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 was a defensive stopper. I shut guys down. I didn't shoot much.
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.
Our team battled through the adversity of the game. They battled through not shooting the ball, and we found a way, defensively, to win the game.
I've often said the greatest equalizer in college basketball is the 3-point line. They outscored us by 12 from the 3-point line. Our inability to limit them to one shot and inability to guard the 3-point line cost us. Anytime a team can come into your building and shoot 53 percent from the field and 47 percent from the 3-point line, you have to have a very, very good night on offense.
It was great to see Lee letting it go and shooting it. He's always taken 3s, but the biggest change I saw with him was the confidence.
In scouting George Mason, they had been shooting 33 percent on their 3-pointers all year and as much as 42 percent. We knew we had to control their perimeter shooting. I thought we did a great job of shutting them down and keeping them off-balance.
Lee is one of those guys who understands scouting reports, schemes and how we are guarding. You can be rest assured that he is going to follow everything to the minute detail of what he has to do. So, forget about the shooting part of it, we have just lost maybe our best overall defender.
Statistically, that was the key to the game. We shoot 49 percent on the road, you're not going to get much better than that.
I think it's a great comparison. Bobby Jones was a great runner in transition, he was a great athlete on the floor. I believe as David continues to grow, his shooting will get better. He's a very versatile guy.
I don't know if you do pressure, if it's going to necessarily make them shoot any quicker. I think what becomes important in playing them is your late shot-clock defense.
I told them this would be a 40-minute battle from start to finish, and if you let frustration creep in at all, you guys are going to lose the game. This is going to be an ugly game where we may not shoot well, but we have to defend and rebound.
Get out there and make him a driver, let's see how many times he can finish going to the basket. We allowed him to do what he does well, and that's shoot the basketball.
They're going to have bad shooting nights. This was one of our worst shooting performances of the year and we found a way to win.
It was great to see him shoot the basketball and let it go with the confidence he did. The biggest thing I look at with Lee is the confidence level he's shooting the ball with. Tonight, he was just letting it go and shooting it with a great deal of confidence.