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 think sometimes when you win people think you're not challenged, but I don't necessarily agree with that. (Wake Forest and Syracuse) were won by five points, then we went to Miami and with two minutes to go in the game the score was tied. Sometimes people think if you win, it's been all easy. I think our guys have had to grind out games and find ways to win some games. I'd rather learn through winning than losing.
Our kids just kept battling and playing hard. I mean, to win a championship game and not even get to 50 points is truly remarkable.
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.
Our basketball team this year has played with energy; they've played with passion and enthusiasm. And this time of year, those things will keep you around and keep you in the game, but they're not good enough to win the game.
I think hitting his first shot helped him. It was great to see Lee mix up his game. Lee took a step in that he found other ways to help our team win when he wasn't hitting his 3-pointers.
Jo has been great. Sometimes the margin for winning and losing is so fragile.
I think in the SEC tournament if you can get a bye that's always a great thing. It's certainly very hard playing four consecutive games in a row to win an SEC championship.
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 could have prevented them from storming the floor at Arkansas, you know? Win the game. We could have prevented them from storming the floor at Tennessee. Win the game. . . . The only thing I would be concerned about is the safety of our guys.
We still have to play the games. At this point in the year, you talk about those things. I don't know what real advantage it gives you except you've got to win three games instead of four.
Systems win! Believe in your system, and then sell it to your players.
I don't think you can win without it. That's the biggest challenge we as coaches face every year.
Based on what do we deserve to win those games? Based on what? Three, four sophomores and a freshman? That doesn't give us a right.
I felt like this year's team would be great to coach, a fun team to coach. They would be a team that would play unselfishly, play together. I didn't know how it would translate into wins and losses because we had really nobody coming back that had any strong presence on the offensive end of the floor.