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
He created and made some things happen. He made some very timely 3point shots when they were trying to make a run.
He needed to have a game like this. I was happy for him. The last week or so, I think he's been doing some soul searching, just trying to find a way to come up with some answers to help our team. He helped out big-time tonight.
They are a real big rotation team, a real big help team, and we talked about coming into the game offensively and spacing them, and trying to create some middle pick and roll and help situations.
Our guys have done a pretty good job so far of keeping a level of humility and trying to get better each day.
It has to start somewhere. That's what we are trying to build at Florida. It's never been done, never been sustained.
At the time, it did bother me but as I've gotten older in this business I realize there can be a lot of negativity and things said. I take a lot of pride in trying to build a program.
As a coach, all you're trying to do is feed them stuff that's going to help them grow faster. You hope that they take their vegetables, and they grow up healthy and they understand. And some of them do and, you know what, it certain situations they have.
He created and made some things happen. He made some very timely 3-point shots when they were trying to make a run.
That's what we're trying to build here at Florida. That's what we're trying to create. It has to start somewhere.
That takes a kid with unbelievable character. It takes a kid who cares about the team, a kid who wants to win.
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.
It's teams like George Mason that give so many people hope in their lives, just seeing what great things can be accomplished.
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.
That's generally a recipe for disaster, but because we defended the 3-point line that gave us an opportunity.