Lee said post-game that the clown college game (he was nicer than me -- LOL!) was the first time this year the team showed . . . Wow! . . . they could be really good. This week really validates that. We have a quality team, still learning to play together, still getting better, with plenty of chances tonight . . . even though they didn't play their greatest game. Didn't have Micah (Handlogten) and Walter (Clayton) was sick. Thinks the ceiling is high for this team and it will be a fun season. * * * Then Lee spoke with Coach Hartman (mostly exact but technically paraphrasing): Gators played good but fell short by 4 points. Your thoughts? Well, my thoughts are how much I love this group and I love this team. Obviously, when you shoot 14-for-25 or you give up 14-for-25, it's tough to come back, but you look at the box score and we won in a lot of areas other than the scoreboard. We'll get back at it tomorrow. We'll break this film down and I'm sure we'll be disappointed in some areas that we can probably control but at the end of the day, love this group. We fought hard all night and we were just, we were right there, we made a bunch of runs, we were able to tie it . . . every time we tied it, seemed like Baylor made a big shot. Just talk about the fight in the team. Yeah, you know, Walter Clayton has a 24-hour bug going on right now. We didn't have Micah Handlogten. The thing I love about this team, more than anything, is that I really believe that they love each other. They really care about each other. There's not a lot of cliques . . . I shouldn't say, excuse me, there are no cliques. They play for each other, they play for the University of Florida, they play for each other and I know that sounds cliché but I feel it and I see it every single day with this group and I just think they're going to continue to grow, we're going to continue to get better, and the two losses we've had this year . . . 3 to Virginia and 4 to a really good Baylor program a really good Baylor team . . . is something that you don't want to happen but you can also learn from these experiences as well. You start the night with four guards around Tyrese . . . talk a little bit about that group and what it did for you. Yeah, you've got four really good players that can handle the ball: dribble, pass, drive, shoot . . . around a really good front-court player, so without Micah we felt like starting that way was probably going to be the best way to match-up against Baylor . . . then we went with bringing Tommy and Alex off the bench. I thought they gave really good minutes as well. We like that group and I think now we can look back and say that we can play a couple different styles. We can play with two bigs. We can play with four guards. Definitely a good take away from the game. Giving up 14 3s, was there anything in particular that Baylor was doing that gave us trouble? I think early on it was more the offensive sets and some of the staggers (screens) that they ran . . . but then I thought we made a really good adjustment towards the middle part of the game and then it kinda' got away from us again in the second half. I think when we go back and look at the film, it's kind of a hard question to answer right now because I want to go back and see it . . . but there were some breakdowns so, like we were talking about, off-air there was just a little bit of bad luck, a couple balls we could have picked up that went through our hands, a deflection, a steal, whatever. They capitalized on them. That's a good team too. Riley (kugel) gets back on tonight, he's got 25 points, had a good game, it was good to see him going offensively. The thing that I thought he did an outstanding job tonight was he let it come to him. He didn't force the issue. He didn't press. He wasn't trying to drive through people or shoot a hard, contested shot. He just let the game come to him and, heck, if we score 91 points with him being able to do that, I like to think if we score 91 points we're gonna' win most of those. Tonight we didn't but it's really good to see Riley come back with a great effort. I think you're right about that coach . . . Your biggest take away from this trip to New York for the guys? This is an unbelievable experience. You play the game in one of the really premiere arenas in the country and a great opportunity for our guys to see the city, be around each other with the comradery, after the Pitt win and the comradery after this loss. I think it's really going to bode well for us as we move forward. We still have a tough stretch. We play in the top conference in the country, so games like this are going to help us and bode well for us as we continue to move forward. Thanks Carlin . . . best of luck against Wake Forest!
