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
It is so hard when you have departures all the time to stay at the highest level. It's almost like coaching junior college now, and people want to level to stay up high.
It hasn't been just this game. It's been all year long. These guys stay focused. It's been a unique and special group.
We did a pretty good job of staying down and timing it.
Did I think I would be here for 10 years? You never know. You almost have to go one year at a time and try to do the very best job you can. . . . It's very hard to stay at a place a very, very long period of time.
That's just what they want to do. I think they're having a lot of fun; I think they're different types of kids. They're not prepared to make the next step right now. They want to be here, they want to play, they want to be together was a group. They want to stay to play together as a team.
I haven't gone to bed yet. For me, there was so many people I needed to thank; and because of that I'll probably have to stay up another day to be able to do that.
They want to stay together as a group and they want to play together as a team. It was their decision.
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.
I was a defensive stopper. I shut guys down. I didn't shoot much.
I was a little bit concerned just because he was throwing up, and it was several times throughout the course of the night. He didn't get very much sleep.
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 we had some good looks, some good plays.
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 thought there were times (against South Carolina) when guys created off the dribble and didn't find him. I thought he should have gotten up 10 or 11 shots. There was three or four or five times when our guys missed him. Our team has got to do a better job of recognizing when he's open and getting him the basketball.