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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):
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):
Labels: Billy Donovan, Chris Walker, Dorian Finney-Smith, Kasey Hill, Michael Frazier
posted by David Borges at
8:12 PM
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