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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2016Mike WhiteKasey HillDorian Finney-SmithNashville, Tennessee Texas A&M - 72 , Florida - 66 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with Florida. COACH WHITE: Obviously, very disappointing for us, had a big opportunity. Again, it's twice we've had a really good Texas A&M team in a position to potentially do something special, and they just made the right plays down the stretch. Overall, I thought our effort defensively was very good. We fought. It's two days in a row we sat in the stance and really grinded out some stops at a pretty high level. We just defended a really good Texas A&M team pretty well, just not quite well enough to overcome some shooting woes. Flew around, got to the offensive glass, got 17 offensive rebounds. I thought we had a couple key turnovers that led to points that really hurt us, of course. They did a good job of taking care of the basketball, playing with the lead. They're just a really good team. They're well balanced. They're experienced, of course. They've got good decision makers. They just play well together. Q. Kasey, what do you think got you going this weekend? You had 18 points in each of the games. KASEY HILL: Just playing hard and trying to help my team as much as I can. Q. Dorian, can you just talk about this game and how hard you guys played and to walk away from it disappointed? DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: We played a great Texas A&M team. They made -- the key players made shots at key baskets, and just couldn't put it through. Q. Mike, that sequence where I think you were down one or down two, and Rimmer misses the reverse and you have a kind of a lazy pass there and they get a run out on that, can you talk about those two plays? COACH WHITE: Yeah, not very fun to talk about, just tough plays. I thought Schuyler made a nice play putting himself in position, and it's part of the game at times where that ball will just squeak out on you somehow. Those plays often lead to -- often lead to other negative plays, to another one. Just like in basketball, so many times a bad shot or an air ball will lead to transition offense the other way. I think a surprise miss like that has the same effect at times. And then, of course, we just -- I know we only had 12 turnovers, but we weren't pressured a bunch. Texas A&M does such a good job of containment on defense that they don't overextend themselves that much, and the few times they did, they made us pay for it with just sloppy handoffs, reversal passes. We tried to throw a couple jump passes in the first half that we'd gotten away from. I call it graduated from. I mean, we had graduated from them. Over the past three or four weeks, we'd gotten much better with playing in attack mode but being under control at the same time. I guess you have to credit their length and their discipline. I guess, when you're searching and you're searching and you're searching and you don't find that opening, you probably tend to get a little bit more eager than you should instead of continuing to play within yourself, coming to jump stops, pivoting, having your teammates search for an open window for that next play. But a couple of those jump passes led to points the other way, and we can't get those back. We're not again -- we all in here know we're not good enough offensively to overcome some of those pick sixes. Defensively, other than a few possessions, I thought we were right there. Q. And can you talk about, obviously, those guys played hard out there today. It wasn't a matter of how hard they played. The disappointment you have in knowing what it probably means for the postseason. COACH WHITE: I don't -- I'm not going to go there with what happens next. I don't know. I think that our administration has done a great job with putting together what the committee wants to see, and that's a high-level schedule. In addition, we played a grueling SEC schedule in a grueling league. Wherever we're sent, we'll be excited to play, or we'll find the right guys that are excited to play. We'll continue to represent Florida and play hard and look to improve. Q. How pivotal was their ability to get inside? They had 44 points in the paint. And what were they doing? What could you have done to counter that? COACH WHITE: We tried changing defenses a bunch. We tried changing defenders on Tyler Davis. He is just really good. It's just hard to believe that he's a freshman. He's enormous. He's strong. He's physical. He likes contact. He's got good feet. He's got great instincts in terms of knowing where and when to seal and how to seal you. He's got great hands as well. And he seeks contact when he gets the ball. He knows how to draw fouls. He seems to be mature, at least between the lines, from what I've seen, beyond his years. Very good player. We knew we'd have to at least try it by committee. We didn't have a lot of success, of course. We had a couple of plays in the first half where we swarmed to the basketball and a few times late, a few times in the second half where we had weak side wings and guards, try to, again, just swarm in there when he's playing one-on-one and not allow him to play one-on-one. I know Dorian from behind got a couple of blocks, but we just didn't do a good enough job. And then when they do zone, they do a good job of throwing him the basketball as well. It's difficult when he draws fouls that well. Some of those substitutions that you make obviously weren't by design. They were because John was fouling. Q. Mike, on the NCAA Tournament, there's three or four teams that have all kind of been on the bubble. Your team is one of those. Is this league better than three bids? There's a possibility they could only get three bids. Of what you've seen this season, how much better is this league than three? COACH WHITE: You know, I don't -- being at Louisiana Tech and being almost there every year, I would get this question asked a bunch. I just -- I think you've got really qualified professionals sitting in that room, and I don't want to tell them how to do their job. Do I think the SEC is underrated? Absolutely, I really do. I think we get probably talked about a little bit less than we should. I think, when you look at some of the teams in the middle of our league and at the bottom of our league and some of the big wins that they had against some of the better teams in this league, it shows you the parity that exists. I think you've got a roster full of experienced, talented coaches. And then it's an extremely athletic and talented league. I just think overall -- I hate to be generic, but I just think there's so many teams in this league that, if given the opportunity, would be really competitive in the NCAA Tournament. Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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