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
I thought we left a lot of points on the board in the first half, because we had 11 turnovers and we were shooting 52 or 53 percent from the field. Second half we only turned it over three times and we shot 52 percent from the field and that's why we had a 52-point half.
I thought the release by one of them there in the second half at the end of the game, his follow through did not look good on it and it came up short. Lee was in here (Sunday) night getting shots up. I've obviously got to be intelligent here because I've got a player burden in Brewer and we're down to eight scholarship guys. It's not like every day Lee can run and bang and go up and down the floor.
I was hopeful going into second half. I thought maybe they were starting to get a little worn down. We were hopeful maybe their shots wouldn't go in and maybe they wouldn't rebound as well.
We will need to be concerned more with providing help and doing things that will take them out of their offensive flow, because if their big guys get second and third opportunities it can really become a problem for us.
We shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times in the second half. . . . I thought both teams had fatigue settle in as the game went on.
We shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times in the second half. In the second half, the first (six) possessions, we turned it over four times.
This will be our second time to face South Carolina this season. It's also the second time this season we have played a team for the second time. They played with great emotion the last time we played each other. We got off to a good start early, but they were the better team that night. It was a six-point win for them, but they had us down 15 points at one point. This game will be a challenge for us. They have competitive kids and they totally out performed us. They beat us in every facet of the game. The challenge to our team is to take it one game to the next. Our last time against them is over. Our last home game is over.
We didn't do a good enough job of defending them in the first half. They were beating us off the dribble and creating opportunities to knock down the threes. In the second half, we did such a better job of keeping the ball out of the paint (for Kentucky).
We were able to work inside out. We had a little better balance in the second half and we still continued to defend the three. That was a big concern for myself going into this game.
If that happened, I'd be really disappointed in our team. We're playing against a team that really out-performed us a couple of weeks ago in Columbia. The final score says 6 points, but we were down by 15 in the second half, we were dominated in the game. I would hope our guys would be excited about having the opportunity to compete again and play again.
We did a much better job moving the ball inside out in the second half.
We tried to make them score outside their offense. We gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the first half, but in the second half I felt like their frontcourt was fatigued.
We missed so many easy baskets around the rim at first. We did a much better job in the second half of getting the ball inside and rebounding. As a coaching staff, we have to keep our guys upbeat and not let them get frustrated.
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.