Notebook: Mike White On Opening Win, Tyree Appleby and Omar Payne Status and Facing Oral Roberts

Mike White takes a moment to prepare before tip-off. Photo Courtesy: UAA, Credit-Alex de la Osa

Florida Gators men's basketball head coach Mike White met with local media on Saturday to recap the Gators opening win over Virginia Tech in the opening game of the NCAA Tournament. He also previewed the Gators Sunday night game against Oral Roberts and updated the status of Tyree Appleby and Omar Payne.

A few things of note stood out. We have highlighted those below. Farther down, we are happy to offer the full transcript of White's press conference to our valued GatorBait Magazine subscribers.

Notes:

Tyree Appleby's Probable Return

Appleby took an elbow to the face during Friday afternoon's game. He was helped off the court and had his head stitched up in the locker room. He was never in concussion protocol. As for his return against Oral Roberts? This is what Mike White had to say. “He seems fine, seems normal. Happy smile on his face this morning. Facial laceration, I have been told. Game-time decision. Got a bandage over his forehead. That’s all I know.”

Omar Payne's Probable Return

Forward Omar Payne took heat for sending an elbow to the face of Tennessee Volunteer John Fulkerson during the SEC Tournament. It was considered to be malicious due to a second swing. While the league nor NCAA levied any punishment, Mike White did bench Payne for the Gators first game of the tournament. As for his status moving forward? That'll be handled in house according to White, who provided this answer on Friday.

"Definitely a teaching moment. it's just, it wasn't overly difficult. It's difficult that he can't play obviously, but it's just, it was the right thing to do. Omar handled it like a champ. Omar's very remorseful. We all make mistakes. He's a great young man...it's an in-house situation leading into this game. I'm not gonna talk about leading into the next one."

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Full Transcript

Conference USA wins?

“Huge win for the league. Louisiana Tech, the Dawgs, had a big win last night as well. I hated that the Rebels took an L. That was a tough for me to choose who to cheer for, but a big game there late in the NIT.”

Communication with socially distanced benches?

“Definitely more yelling, definitely harder to communicate, probably more miscommunication not only among staff but among players as well. Par for the course. Another obstacle because of the pandemic and something that we’ve all had to overcome. At this point in the season, we’re all used to it now.”

Up three and not fouling at end of regulation?

“Everyone’s got different philosophies on all that, of course. With us, we practice fouling some, definitely a lot more in the past couple years. This season has given us less opportunity to practice special situations, of course. It was definitely something we were considering, that I was considering. I was planning on using one (timeout) there to try to set our defense. Unfortunately, we missed a couple (free throws). I didn’t want to freeze my own shooter, of course. Unfortunately, we missed a couple and we didn’t get even get matched. Alleyne hit another big one. He’s a really good player and fortunately we were able to overcome it again in overtime. Moving forward, yes, something that we’ll definitely consider. I think some teams are really good at it. Some teams practice it a lot. Some teams practice other things. Something we’ll continue to practice and consider and evaluate every situation a little bit differently.”

How dangerous is Oral Roberts because of the 3?

“Incredibly dangerous, one of the most difficult matchups for us defensively all year. I don’t want to take anything away from their defense. They really battled last night. Obviously a championship team, a team that’s on a great run. It starts with how they spread you. They all shoot it. Their top six can all pass, dribble and shoot. I’m not talking about good shooters. Really, really good shooters led by Abmas and Obanor. The nation’s leading scorer. Obanor shoots it as well as any post player that we have player since I’ve been at Florida. Shoots it like a 2 guard. Their sixth man comes in at 6-8 and shoots it like a 2 guard. They just space you and spread you, which opens up driving lanes for arguably the fastest guy in our game. We have our hands full trying to defend these guys.”

What’s it like facing Cinderella?

“Yeah, I could care less what people in the stands are thinking, what people on TV are rooting for. I don’t really care about that. We’re going to have certain people rooting for us, certain people against us. It has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. Have we played a Cinderella? Have I played one? I don’t know as a coach here at Florida. You’d have a better idea. I can’t remember. Nothing comes to mind. I think the biggest thing is making sure your guys understand it doesn’t matter. We have to have our guys’ attention. And after these guys watched clips on these guys, um, they at least come off as having Oral Roberts’ attention. It’s easy for an Ohio State or a Virginia or a blue blood to get your guys’ attention. These guys beat Ohio State, and Ohio State’s absolutely terrific. If everyone wants to call them a Cinderella, it really doesn’t matter. Our guys’ mindset and approach is the most important thing.”

