What Walter Clayton had to offer ahead of Arkansas Razorbacks game
Florida basketball is off to a rough start to the 2024 calendar year having dropped its first two games — both of the Southeastern Conference variety — and is quickly tumbling out of the major bracketologies.
The good news for the Gators is that they return home for their next matchup, where the Orange and Blue has only lost one game in six tries. Of course, that lone defeat came last weekend at the hands of the Kentucky Wildcats.
The Arkansas Razorbacks are the next team on the agenda — a program much like Florida that has struggled to earn respect, albeit with much higher expectations than the Gators. On Friday ahead of the game guard Walter Clayton Jr., who has carried the team on his shoulders in conference play, spoke with the media regarding his team and the upcoming opponent.
Take a look below at everything Clayton had to offer ahead of Florida’s third SEC matchup of the year coming against Arkansas at home.
How Florida plans on responding to the Ole Miss loss
Just come in and just identify your problems, identify what stuff went wrong and just try and fix it in practice. You’ll get better at it.
How the Gators processed the embarrassing defeat
Like every other one, just learn from it. You know, identify your mistakes, identify the little things that you did right, and just continue to get better.
What lessons did they take away from it?
The lesson, just be tougher, mentally and physically, you know. They just came out and there and just punked us, so that’s – there’s multiple lessons, but that’s definitely probably one of the biggest ones.
The importance of having pride in their defense
It means a lot… as a team, like all of us, some of the simple stuff like rebounds, having two people in the area and they had one and then come up with the rebound, so some simple stuff like that. We had a lot of possessions where we just didn’t finish them out. Simple things such as doing a better contest.
Definitely gonna need to play with some more pride moving forward.
How he is responding to his offensive dominance in SEC play
I’m just hitting shots, hitting some shots, and that opens some things up for you. Being able to get to the paint, bigs ducking in, helping us.
Where did his tough mentality come from?
Tough-mindedness, I guess how I grew up a little bit, you know, my environment, a little tough-minded. Just how I can say, where I came from.
How teammate Zyon Pullin has helped make him better
It’s been awhile since we’ve been against each other, both being on the same team in practice, but when he first got here, we were on different teams. It’s definitely helped a lot, he’s a great guard, love being in the backcourt with him, so definitely, I think it helped both of us a lot.
Where does Florida need to improve defensively?
In all aspects. Watching the film, just better ball-screen defense, better close-outs, better contesting, better contest on jumpshots, you know, not fouling, and so there’s a lot of aspects we can get better on defense.
What's his relation like with Riley Kugel?
I live with Riley. Me and Riley are really close.
What kind of things have you said to Kugel during the games?
Obviously we need him, we need for him to be at his best for us to be at our best, keep going, sometimes things are a little tough but you’ve just got to be able to fight through it, just, how you respond to things.
So how are you going to respond.
Do you think Kugel is responding to the challenge adequately?
For sure, it’s tough, you know, expectations, I think Riley puts a lot of pressure on himself, feeling like he’s not doing what he’s supposed to be doing, us as teammates I think it’s our job to just keep him up mentally, so just him, just keep going.
I think Riley he’s young, he’s doing a great job responding of what’s being asked of him, what’s going on, so I think he’ll be good.
Bbout the challenges of dealing with high expectations as a young man
It just depends, honestly, it just depends on who you are, how you think. Sometimes it can get to you, sometimes it can’t but you know, just, self-pressure, you can’t put a lot of pressure on yourself, just got to go out there… because what we think of him, all these expectations, or whatever, we think Riley is doing a great job.
We see him every day we’re the ones in there grinding with him every day. So I think not putting that pressure on yourself will help you out a lot.
Is Kugel as athletic as the rumors claim he is?
For sure, definitely, you all see glimpses of it, but I see it every day what he’s doing is phenomenal, like one of a kind.
What makes Kugel's talents unique?
Just like athleticism, that ain’t something you can really work and get, you can lift all the weights you want to. That’s just something you are born with, so he’s got that.
What about mentally, as far as attitude is concerned?
It can help him a lot you know being able to just control your emotions. I think he does a good job of that. I don’t think he gets too high or too low, so I think it’s just great for him being able to control his emotions.
Next up
Next up for Florida are the Arkansas Razorbacks, who come to the O’Connell Center on Saturday, Jan. 13. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 pm ET and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.
Read more
Game Preview: Florida returns to O’Dome to host Arkansas
Behind Enemy Lines: What you need to know about Arkansas
Gators expectedly fall in NET rankings after Ole Miss beatdown
Florida slips again in KenPom rankings after second-straight SEC loss
Florida basketball takes a dip in ESPN’s BPI after Ole Miss loss
Todd Golden speaks to media following road loss to Ole Miss
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