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
We felt like Darrel Mitchell was the key to their team, so we tried to run at him and trap him as much as we could. When he gets his 18 or 19 points, everything else falls into place.
We're just a basketball team that doesn't have a lot of depth right now. That's our biggest challenge.
We're 16-0 right now, but we could very easily be 11-5. It's that fragile. We have to work for everything we get. We had to work against Auburn all the way to the end. We had to work all the way until the end against Mississippi State.
You're playing a game right now, living each moment. Play each moment. They peaked and probably played well because of the setbacks we had in February that helped us grow.
All of those guys can look at the individual honors and attribute it to playing as a team. They made it possible by being a team and they were honored as a team.
He got back to playing the way he normally does.
I think we have a different group of kids. They're having too much fun and enjoy playing together too much.
I don't know there's a clear-cut favorite right now. If you're going to look at what's happened, LSU has been the most impressive in our league. You're dealing with depth issues for everybody, you're going to be dealing with fatigue issues, you're going to have to deal with foul trouble, you're going to have to deal with playing three teams in a row and you have to deal and move from one day to the next.
I think in the SEC tournament if you can get a bye that's always a great thing. It's certainly very hard playing four consecutive games in a row to win an SEC championship.
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.
It's very obvious watching him he's not as reckless and daring and playing like he's capable of. I don't know how available he is. He'll play, but will he be a productive player?
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.
It's one of those things I can hope will get better and he can get back to playing because it's very obvious watching him play that he's not as reckless and daring and playing like he's capable of. I don't know if there's a level of uncertainty if he plants or runs or jumps or if the pain is so severe he just can't do what he's supposed to do.
The way our schedule works out is probably a little more of a disadvantage for our team because we are playing four of the last six games on the road. That is challenging. The only thing I am worried about right now is Vanderbilt. To me, that is the only game we have, and it's the only thing we need to worry about.