Do you remember facing Colin Castleton in the tournament two years ago? –

“I don’t. I remember shaking his hand, looking him in the eye and shaking his hand in the hand-shake line, saying ‘Good game’ and ‘Good luck in the next one,’ cause we had developed a little bit of a relationship.”

Tyree status?

“He seems fine, seems normal. Happy smile on his face this morning. Facial laceration, I have been told. Game-time decision. Got a bandage over his forehead. That’s all I know.”

After reviewing the game, more on the resiliency and impact of Scottie Lewis

“I have to shoot you straight. I haven’t [re-watched ]the game. That’s really rare for us, but without a three- or four-day prep it’s really different. We got back and I shoved a few slices of pizza down my throat and guzzled some electrolytes, then went up to the room and watched the end of Oral Roberts/Ohio State, and was glued to the television, of course. After the game, it was a blur. From that point until we laid it down really, really late, we had some meetings as a staff and a had a ton of watching film of Oral Roberts. I really haven’t had a chance to watch it. I’m going to glimpse at some offensive stuff today. I’ll have some notes to relay to our guys for our walk-thru tonight. Maybe I can find some similarities with how we were defended last night and how we’ll be defended tomorrow. But I do know this, you called it, a big factor in that game, Scottie Lewis was a major contributor. And, on top of that, we talked about the resilience, especially after ‘App” went down. But Colin Castleton becoming a lot more of a presence than he was late season. Again, that had a lot to do with the defenses we faced late-season, but he got it going yesterday. Some of it, a lot of it, was him, but a lot of it was his teammates putting him in a position to be successful.”

‘Cinderella this and that,’ but are there really any Cinderella’s in the Round of 32? This team just beat Ohio State

“They’re really good, really good. I know this, we’re walking through stuff with our guys – ‘How we going to guard this action? How we going to guard that action?’ We do this, and we have to understand this go shoots it, quick release, at 50 percent and he plays the ‘5’ and this guy, if you don’t pick him up at the spot it’s like a HORSE shot for him’ – our guys understand these guys are really good. I don’t know what you label them other than a really good team that just won a championship a week ago and now just beat Ohio State. And Ohio State, we all know, is a terrific team and program.

Did you ever play Oral Roberts while at La Tech?

“No. I think this is the first time we’ve had a chance to compete against Oral Roberts University. I’ve actually known Paul Mills for a long time, going back to working University of Utah Rick Majerus, God rest his soul, one of the best basketball coaches are game has ever seen, basketball camps in the summer. Paul is a really good coach and he’s done a phenomenal job there.”

Do you know where Oral Roberts is?

“Don’t try to trick me into saying something crazy. Tulsa, Oklahoma. They’re the Summit League champs.”

Just thoughts on way Tre played down the stretch, and 44 minutes also?

“Yeah Graham, I don’t even really need to go back and watch it to your point to remember vividly a couple of those shots he hit. The step-back in the left wing across from our bench and then stringing the ball-screen catch out right toward our bench going right, late clock and really we had … I started saying it so I might as well put t out there… we had one guy out of position who hadn’t played a lot of minutes in the last month. So it was a little bit of a broken play there where he’s just in space and he just steps up and makes a huge shot. An all-league guard making an all-league shot in the NCAA Tournament. He’s worked his butt off of course and he’s put himself in position to do that.”

You saw some Oral Roberts, so what do you think Colin’s impact can be against this team, and maybe getting Omar Payne back here or too early?

“That’ll be something we handle in-house Graham. With Colin Castleton, we’d love to get him going every game of course. But a lot of that will depend on how we execute our stuff and how selflessly we play, how good he is on the offensive glass, and how he has defended and how they approach their game plan against us. Most importantly against them, we’ve got to figure out how to guard these guys. And I think that the way that they stretch you, the way that they can all pass, dribble, and shoot it, and really shoot it, it’s going to be very difficult for our bigger guys, our longer guys to be in rotations, to be guarding one-on-one on the perimeter. They’re going to have to put forth an unbelievable effort in terms of moving their feet, defending without fouling, closing out shooters. It’s an unorthodox defensive task for guys like him and Omar Payne.”

