretty good job of making decisions when he's gotten in there. Q. In the era of one and done, how valuable do you think it is that you have a senior laden group? COACH DONOVAN: I think it definitely helps. I think everybody's path in college is really different. Patric Young, for instance, has had the opportunity to leave three separate times, and he's elected to come back to school. That was really a decision by him and his family of what he wanted and what he felt was best. So a lot of times, you don't know how long guys are going to be there. Certainly, for our four seniors coming in together and going through this together, there's a lot of different experiences they gained through that process. I think for them, they've learned a lot, and they've grown a lot, both as players and as people, maturity‑wise. They're totally different today than they were three, four years ago. I think, at least in our program with the amount of time that we spend with them individually in player development, if a guy does stay here for a long period of time, he's going to get better, I believe, and he's going to improve, and he's going to get a chance to reach his potential. I don't think there's maybe a bigger example of that than Scottie, and even Prather. Prather was a 3.5‑point scorer, and he's really kind of emerged because of some of his past experiences. Q. This was a game where Chris Walker had to grow up a little bit. Can you just talk about him and the role on the bench and having guys step up with other guys in foul trouble. COACH DONOVAN: Yeah, I thought Chris really gave us good, quality minutes. Besides the runner from the free‑throw line in the second half, outside of that one, he actually did a pretty good job in there. He was active. He blocked the shot. He got a couple of offensive put‑backs. He did a real nice job. Kasey found him late. He's getting better, and he's growing. You know, it was really a game where I never felt Patric was ever in the flow of the game at all, and I thought Prather's fouls probably hurt him a little bit. So Chris coming off the bench gave us good quality minutes. Although they weren't a lot, I thought they were important minutes. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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