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
The second half was a back-and-forth basketball game. Give Arkansas credit. They made some plays and their kids played hard and I thought it was a great college basketball game that both teams had a chance to win at times.
I don't know if they will. Like I said, we have to go through this ... I'm not really concerned. For me, it's about the growth and development of our team and our kids getting better.
I derive a lot of pleasure watching these kids play. We don't have guys in the locker room talking about not scoring enough points or not getting enough shots. They play the right way. They really do.
Our kids just kept battling and playing hard. I mean, to win a championship game and not even get to 50 points is truly remarkable.
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 get great pleasure seeing our kids enjoy it, our administration enjoy it, our fans enjoy it. It's not about me.
I don't think these kids would do what they did up there if they weren't comfortable with it.
My personal opinion, after talking with these kids and their families, is they will be back next year.
I get great pleasure seeing our kids enjoy the game. It's not about me or how young I am. But it's about the people you coach all the time, and I get a lot of pleasure seeing our kids celebrate.
Hopefully, the success we have had this year and in the past is something that kids can look at and say, Florida is very competitive nationally and inside their league.
These kids are about challenges, competition. I don't think they look at playing at Georgia any differently than they do playing St. Joe's. In their minds, being 13-0, they are going in there feeling that they are underdogs because it's a road game in a place that's tough to play.
I'm so proud of these kids. I'm shocked that we're 22-6. To me, these kids have really, really overachieved.
Part of it is youthfulness, but the one thing about the kids is that they're in every game.
This group of kids is living in the moment and living for today.