FLORIDA Head Coach Mike WHITE
Opening statement …
“First off, I apologize for being late. We were just finishing up our press conference here. Big week for us of course. Kentucky comes in tomorrow, arguably the best team in our league. Didn’t have a lot of success up there of course. Have to be much better tomorrow just to be competitive against a team that’s just really, really playing well. Offensively, defensively, their numbers are pretty staggering in terms of where they stand really in every statistical category almost. Coach Cal, of course, has done a terrific job with this group and they have arguably the best backcourt in college basketball. Team I have a lot of respect for. We just want to be competitive and we’ll see where that leads.
“And of course, finishing up on the road at Missouri, a team that in my opinion plays as hard as any team in this league. Will be a very tough test of course to finish on the road in that environment. It’s just a very, very challenging week ahead.”
On the challenge that Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray present …
“Huge challenge. Again, they’re arguably the best backcourt in the country. I don’t have the list in front of me, I can’t off the top of my head tell you who their competitors even would be. I know that Ulis has to be one of the best point guards in America and Jamal Murray has to be one of the best two-guards in America. Those guys, they can score in a variety of ways, both of them play with a very high intensity level.
“Jamal Murray is just extremely difficult to defend with the ball in his hands. Off the ball, they do a good job of setting him screens, putting him in positions to be successful. They find him, they run good actions for him of course.
“Tyler Ulis is terrific with the ball in his hands, he can shoot it off the catch. To me, most impressive about Ulis though is his ability just to manage the game on top of his talent level and those other things we talked about offensively. His ability to change the game defensively at times and just dominate his position. I thought defensively at Rupp against us – that was as much of a factor as there was in the game, Ulis’ defensive prowess against our guards. I think that those guys, they do it all. They’re just a terrific backcourt.”
On Kentucky’s frontcourt …
“Long, athletic, versatile I guess in terms of how different they are. They complement each other well of course. Willis is just so different from (Alex) Poythress, who is just so different from Skal (Labissiere), who is so different from (Isaac) Humphries. They’re just very good. I was impressed at Rupp with how hard they play and how strong they were. They’ve got girth, they’re very difficult to score against, of course, and to keep off the offensive glass. It’s a really good Kentucky team.”
Opening statement …
“First off, I apologize for being late. We were just finishing up our press conference here. Big week for us of course. Kentucky comes in tomorrow, arguably the best team in our league. Didn’t have a lot of success up there of course. Have to be much better tomorrow just to be competitive against a team that’s just really, really playing well. Offensively, defensively, their numbers are pretty staggering in terms of where they stand really in every statistical category almost. Coach Cal, of course, has done a terrific job with this group and they have arguably the best backcourt in college basketball. Team I have a lot of respect for. We just want to be competitive and we’ll see where that leads.
“And of course, finishing up on the road at Missouri, a team that in my opinion plays as hard as any team in this league. Will be a very tough test of course to finish on the road in that environment. It’s just a very, very challenging week ahead.”
On the challenge that Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray present …
“Huge challenge. Again, they’re arguably the best backcourt in the country. I don’t have the list in front of me, I can’t off the top of my head tell you who their competitors even would be. I know that Ulis has to be one of the best point guards in America and Jamal Murray has to be one of the best two-guards in America. Those guys, they can score in a variety of ways, both of them play with a very high intensity level.
“Jamal Murray is just extremely difficult to defend with the ball in his hands. Off the ball, they do a good job of setting him screens, putting him in positions to be successful. They find him, they run good actions for him of course.
“Tyler Ulis is terrific with the ball in his hands, he can shoot it off the catch. To me, most impressive about Ulis though is his ability just to manage the game on top of his talent level and those other things we talked about offensively. His ability to change the game defensively at times and just dominate his position. I thought defensively at Rupp against us – that was as much of a factor as there was in the game, Ulis’ defensive prowess against our guards. I think that those guys, they do it all. They’re just a terrific backcourt.”
On Kentucky’s frontcourt …
“Long, athletic, versatile I guess in terms of how different they are. They complement each other well of course. Willis is just so different from (Alex) Poythress, who is just so different from Skal (Labissiere), who is so different from (Isaac) Humphries. They’re just very good. I was impressed at Rupp with how hard they play and how strong they were. They’ve got girth, they’re very difficult to score against, of course, and to keep off the offensive glass. It’s a really good Kentucky team.”
