3/13: Donovan discusses SEC Tournament loss

By Adam Silverstein
March 14, 2011

The No. 12/12 Florida Gators (26-7) fell in the championship game of the 2011 Southeastern Conference Tournament on Sunday afternoon with a 70-54 thud to the No. 15/16 Kentucky Wildcats (25-8) at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA. Florida head coach Billy Donovan and his players had plenty to say after the game as they prepared for the 2011 NCAA Tournament. OGGOA has compiled some of the most important notes and quotes from the post-game press conference.

QUOTES

Donovan on the overall performance: “It’s difficult to really shoot well for three straight days – for both teams. It wasn’t very pretty offensively, certainly not for us. We struggled. We had some things around the basket that we weren’t able to finish – we missed a lot of layups. We weren’t strong enough or physical enough around the basket.”

Donovan on free throw discrepancy (1 of 3):“There was such a huge discrepancy from the free throw line. Kentucky probably took the ball a little more physically than we did. The difference is we weren’t physical enough to get fouled as much as they were able to get fouled.”

Donovan on free throw discrepancy (2 of 3): “When someone takes 21 more free throws than you…that’s hard to overcome. […] We went to the free throw line eight times. I think that’s the lowest number of free throws attempted we’ve had all year long. We’ve been a team that’s gotten to the free throw line 24-25 times. That was very disappointing to me – the free throw line situation.”

Donovan on free throw discrepancy (3 of 3): “They did a better job attacking the basket and finding a way to get fouled. We did not do a good enough job finding a way to get fouled. If you’re not scoring, you have to find a way to get fouled. And we did not get fouled. The game was won at the free throw line in my opinion.”

Donovan on if a lesson was learned from the loss: “I’m proud of what these guys accomplished up until this point in time. There have been a lot of emotional games for us besides this tournament.”

Donovan on if he should have put the ball in the post sooner: “We tried to do that the whole game. Vernon Macklin had five turnovers in the game. I just didn’t think our frontcourt guys, when they got the ball, did very much with it.”

[EXPAND Click to expand the rest of the team’s post-game thoughts!]Donovan on the balance between frontcourt and backcourt:“We had the same level of balance offensively that we’ve had up until this point in time. Our frontcourt guys really did not have a productive game around the basket.”

Donovan on if Florida lacked chemistry: “Like anything else, there’s a level of frustration. They all want to do well. I don’t think it was too bad.”

Sophomore guard Kenny Boynton on the offensive effort: “We were well-connected again tonight. The difference between tonight and other games was we just missed shots. We missed easy, easy layups around the rim and our jumpers were not falling. On nights like this, we just got to play more defense.”

Senior forward Chandler Parsons on if this was a blow to their collective confidence: “It hurts but we’ve been here before. We’re not going to hang our heads over one loss. Obviously we want to be on the other end, but you got to give credit to Kentucky. They played very well tonight.”

Parsons on if being tired hurt the team’s performance: “We’re definitely tired, but we can’t use that as an excuse on not executing. They’ve played just as many games as we have. Both teams are exhausted. We just have to play through it and fight better.”

Boynton on Kentucky’s length: “They have great length. [DeAndre] Liggins was on me the majority of the game. In situations like that, if we play a team like them, we just have to drive it to the rim more. If they come out to us, drive past them and go to the rim.”

Boynton on the technical foul: “Me and the ref basically had a misunderstanding. I was trying to walk away. He was calling my name and I was kind of ignoring him.”

Parsons on if UK surprised them at all: “We were very prepared on what they were going to do. I don’t think our defense was a problem.”[/EXPAND]

2 Comments

  1. npgator says:

    The officiating was absolutely atrocious! With that said we are a number 2 seed in which is what we would have been had we won. Let’s learn from this loss and get back on track!

  2. Beep says:

    Yeah isn’t it “interesting” how the team who commits the fewest fouls in the country all of a sudden commits a million while Kentucky commits like 3. The officials GAVE the game to Kentucky. It’s beyond ridiculous to have a discrepancy of like 20 free throws – points that were handed to UK for free – when UF NEVER commits fouls.

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