Billy Donovan
Billy Donovan
William John Donovan, Jr.is an American professional basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association. He previously spent 19 seasons at the University of Florida, where his Florida Gators men's basketball teams won two NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships in 2006 and 2007. Donovan has more wins than any other coach in the history of the Florida basketball program, and he coached the Gators to more NCAA tournament appearances,...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth30 May 1965
CityRockville Centre, NY
Our bench has done good. I really believe if I could have control of when they shoot the ball, our bench making shots and giving our bench production, we would do it. But I'm not concerned about that. I'm more concerned about the type of shots we're getting.
Our bench coming in has to have a little more confidence when they're out there, that there's not going to be a drop off.
Our basketball team this year has played with energy; they've played with passion and enthusiasm. And this time of year, those things will keep you around and keep you in the game, but they're not good enough to win the game.
Our blocks in the Miami game came the right way. They came with our big guys playing good post defense, moving their feet. When someone from Miami committed to shooting the basketball, most of our blocked shots were on the ball.
Right now, Tennessee is a team that's in control of its destiny.
Right now Tennessee and LSU on both sides are the teams that have been the most consistent.
Right now so much changes, there are so many games going on, and different things happen during the course of the year. So much of your RPI is affected on the teams that you play, how they do against somebody else, how all those things happen.
Playing hard and playing passionately isn't good enough to win.
Playing at a neutral site, you can throw all of the seeds out the window.
I still feel like the kids in our program could get a whole lot better and could improve. And I think another year in college for those guys, or two, would prove to be valuable to them, rather than someone taking a chance or an opportunity, and those guys sitting on the bench and not having a chance to develop.
I still feel it's a learning and growing process for our guys. I'm shocked, unbelievably surprised, that we're 23-6. We've obviously lost a lot of close games, but if you would have told me that Brewer would be out for a stretch and Lee Humphrey would have a separated shoulder, I would have told you we would have had some problems.
I think I'm going to have to look at some things from the recruiting standpoint. We have not had the level of continuity in this program like Kentucky has had, in terms of having three, four seniors every year.
I think hitting his first shot helped him. It was great to see Lee mix up his game. Lee took a step in that he found other ways to help our team win when he wasn't hitting his 3-pointers.
It hasn't come up in any conversations we've had.