UF MBK: Florida 80, Embry-Riddle 57 (Exhibition)

Florida 80, Embry-Riddle 57
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Notable

  *   The Gators won their 32nd straight exhibition game, a streak that started on Nov. 4, 2002. The Gators are 7-0 in exhibitions under head coach Mike White.
  *   Seven Gators made their first appearance for the Orange and Blue, including two graduate transfers (Phlandrous Fleming Jr., Brandon McKissic), two undergrad transfers (CJ Felder, Myreon Jones), a junior college transfer (Tuongthach Gatkek) and two freshmen (Elijah Kennedy, Kowacie Reeves).
  *   McKissic scored 14 of his team-leading 20 points in the second half, while Anthony Duruji scored 12 of his 16 in the first half.
  *   Tyree Appleby scored seven points in 25 seconds with a pair of 3-pointers within a 25-second span mid-second half, adding an and-1 free throw to the second of the pair. He finished with 13 points and seven assists off the bench.

Head Coach Mike White
“On what he got out of this game…
“The game environment more than anything. Taking shots in front of other people, making an extra pass in front of fans and on TV, struggling through adversity, and communicating, again, in front of other people. I thought we did a lot of good things. I thought we shared it really well. We didn’t shoot it great, of course, and didn’t finish at the rim very well. Defensively, I thought we had stretches where we were pretty good. As you’ll find out in a lot of these early games, especially exhibition games, there’s a lot to work on.”

On this team’s passing ability…
“I thought we showed it in glimpses. This is a better passing team than we’ve had here in a few years, if not awhile. Didn’t pass it quite as well today. I thought that Embry-Riddle had something to do with that. We bobbled a lot of balls today for whatever reason. Probably just the first game jitters, the exhibition game jitters. That said though, I do think we probably could have had a few more assists if we would have made some shots. We passed it fairly well, but I think we’ll all see at times this team having games where we’re saying we passed it really well.”

On Embry-Riddle’s performance…
“Very well coached, very disciplined, very physical. I thought their defensive discipline was impressive as anything. The way that they loaded to the ball, especially on ball screens and on post touches. I thought that the way they defended Colin Castleton collectively, especially in the first 20, was highly effective. Swarming to the basketball, very physical wall ups. They did a good job of defending the glass, especially in the first half, as well.”

On Anthony Duruji…
“In our postgame conversation, that was a topic that we covered. We asked the guys, ‘Who’s surprised that Anthony played the way he played tonight?’ and no one raised their hand. Why? Because that’s what we see every day. It’s not a surprise. I’m not talking home-runs and highlights and that type, but just his approach has been really good, consistently, for a long time. In six, seven weeks, he just hasn’t had a bad day. He hasn’t had a moment where he sulked, where he made an excuse, where he just seems out of it. He’s just played with maturity, he’s playing like a veteran, high-character guy. It carried over for him tonight. I certainly hope I don’t jinx that. If he continues to play like this, he’s going to give us a chance and give himself a chance to have a good year.”

#4 Anthony Duruji, Senior Forward
On Coach White’s message after the game…
“It’s our first test. Playing in front of fans, you have to be able to build on it and keep a good culture. We have to filter out all of the noise because a win is a win, but we have to continue to get better and can’t be complacent. That was the whole message.”

On Tyree Appleby…
“Tyree is a great competitor. He’s one of those other guys that gets us going and definitely leads us. I think he is going to have great season and I can’t wait to see what he does. He just brings that energy and spark to our team.”

#23 Brandon McKissic, Graduate Guard
On if anything surprised him in the game…
“Honestly, no. We’ve been going at it really hard in practice all preseason. We’ve been learning a lot about each other’s games. We talk about some players being so consistent for the past six weeks. Seeing them do the things they did today, it wasn’t surprising. It was what we were used to, and that’s what we have to just keep learning – to be consistent and accept our roles. We need to be mature about this because we have an older team. We have a lot of guys with talent and a lot of versatility with the pieces being put together. So, we need to take the mature route about this and be fair and honest with each other. I think we can be a great team.”

On what was working for him in the game and if he felt like the game was slipping at one point…
“We saw it was kind of getting a little bit too close. We huddled and were like, ‘Hey, let’s kick this up a notch.’ We have to hold each other accountable because that’s who we are – we’re going to hold each other accountable regardless of the score or time. We just talked to each other and said to pick it up. Then, the ball kept coming my way and I had open looks. There wasn’t much else to it. My teammates found me in my open shots and I just knocked them down. Just the same way I found Phlan, the way App found Myreon, we just look for each other and we’re really unselfish. We really do just want to play and want to win. There is a bunch of selfishness and we just picked up our energy on defense.”