Thoughts overall o what NCAA Tournament can do with the development for guys that haven’t played a lot like Jitoboh, Niels, and Samson and get in during the NCAA Tournament?

“Yeah, I think it helps definitely with the continuity of your program, especially guys as they return having this experience can only help them moving forward. It can only give them a little bit confidence, give them a little bit of momentum. Challenge them to a certain extent. ‘Hey it was really, really exciting, I wish I had a chance to play a little bit more, this is what I have to do in the offseason to work a little bit harder. But at the same time, with this crazy transfer portal business, you don’t know year-in and year-out. I think program continuity throughout the country is going to continue to decrease to an extent. So for personal development, it may be as much personal with all of these guys in the NCAA Tournament as it is program development, but positive none the less.

Keys to getting out on shooters without fouling and still guarding them etc.?

“Yeah Mark, easier said than done. I told our guys it’s going to be really, really difficult. Everything we’ve got in the arsenal we’re going to have to throw at them in my opinion. I don’t know how we can guard them effectively, conventionally. That said, I don’t know if any trickery will work with these guys, they’re so skilled as well and Paul will have them prepared. We’re still working on the game plan. We’ll probably be working on it really until tip and we’re going to have to probably going to have to make some adjustments on the move during the game. These guys are just that good offensively. And they’re in such a rhythm. They’ve been good offensively all year, but if you look at the run that they’ve made here recently, the confidence level in which they’re playing, it makes for a tough scout.”

Tre Mann playing off ball screens

“Without question he’s gotten better at it and it took him a little bit of time. It took a ton of reps. This is something we changed midseason. If you think about it he didn’t play on the ball hardly at all last year, in high school, when you are playing with a bunch of guys about as big as you or smaller it’s not like they are running spread pick and roll stuff, and he’s reading dives to the basket and lifts and interchanges, so his, we call them spread reads, we go through them every day, I’m sure most programs do, depending on if they are ball screen programs or not, we are the last couple of months, and he’s gotten better and better, there’s a couple of reads that he missed yesterday, we had a couple of dives at the rim that were open and again he’s great at, hey man, I know you threw it here, I know you shot it and even if you made it, I want you to at least see the dive, I’ve got you, yeah I should have seen it, and he’s always eager to look at it and watch and learn, but yeah, it’s just work and he studies film and he’s getting better at, a lot of it is just reps. His confidence continues to grow coming off ball screens and he’s obviously really talented.”

In bounds plays, struggle v press

“It’s a great point, what’s the best way I could answer it for you, last year we had a guy named Andrew Nembhard who took the ball out of bounds and he’s a terrific, terrific passer. You are always evaluating who your better guys are getting open, who your better guys are entering the ball, last night at that point we had Tre and Scottie in, we brought Colin Castleton up into the mix because when in doubt you’ve got a 6-11 guy you can lob it up to at the foul line, for whatever reason we just didn’t do a very good job of getting it in, we also had a timeout, in my guys defense, I should have used one, that five second violation, in fact I told the official, I may use one here, I may use one, and there was a couple of different times within that five second count I thought that we had an opening to get to the guy and then the whistle blew and I said dang it should have used it. It was a good job by our opponent of course, it’s something we can continue to work to improve.

Going Hinkle to Indiana’s Farmers?

“Yeah Kevin I’ve got to dodge this I have no idea, I have no idea when we are shooting, where we are shooting, I’m just locked in on ORU …

Difference for either team in teams of shooting or adjusting?

“I’m sure the NCAA is going to make it all a level playing field, and it’s the same thing going into yesterday’s game where us and Virginia Tech, same deal, they are going to give us the same amount of time, the same amount of opportunities on that court. We’re going to walk through tonight, I don’t know where it’s going to be, I don’t know where we’re shooting tomorrow, but it will be even, and we’ll tip that thing up and see who’s more prepared.”