Thursday, January 1, 2015

Billy Donovan not thinking revenge on UConn

Ryan Boatright didn't practice at all on Thursday before UConn departed for Gainesville, but received treatment and reported feeling better. He's still considered day-to-day, and it's impossible to say whether he'll play against Florida on Saturday.

Speaking of which ...

Billy Donovan spoke with Florida beat writers in Gainesville today. Naturally, he was asked about facing UConn, and any kind of revenge factor there may be for his team.

His response:

"I've always believed that whatever words you want to use -- revenge, payback -- those games were there own individual, specific competitive matchups. The one at Connecticut, and the one at the Final Four. And they ended up on top in both of them. It's two totally different teams, two totally different set of guys. There are some returning players from both teams. But the reality is, this game has its own set of challenges, so to speak. I think what ends up happening a lot of times is this illusion that you get back something that happened a year ago, or last season. I've just never believed that. There's nothing to that. That game to go play in the national championship game was exactly what it was -- a game to play in the national championship game. We came up short. Over and done with. Now, it's on to this year right now. That's the way we're looking at it right now. Some of those guys may have been part of that game -- Kasey Hill, Chris Walker, Dorian Finney-Smith, Michael Frazier -- but other guys are different, in different roles, different teams. We've got to play against this year's UConn team, we're not playing against last year's UConn team. And probably the same could be said for them."

(on the defensive job UConn did last year against Frazier)

"They did do a very good job. I think one of the things is, he's got to really move without the basketball. I think what Michael's got to understand, in a game like that, is for him, personally -- when he gets guarded like that, it actually helps the other four guys on the court. It creates spacing, driving opportunities, frees things up."

Here's the video of Donovan speaking with local reporters on "Gatorvision." (The UConn stuff starts at the 2:37 mark):


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Sunday, February 2, 2014

My AP Top 25 Ballot: Cincinnati, UConn Both Move Up; Thursday Night Should Be Fun

Crazy week in college basketball this past week, and thank God. Or did you really want to hear more stories about Richard Sherman, or Peyton Manning's legacy, or all the PED suspensions the Seahawks and Broncos had this season (oh wait, no one covering the Super Bowl, to my knowledge, wrote anything about the latter item.)

Anyway, a crazy week in college hoops equals a fun week to fill out my AP Top 25 ballot. No fewer than 15 of the teams I voted for last week lost at least once, with four of them (Oklahoma State, Wisconsin, Pitt and UMass) losing twice.

With that in mind, there's a major overhaul this week. Out go Wisconsin, Pitt, UMass, Memphis and SMU. In come Gonzaga, Virginia, VCU, Oklahoma and Harvard.

Syracuse is my (and likely everybody else's) new No. 1, but the real question is who's No. 2? Do I move Arizona down one notch or two? There's no huge shame in losing to Cal on the road by a basket. But I can't get out of my mind the fact that the Wildcats look like they'll now be without Brandon Ashley for a while, if not the rest of the season, while Florida is getting healthy and now has stud freshman Chris Walker eligible and ready to go. So the Gators are No. 2, 'Zona No. 3.

Elsewhere: Cincinnati moves from No. 11 to 6 after winning at Louisville and at home against UCF. I'm not sure if the Bearcats are the sixth-best team in the country, but with so much tumult among this week's Top 25 teams, Cincy -- which has also won at Memphis this season -- makes the big jump on my ballot.

UConn had just one game this week -- a 37-point dismantling of Houston at Gampel -- but moves up three spots to No. 20, thanks largely to the numerous teams ahead of it that lost. It seems the Huskies are starting to find themselves, a bit off the radar. They could make a big statement Thursday night in Cincinnati against the Bearcats. Should be a fun one.

1.       Syracuse                                              
2.       Florida                                                  
3.       Arizona                                                 
4.       San Diego State                                    
5.       Wichita State                                     
6.       Cincinnati                                            
7.       Villanova                                              
8.       Michigan                                              
9.       Michigan State                                  
10.   Texas                                                    
11.   Kansas                                                  
12.   Saint Louis                                           
13.   Louisville                                              
14.   Kentucky                                             
15.   Duke                                            
16. Creighton                                                     
17.   Iowa                                                      
18.   Iowa State                                          
19.   Oklahoma State                                                
20.   UConn                                                  
21.   Gonzaga                                              
22.   Virginia                                                 
23.   Virginia Commonwealth
24.   Oklahoma
25.   Harvard                               
                                    

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