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
disrupted flow free game hard road stagnant throw win
It's hard to win a road game when it's 42-20 at the free throw line. It really disrupted our flow and made us stagnant in our offense.
facing february focused great group guys helped peaked played point pride road setbacks team took tougher worked
I think our guys took great pride in facing a tougher road to get to this point than other teams. I think our team got better. They were a very, very focused group that worked hard. They peaked and probably played well because of some setbacks in February that helped us grow.
arkansas free half hard kept road throws win
It's hard to win on the road when it's 42-20 (Arkansas' favor) in free throws shot. That's a big discrepancy. But Arkansas made only 5 of 12 free throws in the first half and that kept us in it.
feeling game georgia kids playing road tough underdogs
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.
across add biggest cares changing drama guys half mandatory ncaa press road tournament
The biggest thing with the NCAA Tournament is to try to get across to your guys that there's a lot of drama and a lot of changing of routines. Any road game, we've never come in a day and a half early. We have to go to a mandatory shoot-around, we have to go to press conferences. When we go on the road to Alabama, no one cares we're in town. This is an event. For some guys, that can add pressure.
cares character kid takes wants
That takes a kid with unbelievable character. It takes a kid who cares about the team, a kid who wants to win.
corey couple definite good second spark start
Corey was a definite spark for us at the start of the second half. He made a couple baskets to get us going and he did some good things defensively.
george great hope mason people seeing teams
It's teams like George Mason that give so many people hope in their lives, just seeing what great things can be accomplished.
february game helped living peaked played playing setbacks
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.
defended disaster gave generally line recipe
That's generally a recipe for disaster, but because we defended the 3-point line that gave us an opportunity.
easily good hard shots
I went off pretty good at halftime. It's hard if you're not making shots to get off to a good start. We could have very, very easily have been up 15 or 20 in the first half.
focused grind passion stayed talked
I think the one thing that should be talked about more is our guys' will and passion to win. They've really stayed focused on winning. ... We really didn't get a lot of breaks. We had to grind it out and find a way to win.
arkansas basketball both chance college game great half hard kids played plays second teams win
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.
less teaching
He was teaching us that sometimes less is more. Less of myself was more that day.